Not even a ‘Genius’ can topple Tim McGraw

Ray Charles’ collection of duets, “Genius Loves Company,” and Jill Scott’s second studio album, “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2,” made impressive showings on this week’s pop album charts, but they fell short of knocking Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” out of the No. 1 spot.

Charles’ album, which features duets with such artists as Norah Jones, Willie Nelson and Van Morrison, sold 202,000 copies in its first week in the stores to finish No. 2 on the charts behind the McGraw album, which sold 227,000 copies in its second week on the shelves.

Scott’s album is No. 3 after selling 193,000 copies in its first week.

Charles, who died in June from complications of liver disease at age 73, is one of the most influential singers in American pop history, and his public profile will get another boost this fall when Jamie Foxx stars in a film biography titled “Ray.” Among the other artists singing with him on the duets package: Elton John, B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt.

This is the first Charles album to make the weekly Top 200 sales chart since “My World” in 1993. The only other album to break into the Top 10 this week was LL Cool J’s “Definition,” which ranks No. 4 with first-week sales of 173,000.