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Ray-ban wearers or no, the fans didn't forget to go pick up the Men in Black soundtrack, which features Will Smith's clever rap reworking of Patrice Rushen's ''Forget Me Nots.'' Pushed by an alien-enhanced video that's ubiquitous on MTV, the collection of hip-hop songs ''inspired by'' (that is, mostly not in) MiB moved to the top spot its second week out, with 178,500 copies zapped by SoundScan sensors. But last week's No. 1, Prodigy, didn't fall much -- selling 131,000 copies to land at No. 3, proving wrong the naysayers who insisted every electronica fan in America must've bought their album the first day. The only top 10 newcomer was Pure Moods, a compilation of tunes by New Age pop-rockers like Enigma and Deep Forest that, until recently, was sold only on TV; it moved up to a totally tubular (as in ''Bells'') No. 10.
POP ALBUMS
LAST WEEK WEEKS ON CHART
1 2 SOUNDTRACK Men in Black, Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax 2 2 3 SPICE GIRLS Spice, Virgin 23 3 1 PRODIGY The Fat of the Land, Maverick 2 4 4 HANSON Middle of Nowhere, Mercury 10 5 6 GOD'S PROPERTY FROM KIRK FRANKLIN'S NU NATION God's Property, B-Rite/Interscope 7 6 8 THE WALLFLOWERS Bringing Down the Horse, Interscope 54 7 5 TIM MCGRAW Everywhere, Curb 6 8 7 BOB CARLISLE Butterfly Kisses, Diadem/Jive 12 9 13 JEWEL Pieces of You, Atlantic 74 10 16 VARIOUS ARTISTS Pure Moods, Virgin 11
COUNTRY ALBUMS
1 1 TIM MCGRAW Everywhere, Curb 6 2 2 GEORGE STRAIT Carrying Your Love With Me, MCA 12 3 3 LEANN RIMES Blue, Curb 53 4 5 DEANA CARTER Did I Shave My Legs for This?, Capitol Nashville 45 5 4 LEANN RIMES Unchained Melody/The Early Years, Curb 22 6 6 PAM TILLIS Greatest Hits, Arista 6 7 7 NEAL MCCOY Greatest Hits, Atlantic 5 8 9 TOBY KEITH Dream Walkin', Mercury 3 9 10 TRACE ADKINS Dreamin' Out Loud, Capitol Nashville 55 10 8 CLAY WALKER Rumor Has It, Giant 14
POP CATALOG ALBUMS
1 1 PINK FLOYD Dark Side of the Moon, Capitol 1,060 2 2 SOUNDTRACK Grease, Polydor 210 3 3 BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS Legend, Tuff Gong/Island 422 4 4 METALLICA Metallica, Elektra 309 5 7 SUBLIME 40 Oz. to Freedom, Gasoline Alley/MCA 37 6 5 JAMES TAYLOR Greatest Hits, Warner Bros. 351 7 6 JIMMY BUFFETT Songs You Know by Heart, MCA 337 8 11 SARAH MCLACHLAN Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Nettwerk/Arista 148 9 10 BEASTIE BOYS Licensed to Ill, Def Jam/Mercury 306 10 8 BUSH Sixteen Stone, Trauma/Interscope 131
(C)1997 BPI COMMUNICATIONS INC./SOUNDSCAN INC. USED WITH PERMISSION FROM BILLBOARD, JULY 26, 1997.
