ONE-DAY SALES: QUEEN NORAH HEARS BAD BOY AT THE GATE

As we’ve been saying for a long time now, Norah Jones was the nation’s #1 selling album over the past week. And she’ll likely remain that way when the current week’s over, as her sophomore Blue Note opus, Feels Like Home, tops the 2 million mark.

But there is the possibility—and we say that guardedly—that another album (gasp!) could steal Jones’ crown. Yes, Bad Boy/Universal’s Bad Boy’s 10th Anniversary... The Hits hit the streets Tuesday (3/9) and is selling at a rapid clip that suggests its first-week number will hit 130k or more, according to early reports from national accounts.

That’s probably not enough to dethrone Jones, but stranger things have happened. Even if Home drops by another 25% this week, it will still top 150k. On the current chart, Jones' weekly figure shrunk by 32% to just under 195k.

In any case, the Bad Boy album, which features favorites from P. Diddy, Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, 112 and Mase, will put up solid numbers and be at least a strong #2, according to the best calculations by our team of crackerjack retail analysts.

Looking ahead, next week will see the release of a six-song acoustic EP from Godsmack, which carries a super-low wholesale price of $6.06 (6 for 6.06, that’s 666, get it?). Early predictions expect a showing in the neighborhood of 150k.

Also coming next week will be J Records’ Cassidy, who is also expected to sell on the order of 150k.

As for the market as a whole, sales were pretty much flat over the past week, declining 0.3% (31k units) compared to the same week last year. Compared to the previous week this year, sales declined 2.4% (283k units). For the year so far, however, sales are still up by 9.5% (10.6 million units) compared to the same point in 2003.