CMT News

American Idol champ Scotty McCreery blows the doors off the Billboard country albums chart this week as his Clear as Day collection rockets to No. 1 with Nielsen SoundScan-confirmed sales of 196,739 copies. He also debuts at the top of the all-genre Billboard 200.

There's a new song champ, too. After a steady 16-week climb, Keith Urban's "Long Hot Summer" finally reaches the summit. Take a breath and a bow, Mr. Urban.

Five other new albums invade the charts this week: Rodney Atkins' Take a Back Road comes in at No. 3 with sales of 34,910 units.

Then there's the multi-superstar package, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams (No. 11), Jason Boland & the Stragglers' Rancho Alto (No. 26), Merle Haggard's Working in Tennessee (No. 30) and the various artists' Country Music Legends Special (No. 59).

Randy Travis' Anniversary Celebration: 25 re-enters the chart at No. 74.

Songs making their debut are Kip Moore's "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" (No. 51), Billy Currington's "Like My Dog" (No. 53) and Lee Brice's "A Woman Like You" (No. 60).

Returning to fight another day are Sunny Sweeney's "Drink Myself Single" (No. 55) and the JaneDear Girls' "Merry Go Round" (No. 58).

Lady Antebellum's Own the Night, Jason Aldean's My Kinda Party and Luke Bryan's Tailgates & Tanlines rank as the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 albums, respectively.

The No. 2 through No. 5 songs, in that order, are Toby Keith's "Made in America" (last week's No. 1), Blake Shelton's "God Gave Me You," George Strait's "Here for a Good Time" and Rodney Atkins' "Take a Back Road."

It's about time for some Christmas music to cool the charts, don't you think?