Savvy marketing seemed to pay off for the Backstreet Boys yesterday, with Toronto-area music stores reporting that the group's new CD, Black & Blue, sold like gangbusters on the first day of its release.

And as the Boys wrapped up their six-continent, 100-hour promotional fly-past, they also announced the cities they'll visit on their 2001 world tour. Toronto is on the preliminary list, according to Internet concert tracker Pollstar and the band's own Web site. More details are expected Monday, but it's a safe bet the group will play the SkyDome after the tour kicks off in Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 22.

Although yesterday's official sales figures aren't in yet, the downtown HMV store (333 Yonge St.) sold about 30 copies of the new CD in the half-hour after its release Monday at midnight. Tower Records (2 Queen St. W.) sold about 50 copies in the same stretch. By yesterday afternoon, the HMV in Mississauga's Square One Shopping Centre had sold more than 200 copies of the quintet's much-hyped third album.

``It's pretty wild out there,'' said Andrew Pollack, HMV's vice-president of marketing.

The market-leading music retailer pre-sold 5,000 copies of Black & Blue last week in Canada, he added, a record for the company. ``I have no doubt that this will be the biggest release this year.'' The vigorous first-day sales come as many in the music industry are starting to doubt the endurance of clean-cut pop groups. The new Spice Girls album was a relative flop in North America, with Forever debuting at No. 7 in Canada last week and No. 39 on U.S. sales charts. The troubled girl band was also forced to quash rumours of a potential break-up yesterday when Sporty Spice (Mel C) told a British talk show she had left the group.

But the Backstreet Boys seemed like pop contenders this week as 45,000 fans turned up for a 10-minute concert in Rio and at least 10 fans were injured in Tokyo when they mobbed the group's tour bus.

For Pollack, early sales of Black & Blue confirm a simple fact: pop music isn't dead. Across Canada last week, HMV sold 2,000 copies of No Strings Attached, the latest CD from rival boy band N' Sync, he said, noting that sales were helped by concerts in Toronto.

Meanwhile, the Backstreet Boys may also be helped by an unprecedented marketing blitz in the U.S., which enlisted 16,300 fans to help sell the new album. The teens on the Backstreet Boys' Official Online Street Team are spreading the word about the new CD on the Internet, using everything from chat to personalized e-mail.

South of the border, their target is No Strings Attached, which sold 2.4 million copies during its first week. In Canada, eager fans hope to topple Céline Dion's Let's Talk About Love (1997), which sold 230,212 copies in the seven days after its release.

It appears to be working. Black & Blue ranks No. 2 on pre-orders alone on the Web site of book giant Amazon.com. Wal-Mart has reportedly ordered 2.5 million copies of the album in the U.S., and has raised fears among retailers that a price war may break out. Billboard magazine reports that an estimated 6 million copies of the CD have been shipped to U.S. retailers, making it one of the largest shipments ever for an album.

Still, when the dust in Canada settles, the Backstreet Boys have a long way to climb to beat themselves. The group's last disc, Millennium, debuted at No. 1 on the Soundscan charts and sold 192,000 copies in its first week alone.