Beyonce’s new CD “4″ is number 1

Beyonce‘s “4″ album debuts at Number 1 this week with around 300,000 copies sold. It’s a good but not great debut for “4″ considering its predecessor sold 480,000 copies a year and a half ago.

The lower number is surely an indication of how the record biz has dwindled over the same period of time. It’s also about Beyonce not having a great single from this album. On the last one, “I Am… Sasha Fierce,” she had a breakout hit with “Single Ladies.” Even the video was parodied. “4″ doesn’t have that single so far, although does have a few misses.

I have to think that Beyonce’s forceful appearance on “Good Morning America” last Friday helped her a lot. She sang live, looked like a million bucks, and really went for it. All current performers should take notes. When Beyonce is on, she is worth her weight in gold bullion. It’s instructive to note that at same time Beyonce was roaring across the “GMA” set in Central Park, rapper Pitbull was featured on the “Today” show. He wasn’t very good, and his sales actuall went down. He’s dropped from number 7 to 15.

This was a rare “Today” misstep. This Friday, country singer Blake Shelton comes to “Today,” which should be a hit. The following Friday is Chris Brown–yikes, what are they thinking? Meanwhile, Adele gets kicked to Number 2 this week; she’s still rolling deep in green. Lady Gaga drifts out of the top 10 and into oblivion.

Beyonce brings her new album to the masses: Watch her behind the scenes and performing to a packed Central Park

he high of selling millions of albums, headlining a massive tour, and basically being a worldwide ambassador of girl power requires a major force to come down from. Last year, it took an ocean’s waves to wash away Beyoncé’s larger-than-life alter ego, Sasha Fierce.

“The ocean makes me feel really small,” she says at the top of her MTV special Beyoncé: Year of 4–which aired last night. “It makes me put my whole life in to perspective. I’m this little piece of this huge earth. It humbles you and it grounds you.”

Like she says in the Target ad for her new album, she spent 2010 off the stage and in the audience. In Year of 4, we get to see some of the other stuff she did during her time away from the spotlight.

Most folks spend their vacations at beach houses to chill. Not this chick. Beyoncé does stuff like slide down the Great Wall of China and scuba dive in the Red Sea.

Catch footage of that as well as clips of her creating 4, picking the album’s cuts alongside hubby Jay-Z, and learning the bonkers choreography for its lead single “Run the World (Girls)” here:

Now that Queen B is back and buzzing, she’s in heavy promo mode and made a grand return to morning TV today by performing for ABC’s Good Morning America. Check out her go at “1 + 1″ below.