It's been a particularly newsworthy week for hilarious reality TV clan The Osbournes.

First came news, from the book Ozzy Unauthorized, that shuffling, mumbling patriach Ozzy tried to hang himself when he was 14 years old, nearly drowned a kid during a gang rumble, and evaded getting hit on by a murderer in jail by hitting back with a chamberpot.

Next was 17-year-old daughter Kelly's admission to Teen People that she gets on better with men than women.

"Girls think I'm gross," she told TP. "I (pass gas) and burp and I don't care. I never wear skirts because I always sit with my legs wide open. I can be the perfect English daughter when I have to be. If I wasn't, my mom would kick my butt."

By the end of this week, fellow TV dad Bill Cosby had weighed in with this observation: "This is a sad, sad family."

Maybe, but it's a family with an album. And a fast-selling one.

The Osbourne Family Album, which hits stores in Canada next Tuesday, just debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard album charts in the U.S.

The 13-track collection -- with dialogue snippets from the show sandwiched between tunes -- is billed as the clan's "favourite songs" in new and original versions. Thus you have The Kinks' You Really Got Me (Ozzy got turned on to rock by the guitar licks), John Lennon's Imagine (Ozzy and wife Sharon's song when they were first dating) and Eric Clapton's You Look Wonderful Tonight (Ozzy used to play this for Sharon while they were getting ready to go out).

Older daughter Aimee, who decided to opt out of the TV fishbowl experience entirely, is also present with her choice of The Cars' Drive, which was a favourite of hers as a baby.

But The Osbourne Family Album really serves as a cross promotional device more than anything -- duh -- given the presence of songs like Ozzy's Dreamer, from his latest studio album, 2001's Down To Earth, which he actually claims is his tribute to Lennon.

Sixteen-year-old son Jack's hard rock signing to Epic, Disillusion, can also be heard on Mirror Image. Of greater interest, though, is Kelly's bouncy, rocked-up version of Madonna's Papa Don't Preach, which was apparently Aimee's idea. Given the content of the TV show -- in which the inmates are clearly running the asylum -- this song has got to be ironic.

Kelly first performed the track on the MTV Movie Awards and it's actually good as covers go, since she can actually sing.

Other songs worth noting are Pat Boone's easy-listening, big band version of Ozzy's signature solo tune, Crazy Train, which serves as the theme for the TV show.

The dialogue bits will crack you up too, whether it's Ozzy raving about the family's bladder-challenged dog: "He's f---ing part of Bin Laden's gang!" or a bubble machine on his stage: "Oh, c'mon Sharon, I'm f---ing Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of F---ing Darkness! Evil, evil! What's evil about a boatload of f---ing bubbles?" (More on The Osbournes)

Track Listing 1. Crazy Train - (Pat Boone Theme from TV Show)
2. Dreamer - Ozzy Osbourne
3. Papa Don't Preach - Kelly Osbourne
4. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
5. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
6. Snowblind - System Of A Down
7. Imagine - John Lennon
8. Drive - The Cars
9. Good Souls (Remix) - Starsailor
10. Mirror Image - Dillusion
11. Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
12. Mama I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne
13. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
14. Family System - Chevelle (Bonus Track)