When Scotty McCreery entered the American Idol television contest show last year, many pundits outside of the country music world - and perhaps the show itself - deemed him a one trick pony in early rounds. The then 16-year-old would continue to sing Josh Turner's "Your Man" over and over again.

While it was clear McCreery had been influenced by Josh Turner, he really managed to continue to show growth throughout the show, eventually winning the program with his own blend of contemporary and classic country styles.

Quickly signed to 19/Interscope/Mercury Nashville, Scotty then went on to have "I Love You This Big" hit not only the digital single charts but also the country airplay charts - it's rare for an Idol coronation single to become a bonafide radio hit too - and then he followed that up with a much better song from his debut album Clear As Day. That song, "The Trouble With Girls" has helped propel the album to Gold and now Platinum status for sales of shipments of over 1,000,000 albums sold to stores (the album is just shy of 900,000 in sales to fans).

“It means the world to me,” McCreery said of the milestone. “It’s one of the highest honors you can get with your album and it’s a huge testament to the loyalty of country music fans and how great they have been to me this year. 2011 was absolutely an incredible, life-changing year for me. I want to say a huge thanks to the fans for this.”

The album, which was released Oct. 4, was certified gold for sales of 500,000 in November.  The platinum certification followed about seven weeks later.

“Never in a million years did I dream that the album would go platinum in three months,” he says. “Never in a million years did I dream that the album would go platinum. It’s wild! It’s going to take me a few months or years to really wrap my head around it.”