WEEK IN PREVIEW: DEAD HEAT

The man who was King before Michael Jackson claimed the title for himself will find himself back at the top of the album chart tomorrow, with sales in the high 400k range. RCA’s smartly packaged ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits ain’t no pill, folks.

Along with the King reclaiming his throne, look for solid debuts for Motown/Universal’s India.Arie and Columbia’s Nas, as well as new ones from Geffen/Interscope’s Beck and Peter Gabriel.

At Top 40, where programmers have a tough time spelling "IQ," Atlantic’s Matchbox Twenty will debut and close out this week, as progamming Einsteins embrace this one whole hog. Other first-week Top 40 action belongs to J’s O-Town and IDJ’s Mariah Carey. Meanwhile, last week’s champ Eminem will close out the few stations not on board.

And since the late Elvis is dominating the pop world, it only seems appropriate that a deceased rock icon should dominate the Post Modern universe as well. Yes, folks, Nirvana’s previously unreleased "You Know You’re Right," is dominating PoMo playlists across the country, as former Britney and NSYNC fans scramble to get cool like "those old people who were around in the early ’90s." That said, Chris Cornell and the boys from the former Rage Against the Machine are making a lot of noise as Audioslave. Their track "Cochise" (Epic) is causing all sorts of commotion with PoMo programmers.

As for Tuesday releases, look for action surrounding Xzibit, LeAnn Rimes and the still-breathing Rolling Stones.