The Beatles boasted some of the best-selling albums on the U.S. pop chart on Wednesday after nostalgic fans scooped up the Fab Four's much-hyped reissues.

In all, the Beatles sold 626,000 albums during the week ended September 13, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. Until last week, they had sold 635,000 copies this year, a low tally by their standards as buyers held out until the 09-09-09 release date.

Their best-seller last week was 1969's Abbey Road, which moved 89,000 copies, making it the third-most-popular album in the United States. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, the 1967 release that often tops lists of the greatest albums of all time, was No. 5 overall with 74,000 copies.

But don't look for either album to appear on the benchmark Billboard 200 chart, which generally ranks only those albums released in the last 18 months -- not catalog items.

On Billboard's Top Catalog Album Chart, the Beatles claimed 15 of the top 18 places with their 13 studio albums, the Past Masters compilation reissue and the 2000 1 compilation. Michael Jackson was at No. 6, No. 15 and No. 16.

Behind Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's were The Beatles with 60,000, Rubber Soul with 58,000, and Revolver with 46,000. All were among the 10 biggest albums in the United States. The least-popular Beatles reissue was Yellow Submarine with 14,000 copies.

The Billboard 200 was led by rapper Jay-Z, who sold 476,000 copies of The Blueprint 3, his fifth No. 1 album. The only other act to reach the top more times is the Beatles with 19.

Disney starlet Miley Cyrus was No. 2 after selling 120,000 of The Time of Our Lives in its third week of release.

The Beatles managed to log two new entries on the Billboard 200 -- the boxed sets containing all their albums. The new packages were offered in stereo and mono configurations, stirring up an intense debate about which one was better.

Consumers cast their votes for the stereo version, which sold 26,000 copies and landed at No. 15. The mono version, preferred by purists, ranked at No. 40 with 12,000 copies. Each boxed set counts as one unit.

The stereo version has 13 CDs plus Past Masters, while the mono version omits Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be, which were recorded in stereo.

The Beatles albums were released in the United States by Capitol Records, a unit of private-equity partnership Terra Firma's EMI Group Ltd.

Microsoft