It was shaping up to be a battle as bloody (if not nearly as WWE-scripted) as the Kanye vs. Fiddy chart debut skirmish of a few months back. But it turned out to be no contest at all. Alicia Keys ("The Manhattan Mauler") beat the Dinty Moore beef stew out of her challenger, Celine Dion ("La Québécoise Sauvage") in the Foxy Boxing match that that turned out to be the most recent album chart listings.

Keys and her classically trained fingers (as she's always so very keen to remind us) propelled her third studio long-player of piano-driven R&B, 'As I Am,' to the No. 1 position, with 744,000 being the magic number. See, when Bob Dylan name-drops you in one of his songs, it's like the flippin' Midas touch!

Not only did La Celine not grab the top spot with her 'Taking Chances' album, Dion's first in (her wacky French-Canadian) English in four years, but while her teeny, tiny back was turned, she let a six-week-old (!) Josh Groban Christmas album (!!!) muscle past her to No. 2! But there's no need for Our Little Northern Songbird to cry into her poutine -- her No. 3 placing came from a whopping 215,000 in sales.

In fact, for the first time since With a Bullet hatched from that big ol' cyber-egg, each and every entry in the current Top 10 has sold at least 100,000 copies in the past week. (Not drawing any cause-and-effect conclusions here, but you're welcome, recording artists.) That includes this week's debuts of hit-single garbage can 'Now 26' at No. 4, selling 208,000 copies, and heavy-metal pensioners Led Zeppelin's 'Mothership' best-of, which moved 137,000 on its hero's journey to No. 7. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, the usual Top Five album list will be crammed with stuffing like a thawed Tofurky to expand it to a belt-loosening Top Ten.

The top ten albums for the week ending November 18:

1. 'As I Am,' Alicia Keys (744,000 in 1st week)
   
2. 'Noel,' Josh Groban (223,000 in 6th week; 600,000 total)
3. 'Taking Chances,' Celine Dion (215,000 in 1st week)
4. 'Now 26,' Various Artists (208,000 in 1st week)
5. Ultimate Hits,' Garth Brooks (204,000 in 2nd week; 556,000 total)
6. 'Long Road Out of Eden,' Eagles (197,000 in 3rd week; 1,268,000 total)
7. 'Mothership,' Led Zeppelin (137,000 in 1st week)
8. 'American Gangster,' Jay-Z (131,000 in 2nd week; 556,000 total)
9. 'Carnival Ride,' Carrie Underwood (113,000 in 4th week; 931,000 total)
10. Exclusive,' Chris Brown (110,000 in 2nd week; 405,000 total