By BEVERLY KEEL, The Tennessean
For the first time in her career, Reba McEntire will make her debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart of all genres. Reba Duets sold about 300,000 copies during its first week of release, more than double her previous biggest debut-week sales of 124,000 units.

"I've been in the business 31 years; this is my 31st album," Reba says. "For it to be debuting bigger than anything I thought possible is very overwhelming." Reba and her manager husband, Narvel Blackstock, were almost speechless at the news, which was delivered by Universal Music Group Nashville's Ben Kline. "Narvel and I were looking at each other going, 'Wow. Wow.' I said, 'Number one on the country charts?' 'No, the Top 200.' They had to tell me that several times for it to sink in."

Reba Duets features performances with Justin Timberlake, Faith Hill, Don Henley, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and others. Reba takes little credit for the album's sales, instead attributing it to "great songs and all of my friends singing on the album."

"Everybody wants to hear them. They brought their fans over to be interested in this album. They wanted to hear them sing with me or me with them."

Her sales were greatly enhanced by an aggressive publicity campaign. It seems like Reba has been everywhere in the past week, including The Tonight Show, Oprah, The View, Larry King Live and Good Morning America. "Of course, we can sing all day long on an album, but if folks don't know it's out there, we're sunk. My hat is off to those folks for helping us get this out to the public," Reba says.

In addition, Reba's duet with Kelly Clarkson, "Because of You," peaked at No. 2 on country radio.