ONE-DAY SALES: McGRAW, KELLY, BUCK LINE UP 1-2-3

Now 16, Ashlee, it’s been a nice run. But your days of tussling for #1 on the album chart are over. A Stetson-wearing superstar, a still-steamy but freshly Gospelized R&B crooner and a hardcore rapper are here to see to that.

Indeed, Tim McGraw, R. Kelly and G-Unit’s Young Buck all released albums yesterday, and according to early reports from national accounts, they will each occupy one of the chart’s top three slots come next Tuesday.

McGraw (that’s Mr. Faith Hill to you, buddy) will likely see his ninth album, Live Like You Were Dying (Curb), sell well over 650k, with a chance to pass 800k. Yes, that’s what we said, too—Galldangit, that’s a big ol’ number! Yeeeeeeee-hawww! But not too surprising, given that McGraw’s last album sold 602k out of the box.

That’s #1. At #2, it looks like Kelly’s latest, the freaky-steamy-uptempo-“step”-music-on-one-disc, Gospel-flavored-on-the-other double Happy People/U Saved Me (Jive/ZLG), will log over 350k for the week.

And coming in third will be Young Buck, with the latest solo offering from a member of 50 Cent’s G-Unit posse, Straight Outta Ca$hville (Interscope). Buck’s set appears headed for a first week of just under 300k.

Also hitting the streets yesterday was the first album in five years from Bad Boy rapper Mase, whose Welcome Back looks at this point like it has a shot at hitting the 200k mark.

That gives Mase a shot at debuting Top 5, depending how the aforementioned Now 16 and Ashlee perform in the coming days.