Patriotic album strikes a chord

Mariah Carey's song Hero appears on the album

An album of patriotic American pop songs has gone to number one in the US charts in the wake of the 11 September attacks.

The compilation, called God Bless America, includes tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Mariah Carey and sold more than 180,000 copies in its first week of release.

Money raised will go to the Twin Towers Fund

A change in the tastes of the music-buying public has been credited with making rousing or soothing songs more popular.

Enya's Day Without Rain album - which had already been in shops for a year - has shot up to number two, while Whitney Houston's rendition of The Star Spangled Banner has been number one in the singles chart.

"It's hard to think of a time in the last 20 to 30 years where there has been such a wide embrace of patriotism," Geoff Mayfield, charts director at Billboard magazine, said.

"Certainly there has been a change of mood as a result of what happened that day."

Sinatra's America The Beautiful is included

He said Enya's song Only Time, which has been played widely on radio since the attacks, became "the song to soothe after all that ugliness".

The God Bless America album begins with Celine Dion's lauded version of the song of the same name.

It also includes Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, Lean On Me by Bill Withers and Sinatra's America The Beautiful.

Money raised will go to the Twin Towers Fund.

Number one

Other tribute albums planned include a two-disc recording of Sir Paul McCartney's benefit concert in New York, which starred David Bowie, Elton John, Mick Jagger and Destiny's Child.

Michael Jackson, who took part in another tribute concert in Washington on Sunday, is set to release a single, What More Can I Give?

Whitney Houston's Star Spangled Banner hit number one earlier this month and is still in the top 20, having raised $1m (£700,000) so far.