Drake's Rise and Adele's Record on the Album Charts

Drake performing at the American Music Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles.Matt Sayles/Associated PressDrake performing at the American Music Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles.

This week on the pop music charts, Drake has a big opening and Adele breaks a record set by Michael Jackson.

Drake, the rapper and singer, who acted in the teen television show Degrassi: The Next Generation, sailed to No. 1 with 631,000 copies of his latest release, Take Care (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic), sold. That was less than the 700,000 that some chart-watchers had been expecting (or hoping for), but it was still the third-biggest opening of the year, behind Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne.

It was also a good week for holiday albums: Michael Bubls Christmas (143/Reprise) held at No. 2 with 165,000 albums sold, a 35 percent gain from the week before, while Justin Biebers Under the Mistletoe (Island Def Jam) climbed one spot to No. 5 with 84,000 units. Glee: The Christmas Album Volume 2 (Columbia), the latest in the torrent of releases from the Fox show Glee, opened at No. 6 with 71,000.

Adeles 21 (XL/Columbia), by far the best selling album of the year, sold 113,000 copies last week, its 39th in stores, and rose two spots to No. 3. The album has now passed Michael Jacksons Bad for the m! ost cons ecutive weeks in the Top 5, Billboard reported, and its total sales for the year stand at 4.5 million.

Also on the charts, Andrea Bocelli scored his sixth Top 10 with his live album, Concerto: One Night in Central Park (Sugar/Decca), which opened at No. 4 with 87,000 albums sold. Mac Miller, a Pittsburgh rapper who has built a following on the Internet, made a splash last week when his independently distributed debut, Blue Slide Park (Rostrum), opened at No. 1. But in its second week that album plunged to No. 24 with 25,000 sales, an 83 percent decrease.

Mac Millers 23-slot drop is the fourth-largest fall from No. 1 on the Billboard charts in at least 20 years, beaten only by three relatively recent albums: Incubuss Light Grenades fell to No. 37 in 2006 and, earlier this year, Amos Lees Mission Bell went to No. 26 after holding the top spot and Cakes Showroom of Compassion fell to No. 25.