WEEK IN PREVIEW:
GOD BLESS AMERICAN

No, that’s not the Bible, it’s the lesson in not winning American Idol. Runner-up Clay Aiken will forget all about not winning that competition, as his RCA Records debut, Measure of a Man, will most certainly be the #1 album this week. It would only take selling 200k to do that, but Aiken’s disc looks to do 650k, and perhaps as many as 700k as the upper demo sometimes takes its time getting to the mall.

The real action is for the second-place slot, depending on how much second-week drop Def Jam South/IDJ’s Ludacris has and how well Jagged Edge (Columbia) does. Jagged Edge looks poised to do 175k and a 50% drop for Ludacris would put it at around 200k. Just behind, but impressive nonetheless, is Columbia’s Barbra Streisand, who is looking to move units in the 150k range, mostly to liberal Democrats no doubt.

See, there is something else to keep an eye on instead of the World Series and the Kobe Bryant case. Watch the drama unfold on the Building Album Charts page today and tomorrow.

Streeting this week are Loon (Bad Boy/Universal), Rod Stewart (J Records), Mandy Moore (Epic) and Rush (Atlantic).

And now, back to ESPN.