WEEK IN PREVIEW: McGRAW, KELLY, BUCK TO GO 1-2-3

As the sales reports continue to be logged and tallied, what you’ve known since the middle of last week remains as true as it can be until the chart is actually published: New chart arrivals Tim McGraw, R. Kelly and Young Buck are set to snare the top three Top 50 Albums chart positions this week.

Country crooner McGraw’s Live Like You Were Dying (Curb) is now set to move in on 750k sold in the album’s first week, making it #1 by a mile, though slightly less than the 800k we were predicting before the weekend. Kelly’s sex-and-holiness double Happy People/U Saved Me (Jive) should make 400k for the week, putting it at #2. And newcomer Young Buck, out of 50 Cent’s G-Unit posse (like Lloyd Banks), appears headed for #3 based on first-week sales of 275k or so.

Last week’s top two, Now 16 (UTV) and Ashlee Simpson’s Autobiography (Geffen) will likely round out the Top Five.

Hitting the streets tomorrow (8/31) are albums from LL Cool J, Papa Roach and Ray Charles (see story). Each is initially forecasted to sell 100k or better, with LL Cool J expected to reach as high as 150k.