Usher elbows D12, retakes No. 1

Usher isn’t exactly the tortoise, but his steadiness won the day on the nation’s album sales chart, as rap group D12’s hare-like burst out of the starting gate faded enough to let the R&B; heartthrob reclaim the No. 1 slot Wednesday on the nation’s album sales chart.

Usher’s “Confessions” sold 267,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, solidly ahead of the 197,000 copies of “D12 World” the Eminem-affiliated rap crew moved in its second week. That’s a 64% drop from the 545,000 D12 sold the previous week, when it moved atop the chart and pushed Usher to No. 2.

Rapper Petey Pablo entered the list at No. 4 by selling 117,000 copies of “Still Writing in My Diary,” while Norah Jones and Josh Groban both reentered the top 10 with big Mother’s Day-driven sales jumps. Jones moved up to No. 8 with a 63% increase in sales, to 90,000, of “Feels Like Home,” while Groban’s “Closer” got an 83% sales bump, pushing it from No. 18 last week to No. 9, with sales of 79,000 copies.