Clay Aiken may have the top-selling CD in the U.S., but his bid to also have the top-selling single in the same week was derailed by Christian rockers MercyMe.
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In the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Singles Sales chart for the week ended October 19, Clay's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" b/w "This Is The Night" ended up rebounding to second place in its 20th week on the charts. The rise, from fourth and fifth place the previous two weeks, was fueled by the omission of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" from Clay's smash CD Measure of a Man. However, MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine", a two-year-old song just released as a single on Curb Records, held on to the #1 spot for the third straight week, preventing Clay from logging a 13th week at #1 in the U.S.
Like Hilary Duff, whose single "So Yesterday" remains #3 in the U.S. charts, Clay has learned that it's hard to have both the top-selling album and the top-selling single in the same week. We also note that Ruben Studdard's "Flying Without Wings" moved back up to fifth place in its 20th week -- but, now that Ruben's album has been delayed again to December 9, we doubt that the single will still be around the top at the time that Soulful is finally released.
On the Nielsen SoundScan Canadian Singles Sales chart, only Clay enjoyed a bounce, and it wasn't nearly as high. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" moved back up to #13 in its 19th week -- still five places below Ms. Duff and even one place below the American Juniors, whose "One Step Closer" continues to hold 12th place. "Flying Without Wings," meanwhile, continued to sink to 25th place in its 20th week -- meaning that Ruben's single is still doing about twice as well as Idol 2 finalist Vanessa Olivarez's "The One", which has now dropped all the way to 50th place in only its third week on the charts.