Please join me in welcoming the “Glee” cast back to the #1 spot on the Billboard album charts. The “Journey to Regionals” EP, which arrived on the same day that the hit show aired it’s season finale, claims the top rung on this week’s Billboard 200 with an impressive 152,000 units sold. It’s the third “Glee”-related album to top the charts in the past eight weeks, which has got to be some kind of record.

Right behind it is the soundtrack to the new “Twilight” movie. “The Twilight Sage: Eclipse” starts at #2 with 144,000 sold. Expect the soundtrack (which features bands like Muse, Vampire Weekend and Cee-Lo) to get a big spike when the movie opens. Both previous “Twilight” soundtracks have been pretty strong sellers.

The third of the six debuts in this week’s Top 10 is Christina Aguilera’s “Bionic”. It starts with just over 110,000 copies sold. Not a terrible number, but certainly a disappointment for a star as big as Xtina. For comparison’s sake, it sold just under 1/3 of what her previous album, “Back to Basics” sold in it’s first week. With the news that Christina’s tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales was being postponed, things aren’t looking too rosy for the former Disney diva.

Other albums starting out in the Top Ten include the latest from rapper Plies at #5, country star Dierks Bentley at #9 and acoustic folkie-turned-country diva Jewel at #10. With a slew of other albums hitting the charts, the music industry had it’s best sales week since early May.

The CMT awards affected this week’s sales, and many of the big increases went to artists who either won awards or performed at the show. Zac Brown Band, Rascall Flatts and Keith Urban were among the artists who saw jumps…actually Brown’s “Foundation” is a week away from reaching the increasingly rare 2 million sold plateau, so congratulations to him.

One of the albums that’s shown somewhat surprising staying power over the last couple of months is James Taylor & Carole King’s “Live at the Troubadour”. Both artists find themselves reentering the charts with older albums as well. JT’s evergreen “Greatest Hits” jumps back into the chart at #106, while King’s classic “Tapestry” (required listening for any singer/songwriter who wants to know how it’s done) pops back in at #172. Check out this old clip of the two singing “So Far Away”, probably still my favorite song on “Tapestry”. Does JT look weird with hair or what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urt2cy7AqFs

Did you know there was a new Lil Jon record out? Neither did most people. The ambassador of crunk catches a major brick with his oft-delayed album “Crunk Rock”. After selling 2 million copies plus of his last album, “Rock” opens at an embarrassing #49, selling just under 9,000 units. Might be time to sell that pimp chalice soon.

Next week, the big news will be Drake, whose debut full-length “Thank Me Later” will be flirting with the 500,000 mark. Also expect big debuts from the likes of Tom Petty and Sarah McLachlan.

Here’s this week’s Top 20

1) “Journey to Regionals”-Glee Cast
2) “Twilight Saga-Eclipse” Various Artists
3) “Bionic”-Christina Aguilera
4) “To the Sea”-Jack Johnson
5) “Goon Affiliated”-Plies
6) “My World 2.0”-Justin Bieber
7) “Glee The Music Vol. 3”-Glee Cast
8) “Need You Now”-Lady Antebellum
9) “Up on the Ridge”-Dierks Bentley
10) “Sweet & Wild”-Jewel
11) “The Fame”-Lady GaGa
12) “Raymond v. Raymond”-Usher
13) “Live at the Troubadour”-Carole King & James Taylor
14) “Foundation”-Zac Brown Band
15) “The E.N.D.”-The Black Eyed Peas
16) “She Won’t Be Lonely Long”-Clay Walker
17) “Now That’s What I Call Music 33”-Various Artists
18) “Revolution”-Miranda Lambert
19) “Animal”-Ke$ha
20) “Grace Potter & the Nocturnals”-Grace Potter & the Nocturnals