CHARTS IDOLIZE CLAY - Clay Aiken Debut CD Blows Away Barbra Streisand's Latest

E! Online ^ | October 24, 2003 | David Jenison

[L.N. Smithee]

We're guessing even Simon is speechless right about now.

Five months after finishing runner up to Ruben Studdard on American Idol by just 1 percent, Clay Aiken has shown himself the biggest Idol of all where it counts--on the charts.

Making A.I. sales history, the nerdy North Carolinian's Measure of a Man sold a whopping 613,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan numbers released Wednesday.

No other Idol has sold even half that amount in a week. Last April, inaugural champ Kelly Clarkson (news) sold 297,000 of her debut disc, Thankful, to top the charts and Aiken spoiler Studdard sold 286,000 copies last June of his first single, "Flying Without Wings/Superstar." Clarkson's runner up, Justin Guarini, barely registered on the charts with self-titled bow, which sold a measly 57,000 copies in June, less than a 10th of Aiken's first-week haul.

Aiken and Studdard were supposed to go head-to-head on the album chart back in August, but production delays and fears they would cannibalize each other's sales pushed back the releases. When the pair did battle over the summer on the singles chart, Aiken's "Bridge Over Troubled Water/This Is the Night" dominated moved 393,000 copies to Studdard's 286,000.

Studdard will get his chance to answer on November 25, when he drops his full-length debut, Soulful, featuring tracks by Static, Jazze Pha, R. Kelly and Missy Elliott.

With auditions recently completed, a whole new season of off-key hacks and potential superstars kicks off in January.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Ummmmmm....

Who?

[L.N. Smithee]

Ummmmmm.... Who?

Click here.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Yes, I was being a bit smart-alecky and facetious by asking "Who?" I have heard of American Idol, and I know what the basic premise of the show was. But I have never heard of this Clay character. Would I have heard anything he has sung? Or is it only played on Top 40 pop stations? Can one hear anything from him online (i.e., free?)

[L.N. Smithee]

Would I have heard anything he has sung? Or is it only played on Top 40 pop stations?

If you don't listen to pop stations, you probably have never heard Clay Aiken, just in the same way that if you don't listen to rap stations, you haven't heard 50 Cent, or if you don't listen to country stations, you haven't heard Tracy Byrd, etc.

[herkbird]

And if you want to watch a movie that the director doesn't want to claim his name to it, beware of L.N. (Allen) Smithee. That's because Hollyweird will only allow a director to use that one and only name instead of his own if he's made a complete piece of crap. You know it's amazing that Allen Smithee hasn't directed more movies than he has. If you see Alan Smithee as the director, you will probably sleep through the movie.

Are you a failure in directing your life L.N. Smithee?

herkbird