Sade Soars

Sade’s “Best Of” is the hottest of this season’s greatest hits collections, placing No. 5 on the Times’ Southern California pop album chart and No. 18 nationally. What’s remarkable is that it doesn’t offer any new material as an extra lure to buyers.

TOP 10 ALBUMS

Title, Artist (Nat’l Rank) Last Week 1 Miracles, Holiday Album, Kenny G. (1) 1 2 Hell Freezes Over, The Eagles (4) 2 3 Merry Christmas, Mariah Carey (3) 6 4 II, Boyz II Men (2) 4 5 Best Of, Sade (18) 5 6 Unplugged In New York, Nirvana (5) 3 7 Bootleg & B-Sides, Ice Cube (31) 7 8 Duets II, Frank Sinatra (10) 9 9 Fields Of Gold, Sting (21) 8 10 Dookie, Green Day (8) 13

TOP 10 SINGLES

Title, Artist (National Rank) Last Week 1 The Hotstepper, Ini Kamoze(1) 1 2 Tootsee Roll , 69 Boyz (6) 3 3 On Bended Knee, Boyz II Men (3) 2 4 Creep, TLC (2) 4 5 I Wanna Be Down, Brandy (7) 6 6 Before I Let You Go, Blackstreet (8) 7 7 Playaz Club Remix, Rappin’ 4-Tay (28) 5 8 Another Night, Real McCoy (4) 10 9 Short Dick Man, Twenty Fingers (11) 8 10 Secret, Madonna (14) 11

TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS

Title, Artist (National Rank) Last Week 1 Lead On, George Strait (4) 1 2 Stones In Road, Mary C. Carpenter (3) 2 3 Read My Mind, Reba McEntire (8) 3 4 The Tractors, The Tractors (2) 4 5 Let There Be Peace, Vince Gill (7) 8 6 Not a Moment, Tim McGraw (1) 6 7 Who I Am, Alan Jackson (6) 5 8 Merry Christmas, Reba McEntire (26) ... 9 When Love Finds You, Vince Gill (9) 7 10 Sundown, Brooks & Dunn (5) 9

Source: SoundScan Inc., for week of Dec. 4