REUTERS

Susan Boyle led the U.S. pop album chart for a third week Wednesday, while Chris Brown's new album debuted at a disappointing No. 7.

The British reality-TV show contestant sold 582,000 copies of I Dreamed a Dream during the week ended December 13, according to Nielsen SoundScan. So far, her debut album has sold 1.8 million copies and is racing after Taylor Swift's Fearless, currently the top selling album of 2009 with 2.7 million.

Along with Fearless, Boyle's Dream is just the second album to spend three weeks at No. 1 this year. Swift's album spent seven weeks at No. 1 in the 2009 calendar year, in addition to three weeks atop the chart in late 2008.

Brown's third album Graffiti sold 102,000 copies, well below the 150,000-175,000 units he was expected to sell. His last set, Exclusive, debuted at No. 4 in 2007 with 294,000.

The R&B star, looking to get his career back on track after he was convicted of beating up then-girlfriend Rihanna in February, took to his Twitter account during the weekend to accuse retailers of blackballing his album -- a charge that anecdotal evidence suggested was unfounded. (Rihanna's fourth album, Rated R, debuted at No. 4 earlier this month with a personal-best 181,000 copies, and is currently at No. 25).

The top debut on the Billboard 200 this week was the second installment of the Glee TV soundtrack, at No. 3 with 173,000. Released the same week the Golden Globe-nominated Fox TV show aired its fall mid-season finale, the set follows the first Glee album, which debuted at No. 4 in November with 113,000. This week, the first Glee collection rose nine places to No. 11 with 85,000.

Rounding out the top entries on the chart was imprisoned rapper Gucci Mane with his major-label debut, The State Vs. Radric Davis, at No. 10 with 90,000. (Mane, a.k.a. Davis, was sentenced to a year in prison last month for probation violation.)

Elsewhere, Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas was stuck at No. 2 for a fifth week with 400,000 copies. Swift's Fearless slipped one to No. 4 with 168,000, and Carrie Underwood's Play On rose one to No. 5 with 107,000.

Lady Gaga's The Fame dropped one to No. 6, Justin Bieber's My World jumped four to No. 8, and Michael Buble's Crazy Love rose one to No. 9.

Overall album sales totaled 12.00 million units, up 18 percent compared to the sum last week but down 7 percent compared to the same sales week of 2008. Year-to-date album sales stand at 342.3 million, down 13 percent compared to the same total at this point last year.