ADELE’S RETURN TRIP

The numbers are staggering, especially in this day and age, as XL/Columbia diva Adele’s 21 keeps on rolling in the deep, due in large part to her NBC primetime special with Matt Lauer. The Grammy winner returns for her 24th week at #1, with sales of 74k (up 27%) and a total of 9.3 million in the U.S. alone in her remarkable 68th week.

That ties her with the Saturday Night Fever and Purple Rain soundtracks. Her next milestone? Harry Belafonte’s Calypso, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and the South Pacific soundtrack, all with 31 weeks logged in the top spot.

Adele’s victory was a narrow one over debuting Country star Alan Jackson’s Capitol Nashville/EMI debut, Thirty Miles West, which bows at #2 with 73,829, about 200 pieces less than 21, according to our crack(ed) retail guessers.

Capitol/EMI’s Beach Boys comeback album, the critically praised That’s Why God Made the Radio, debuts at #3, the legendary band’s highest chart position in 37 years, since Oct. 1974, when the hits compilation Endless Summer spent a week at #1, and highest debut ever.

Def Jam/IDJ rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s own debut after several mixtape collaborations, Live from the Underground, enters at #4, with Syco/Columbia U.K. boy band One Direction rounding out the Top 5.

Warner Bros. hip-hop provocateur Curren$y lives up to his name with a #6 bow alongside fellow newcomers in Reprise rockers Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Americana (#8) and Columbia chanteuse Brandi Carlile’s Bear Creek (#9).

Last week’s #1, Columbia singer/songwriter John Mayer, slides to #7, giving Team Stringer/Barnett four in the Top 10, while 19/Arista Nashville Idol alum Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away is #10.

Other Top 50 debuts go to Fantasy/Concord’s Joe Walsh (#12), WaterTower Music’s Rock of Ages soundtrack (#16), Warner Bros. Nashville’s Jana Kramer (#18), Nickelodeon/Columbia’s Victorious cast album (#19), Dualtone’s The Lumineers (#27), Jordan House’s Eric Benet (#30) and Capitol/EMI’s Emeli Sande (#31). Returning to the charts are Capitol/EMI’s newly reissued The Beatles Yellow Submarine soundtrack (#37) and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream (#40).

Adele’s 19 ties for the lead in double-digit gains with 21, moving #24-21, +27%, followed by Nonesuch’s Black Keys (#45-32, +23%) and Glassnote’s still-happening Mumford & Sons (#47-34, +15%).

This week's top release is RCA's Usher, with UMG Nashville's Josh Turner, Roadrunner's Rush, WB's Jimmy Fallon and Waka Flocka Flame and Hollywood's Grace Potter and the Nocturnals also coming out today.