Reigning champion David Cook passed the 500,000 mark on this week’s Billboard album sales chart. Cook held the No. 10 slot for the second week in a row, putting the sales total on his post-show debut at 582,000.

A couple random stats on Cook’s achievement and where this places him in the Idol firmament:

– According to Yahoo’s Charts blog:

“This is the longest run in the top 10 for a debut album by an “American Idol” winner since Carrie Underwood’s “Some Hearts” logged 25 weeks in the top 10 in 2005-2006… This also matches Jennifer Hudson’s four-week run in the top 10 as the best recent showing by a debut album by an Idol contestant.“

– By my count, this makes Cook’s album the all-time 15th best selling Idol alum album. (Nine Idol alum albums have gone platinum.)

– Cook’s victory single “Time of My Life” has now spent more than 10 weeks on the Billboard adult contemporary charts. According to Americanidol.com, this makes “him one of 15 solo male artists to do so for 10 weeks or more since the chart began in 1961.”

And let us not forget the most important statistic of all, David’s birthday. This Saturday, DC turns 26. A very happy birthday to our champion!

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