ONE-DAY SALES: MOS DEF LEADS NEW RELEASES

According to early reports from national retail accounts, Brooklyn intellirapper Mos Def is on track to make the highest debut on next week’s chart. After one day on sale, his New Danger (Geffen) looks like it will sell 70k-80k for the week. That should land him solidly in the Top 10.

Meanwhile, after a week that saw a reconfigured version of Usher’s Confessions (LaFace/ZLG)—already the biggest of the year at 6 million-plus—leap 25 chart positions to #2 on a sales gain of 765%, what can he do for an encore, you ask? Well, at this point, it looks like he’ll once again be duking it out with Country slinger George Strait, whose 50 Number Ones collection (MCA Nashville) took top honors this week on sales just shy of 346k.

Retail analysts say to look for both albums to take the usual second-week drops of around 50%. In Usher’s case, that would be the second week for the repackaged album, which features four new tracks, including the remix of “My Boo” featuring Alicia Keys.

Also hitting the street yesterday were Sum 41’s Chuck (Island/IDJ) and Celine Dion’s Miracle (Epic), both of which are expected to top 50k for the week, though the Dion wild card is an appearance on Oprah tomorrow in which she has the entire hour and will perform three songs, presumably from the disc. According to inside sources down the hall, that could easily double our estimate, especially if they give away Pontiac G6s to everyone who buys an album. Comebacking glam boys Duran Duran’s new album, Astronaut (Epic), is also looking to hit the 50k mark.