THE LIONEL KING

Say “Hello” again to Lionel Richie. The veteran singer/songwriter scores his first #1 album in more than 25 years as his Mercury Nashville debut, Tuskegee, named after his Alabama hometown, soars to #1 a little over a quarter century after Dancing on the Ceiling hit that spot in 1986.

Richie goes to the head of the HITS Album chart with 127k in sales (+22%) after a weekend of sales spurred by Lionel Richie and Friends, his prime-time CBS special last Friday night.

That’s enough to prevent XL/Columbia Grammy champ Adele’s 21 from returning to the top spot, though she adds 91k to a total now over 8.7 million in the U.S., good for #2.

YM/CM/Universal Republic hip-hop diva Nicki Minaj, last week’s #1, drops to #3 with Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which tacks on another 77k to its first-week of 250k.

Red-hot Syco/Columbia boy band One Direction’s Up All Night remains strong at #4, followed by a pair of chart newcomers in RCA’s Monica (#5), the week’s top debut, and Redwing/RED’s Bonnie Raitt album (#6), with an impressive 61k.

Fairfax/Universal Republic’s Gotye climbs #15-7, +106%, thanks in large part to his SNL performance of the smash hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” with Kimbra, along with the song being covered on Glee.

Big Machine’s Rascal Flatts is #8 in its second week, while ATO’s Southern soul phenoms the Alabama Shakes move #16-9, +59%, in their second week—but first in physical release—adding close to 40k for a two-week total of nearly 65k.

Jewish rap tyro Hoodie Allen’s self-released All American debuts at #10 after spending most of the week at #1 on the iTunes album chart, with a very respectable 30k opening.

Other Top 50 newcomers include Collective Sounds’ Counting Crows (#11), Atlantic’s Pennsylvania rockers Halestorm (#17), Reach Christian hip-hop artist Trip Lee (#18), Epic’s Think Like a Man soundtrack (#30), Merge’s M. Ward (#33), Banjodad’s Duluth, MN, indie folkies Trampled by Turtles (#40), Solidstate veteran Seattle metal band Demon Hunter (#41) and Amorphous’ Bay Area freeform electronica/dubstep artist Bassnectar (#44).

Hitting retail this week are Atlantic’s Jason Mraz, Columbia’s Train and Chris Botti, Brushfire/Universal Republic’s Jack Johnson and Mercury/IDJ’s Neon Trees.