Clay Aiken’s “Solitaire” headed up Radio & Records New & Active Adult Contemporary list, having been played 193 times this week on 36 stations, and being picked up by seven new stations.

Billboard Singles Sales Charts

For the sixth consecutive week, Aiken had the #1 selling single with “Solitaire/The Way,”

The biggest non-compilation drop of any Idol contestant’s album went to Ruben Studdard’s Soulful. The album’s 27-spot freefall from #97 to #124 means that Soulful has dropped more than 20 spots for the second consecutive week. In fact, over the past two weeks the album has dropped an astonishing 50 spots — that’s one quarter of the chart!

Considering that Studdard’s album has been on the charts for eight weeks less than Clay Aiken’s Measure of A Man, and is dropping down so rapidly, things aren’t looking particularly rosy for Studdard. The Velvet Teddybear also slipped eight spots on the Billboard R&B Albums chart, from #30 to #38.

Since this is Studdard’s 21st week on the charts with Soulful, let’s do a little comparison. Aiken sold 17,217 copies in his 21st week, while Studdard only sold 8,599. That means that the runner-up (Aiken) sold 8,618 copies more than the winner (Studdard) in the same time period. What happened to all those people who voted for Studdard during the American Idol 2 finale? Current sales figures stand at 2,521,245 for Aiken and 1,663,539 for Studdard. With figures like these, one wonders if Studdard will even achieve double-platinum status. Sales from their respective tours show a similar trend, but more on that later.

While Clay’s Measure of A Man is dropping almost as fast — 20 spots from #91 to #111 last week and another 17 spots from #111 to #128 this week — this is not as foreboding since, as mentioned above, his album has been on the chart for a lot longer.

As for the American Idol 2 winner, poor Ruben Studdard couldn’t even catch a break here. His “Sorry 2004” dropped 12 spots from #48 to #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, right behind Buddy Jewell’s “Sweet Southern Comfort,” which dropped five spots to #59. The best news Studdard had this week was that his second single, “What If” (not to be confused with RJ Helton’s “Even If”), remained unchanged at #56 on Billboard’s Hot R&B singles chart.

Although Studdard’s tour officially concludes this Sunday in New Orleans, LA, preliminary figures have already started coming in, and they’re not looking as good. Of those whose figures are available, Studdard’s best showing was in Upper Darby, PA, where he sold out 96% of the venue and grossed $54,712. His worst showing was in Milwaukee, WI, where he sold out 53% of the venue and grossed just $33,037.

Rounding up the Billboard Hot 100 is Clay Aiken’s “Solitaire,” which dropped 18 spots to #97. Barring any buying surges from his fans, the single looks set to drop out of the Hot 100 next week. This is also a pretty big two-week drop, considering that “Solitaire” was at #58 just two weeks ago.

Since this is Studdard’s 21st week on the charts with Soulful, let’s do a little comparison. Aiken sold 17,217 copies in his 21st week, while Studdard only sold 8,599. That means that the runner-up (Aiken) sold 8,618 copies more than the winner (Studdard) in the same time period. What happened to all those people who voted for Studdard during the American Idol 2 finale? Current sales figures stand at 2,521,245 for Aiken and 1,663,539 for Studdard. With figures like these, one wonders if Studdard will even achieve double-platinum status. Sales from their respective tours show a similar trend, but more on that later.

While Clay’s Measure of A Man is dropping almost as fast — 20 spots from #91 to #111 last week and another 17 spots from #111 to #128 this week — this is not as foreboding since, as mentioned above, his album has been on the chart for a lot longer.

As usual we start with the granddaddy of the album charts, the Billboard 200. The first pleasant surprise this week was the debut of Totally Hits 2004 at #14. However, this probably shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that the album has songs by American Idol’s Big Three — Kelly Clarkson (who sings “The Trouble With Love Is”), Ruben Studdard (“Sorry 2004”), and Clay Aiken (“Invisible”).

Enjoying a 26-spot jump this week from #128 to #102 is American Idol 2 runner-up Clay Aiken, whose Measure of A Man sold 12,292 copies this week, bringing his 22-week total to 2,411,465 copies.

Not to be outdone, American Idol Ruben Studdard climbed a respectable eight spots this week from #124 to #116, marking the first time that Studdard’s album has passed Aiken’s while descending the chart. Still, this climb in the charts can probably be attributed at least in part to Studdard’s May 6th appearance on Oprah where the Velvet Teddybear paid tribute to Luther Vandross. In more good news, Studdard’s album climbed four spots from #38 to #34 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.

As for Locke’s fellow AI2 finalist, Clay Aiken’s “Solitaire” remained at #97 for the second straight week.

Speaking of “Solitaire,” it’s mea culpa time. Last week, an irate fan pointed out to me that in all the bad news I reported about Studdard, I had neglected to mention the one thing Studdard had going for him. After 20 weeks, Studdard’s “Sorry 2004” was still well ensconced at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, whereas Aiken’s “Solitaire” was barely hanging on in its #97 spot after only eight weeks on the chart.

At least Studdard is still on the R&B Singles chart. “Sorry 2004” dropped a notch to #16, while “What If,” Studdard’s latest single, also dropped a notch from #56 to #57.

As for the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, there was no change in the top three this week. Aiken’s “Solitaire” was the #1-selling single for the ninth straight week with 9,533 copies sold for a total of 254,843 singles. JoJo’s “Leave (Get Out)” came in at #2, having sold 6,787 singles for a total of 30,023 copies. That’s 2,700 more than Locke’s 4,059 copies of “8th World Wonder” or 49,315 singles total, enough to relegate Locke to third place for a second consecutive week.

Joining Locke on the Adult Contemporary chart for the first time this week is Clay Aiken, whose “Solitaire” debuted this week at #27.

Well, they weren’t Ruben, Clay, or Kelly – none of whom are actually in the top half of the charts. It wasn’t even the Totally Hits 2004 album, featuring cuts from each of them, which dropped from #14 to #19.

After another long streak atop the U.S. charts, Clay Aiken's second single, 'Solitaire' / 'The Way', came up a week short of his first single -- or maybe three weeks short.

For the week ended May 23, Clay's single slipped into second place on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Singles Sales chart, behind Jojo's 'Leave (Get Out),' after nine straight weeks atop the chart. That is one week short of the 10 straight weeks that Clay's platinum first single, 'This Is The Night' / 'Bridge Over Troubled Water,' topped the charts ... and three weeks short of the 12 weeks overall that the first single topped the charts.

Since sales of 'Solitaire' / 'The Way' had slowed to fewer than 10,000 per week, it comes as no surprise that the single dropped from #1. However, 'Solitaire' has finally started to climb the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, checking in this week at #27 -- so it could still rebound to challenge its predecessor's overall stay at #1.

A bigger question is whether 'Solitaire' / 'The Way' will sell enough copies to be certified gold by the Record Industry Association of America ("RIAA") for sales of 500,000 copies -- a distinction that no U.S. single has reached since Clay's first single and his Idol 2 rival Ruben Studdard's Flying Without Wings / Superstar both accomplished it in July 2003.

Meanwhile, Clay's single remained #2 on the Nielsen SoundScan Canadian Singles Sales chart for the sixth straight week (behind Usher's 'Yeah' every week), after spending its first three weeks at #1 (just ahead of Usher's 'Yeah' every week).

While Clay remains hot in sales, his roommate and former Idol 2 competitor Kimberley Locke continues to do well with her Curb single '8th World Wonder,' which holds the #20 spot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart based on its strong airplay. Kimberley's album One Love dropped from #39 to #48 on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Album Sales chart (also known as the Billboard 200) in its third week, with sales of around 20,000 units. Its three-week sales total is around 100,000 units -- meaning that it will almost certainly outsell Idol 1 runner-up Justin Guarini's self-titled bomb, which topped out at sales of 134,000 and led to Justin's release from RCA Records, to become the fourth best-selling CD from an Idol contestant, behind only Clay, Ruben and Idol 1 winner Kelly Clarkson.

However, the three CDs ahead of Kimberley on this list all were certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of at least 1 million units. We wish Kimberley good luck in her bid to catch up to them.