Beyonce's "B'Day" bashes chart

Beyonce Knowles' B'Day celebrated its berth in stores by debuting atop the album charts, selling a massive 541,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan figures released Wednesday.

The album, appropriately released worldwide on Sept. 4, Knowles' 25th birthday (it was released a day later in the U.S.), shunted aside last week's chart champ Bob Dylan and fended off Audioslave's latest to record the third-largest sales week of the year. Rascal Flatts' Me & My Gang leads the 2006 weekly list with 722,000 copies, followed by Tool's 10,000 Days with 564,000 copies.

B'Day's lead radio single, the Rodney Jerkins-produced "Deja Vu," which once again pairs her with boyfriend Jay-Z (who apparently forgot about his retirement and also cameos on the track "Upgrade U"), actually slipped a spot to number two behind the Janet Jackson-Nelly collaboration, "Call on Me." Beyonce and Jay-Z previously teamed up on her first solo single, "Crazy in Love," and on the Kanye West-produced " '03 Bonnie & Clyde" from Jay's The Blueprint 2.

This marks the second straight solo chart-topper for Knowles, following her 2003 post-Destiny's Child smash, Dangerously in Love. That album went on to win five Grammys, tying a record for most in a single year by a female artist. Knowles will have another shot at the top of the charts in December, as part of the cast album for the big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning Dreamgirls.