Veteran musician Neil Diamond and R 'n' B star Rihanna have both made history in topping the US albums and singles charts this week.
Home Before Dark, Diamond's 29th studio album, has debuted at number one in the Billboard Hot 200 after selling 146,000 copies in its first week on release, representing his first-ever number one album in the United States.
The 67-year-old, who had previously reached number two in 1973 with his soundtrack for the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is to take to the Pyramid Stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival.
And Take A Bow, the new single from Umbrella star Rihanna, has achieved the second-biggest climb to the number one spot in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, after it soared from 53rd to first.
According to Billboard.com, the young singer's sudden rise can be related to huge digital download sales of 267,000 in one week alone.
Only Maroon 5's Makes Me Wonder, which climbed 63 places in May 2007, has achieved a bigger jump in the US singles chart.
As well as signalling her third US number one single - after SOS and Umbrella - the digital success sees Rihanna holding two of the top three positions in first-week digital downloads, with only her own Umbrella (277,000) and Mariah Carey's Touch My Body (286,00) having been downloaded more.
The top ten albums on the Billboard Hot 200 are: (last week's position)
1 Neil Diamond: Home Before Dark (-)
2 Toby Keith: 35 Biggest Hits (-)
3 Madonna: Hard Candy (1)
4 Clay Aiken: On My Way Here (-)
5 Mariah Carey: E=MC2 (2)
6 Leona Lewis: Spirit (3)
7 Gavin DeGraw: Gavin DeGraw (-)
8 Josh Groban: Awake Live (-)
9 Dierks Bentley: Greatest Hits/Every Mile A Memory 2003-2008 (-)
10 Luis Miguel: Complices (-)
And the top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 are: (last week's position)
1 Rihanna: Take A Bow (53)
2 Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love (1)
3 Lil Wayne feat. Static Major: Lollipop (2)
4 Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown: No Air (3)
5 Usher feat. Young Jeezy: Love In This Club (4)
6 Ray J Yung Berg: Sexy Can I (5)
7 Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake: Four Minutes (6)
8 Mariah Carey: Touch My Body (7)
9 Natasha Bedingfield: Pocketful of Sunshine (8)
10 Danity Kane: Damaged (11)
15/05/2008 15:35:01
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