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Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' Makes History In Rise To #1

'Gurls' is the fastest-rising single released by a Capitol Records artist in more than 40 years.

She may have come up short against Lady Gaga in [article id="1640448"]MTV News' 2010 Summer Jam contest[/article], but there's one place Katy Perry is clearly #1: the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

On Wednesday (June 8), Billboard announced that Perry's "California Gurls" will be #1 on the Hot 100 chart -- following her [article id="1640883"]performance of the song at the MTV Movie Awards[/article] Sunday night -- making it all the way to the top spot in just four short weeks ... and, in the process, making a little history too.

"Gurls" becomes the fastest-rising single released by an artist signed to Capitol Records in more than 40 years, tying a mark set way back in 1967 by "Ode to Billie Joe," a song released by Capitol artist Bobbie Gentry. Five months before that, "Penny Lane," the iconic single by the Beatles also made it to #1 in four weeks.

Perry's hit made it to the top of the Hot 100 (which is based on radio plays and sales) thanks in part to its massive digital sales. The song tallied more than 318,000 downloads this week alone -- up 18 percent from the previous week, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- and it will top the Digital Songs chart for a third straight week. "Gurls" also jumped from #10 to #6 on the Radio Songs chart.

The song is Perry's second Hot 100 #1, following her breakout single "I Kissed a Girl," which topped the chart for seven weeks beginning in July 2008. It also gave Snoop Dogg -- who guests on the track -- his third Hot 100 #1, after 2004's "Drop It Like It's Hot" and Akon's "I Wanna Love You," on which he guested, in 2006.

Are you as pumped about "California Gurls" as the rest of the music-buying public? Share your thoughts about the fast-rising single in the comments!

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