UPDATED CHART PREVIEW:
THE GAME RULES, TINA COMES
ON STRONG

Going into the weekend, projections based on early sales reports from national accounts put G-Unit/ Aftermath/Interscope’s The Game back in the driver’s seat for this week’s album chart. That projection is all but fact as our dedicated team of retail analysts replace the batteries in their ’66 Ray-O-Vac electric abacus.

While The Game returning to #1 is pretty much a done deal, other aspects of this week’s chart have been coming into focus at a slower pace. While earlier pronouncements in this space held that the #2 slot would be fought over by Kenny Chesney’s Be As You Are (BNA) and Green Day’s American Idiot (Reprise), it turns out that the power of coffee, combined with a buttload of television exposure can change everything.

Yes, we're talking about Tina Turner, whose All the Best (Capitol), saw a pretty hefty boost over the weekend, thanks to two Today appearances, an Oprah special and being served up on the counters of thousands of Starbucks locations nationwide.

Turner should turn in a final first-week tally of about 117k, good enough to best would-be #2 challenger Green Day, which as of this point appears headed for #3 on a tally of about 111k. So we like odd numbers. Sue us.

Meanwhile, Motley Crue’s Red, White & Crue (Hip-O), which had been neck-and-neck with Turner going into the weekend, is tracking at around 80k-85k and looking like #6, behind Chesney (105k-110k) and John Legend (90k-95k), which appear headed for #4 and #5, respectively.

Also making its chart debut this week is the Grammy Nominations 2005 compilation (Capitol), which will likely make a Top 10 bow on the chart based on first-week sales of 70k-75k.