David Cook sizzles on pop chart
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Newly crowned "American Idol" champion David Cook took over America's Hot 100 singles chart on Thursday, sending a record-breaking 11 new titles into the tally a week after he won the top-rated TV talent show.
The old mark was set by teen idol Miley Cyrus (as her Disney Channel character Hannah Montana), who placed six new titles on Billboard magazine's flagship pop singles chart in November 2006.
The Beatles hold the all-time record for songs charted in a single week, with 14, during the height of Beatlemania in 1964.
But while the Fab Four owned the top five songs that week, Cook's best showing was a No. 3 start for his original recording of "The Time of My Life." The first single from his upcoming debut album sold 236,000 downloads, Billboard said.
His other entries included another new song "Dream Big" at No. 15, and covers of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," at No. 22, and Collective Soul's "The World I Know," at No. 28.
Cook, 25, who hails from Blue Springs, Missouri, is preparing to start recording a debut album that is due for release in the fall, according to his new label, RCA Records.
"Idol" runner-up David Archuleta, 17, who had been favored to win the Fox network competition, landed three songs on the chart, led by his cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" at No. 36.
Fox's "American Idol" and Beatlemania share some characteristics, but observers who mention manufactured singing stars in the same breath as the biggest pop band ever inevitably invite snorts of derision.
"(W)e would never pretend to hold up David Cook or any other artist who came out of 'American Idol' as someone you would normally put in the same conversation as the Beatles," said Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts.
"But there's no denying that 'American Idol' is a phenomenon. And you just about have to have that kind of vehicle and something that catches sales as quickly as digital distribution for this kind of thing to happen."
Elsewhere on the Hot 100 -- based on sales and radio play of songs -- rapper Lil Wayne led the field for a third week with "Lollipop." Leona Lewis, the winner of a British talent show, remained at No. 2 with her former chart-topper "Bleeding Love."
R&B singer Rihanna's "Take a Bow" slipped one to No. 4, and last year's "American Idol" champ Jordin Sparks held at No. 5 with "No Air" featuring Chris Brown.
British rock band Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" jumped 31 places to No. 10 after selling 139,000 downloads. The song is prominently featured in a TV commercial for Apple Corp's iTunes Music Store.
(Additional reporting and editing by Steve Gorman)
Reuters/Nielsen
