Pop idol enters at number one. (US chartfile).

American Idol provided the best-selling single and album in the States last week, with first series winner Kelly Clarkson's (pictured) debut album Thankful entering the Top 200 at number one after selling 297,000 copies and the 10 finalists from this year's competition debuting atop the singles sales chart with their version of Lee Greenwood's patriotic tubthumper God Bless The USA. The latter record sold just shy of 101,000 copies, nearly six times as many as runners-up Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow's Picture, and is the first single to break the 100,000 sales mark in a week since Kelly Clarkson's A Moment Like This did it for two weeks in a row last year. Despite its sales advantage, God Bless The USA debuts only at number four on the Hot 100, where airplay is considered more important than sales.

Returning to the albums chart, sales were unusually buoyant, with only four of the Top 20 suffering declines and sales of the Top 200 increasing week-on-week by 39.5% to a tad more than 6m. Aside from Kelly Clarkson, there are four more new entries in the Top 10, with 50 Cent's DVD/CD hybrid New Breed at number two, Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will at number three, country singer Darryl Worley's Have You Forgotten at number four and Jimmy Buffett's hits set Meet Me In Margaritaville at number nine.

The DVD part of ...