WEEK IN PREVIEW:
BAD BOYS II STILL TOPS

Here’s where it’s at, pookies, as far as we know from our subterranean retail laboratory in the bowels of Holmby Hills, which issues automated sales forecasts exactly every 11 minutes—thanks to a continuous satellite uplink with the atomic clock in Washington:

As that tallying continues and the chart begins to build, it looks like Bad Boys II (Bad Boy/Universal) will be a shoo-in for #1 again this week, thanks to a serious lack of competition from anyone’s release schedule.

That brings the soundtrack’s total number of consecutive weeks on top to four. Know when the last time that happened was? Call in and win!!!

Just kidding. Don’t bother calling—there’s nobody home (like we needed to tell you that). But we will clue you in:

The last time an album stayed at #1 for four weeks was in December of last year, when Shania Twain’s Up! (Mercury/IDJ) hung around the top of the chart like a black-leather-clad-superheroine-archetype-riding-a- motorcycle-through-an-other-side-of-the-mirror- dreamscape. Hey, wait a minute—that was the video.

Back to what’s going on now (clearly, not much, as you can tell from all the padding we’re doing): The biggest debut of the week is likely going to come from Wynona, whose latest Curb release looks like a solid Top 10 contender with a likely 50-60k or so in sales.

But look out for next week, when country superstar Alan Jackson’s Greatest Hits 2 (Arista Nashville) will be the latest blockbuster to bust blocks for Butch Waugh and the red-hot RCA Label Group. Can it move 300k out of the box? Stay tuned.