McGraw lets go of No. 1 rank

THREE hot country, pop and hip-hop stars couldn’t muscle their way past Volume 24 of the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” hits series, which takes over the No. 1 slot on this week’s national album sales chart.

Country singer Martina McBride came closest of the week’s new chart entries, debuting at No. 3 with “Waking Up Laughing.” Her album sold 144,000 copies, shy of both the 213,000 copies the “Now 24” album sold during its second week of release and the 177,000 copies posted by Tim McGraw’s “Let It Go,” which slips to No. 2 after debuting last week in the top spot.

McBride’s eighth studio album is the second she has produced herself and the first for which she has songwriting credits, co-writing three songs, including her hit single “Anyway.” She figures to get a sales boost following her appearances next week as guest vocal coach on “American Idol.” Her album edged out the latest from teen queen Hilary Duff, whose new “Dignity” sold 140,000 copies and debuts at No. 4. Right behind Duff is superstar R&B/hip-hop producer Timbaland, whose solo album “Timbaland Presents Shock Value” lands at No. 5 on first-week sales of 138,000.

Beyonce reaffirms the effect of a musical face-lift, her “B’Day” album rocketing from No. 69 to No. 6 this week with an expanded, two-CD reissue including six new songs. Sales increased 900%, according to the Nielsen SoundScan sales monitoring service.

“Get Money Stay True,” the latest from Houston hip-hop grill master Paul Wall, enters at No. 8 with sales of 92,000, a comedown from his No. 1 debut in 2005 with “The People’s Champ.”

Bluegrass-country-pop singer and fiddler Alison Krauss made a strong showing with “A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection,” which sold 73,000 copies, enough to put it at No. 10, right ahead of the George Strait-Alan Jackson-Jimmy Buffett country summit “Live at Texas Stadium,” which sold 67,000.

Overall the week brought a bit more good news to the record industry, with total album sales up 15% from the previous week, although they were still down 5% from the same week last year.

 randy.lewis@latimes.com