THAT’LL BE THE DAY 26 ON CHARTS

Based on one-day sales from shell-shocked retailers around this Barack Obama-infatuated country of ours, Bad Boy/Atlantic’s Day 26 will likely follow fellow Making the Band grads Danity Kane to #1 on next week’s HITS Album chart.

The N.Y.-based boy band’s self-titled debut is on target to sell between 225-250k, comparable to the 253k scored by Kane’s Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Hey, a little old-school hip-hop publicity linking Diddy to a shooting of Tupac outside a New York recording studio 14 years ago couldn’t hurt.

Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen Las Vegas art-poppers Panic at the Disco return without an exclamation point on their sophomore album, Pretty. Odd., the Beatles/ELO-inspired follow-up to their multi-platinum debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. First-day sales estimates look to be around 120k, give or take, good enough to challenge for #2.

Veteran Geffen rockers Counting Crows’ Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings does more than get lonely Adam Duritz out of the house, it also spurs between 110-115k in sales, good for a Top 5 debut.

The new album by Third Man/Warner Bros. act The Raconteurs, the collaboration between White Stripes’ Jack White and Detroit pal Brendan Benson, Consolers of the Lonely, was rush-released Tuesday, and appears set for between 30-35k in sales.

The B-52s’ comeback album, Funplex, their first in 16 years since Good Stuff in 1992, on Astralwerks, appears headed for around 25k.

Columbia’s WWE: The Music Vol. 8, featuring Saliva and Collie Buddz, throws its hat in the ring to the tune of 20k, while MySpace’s Pennywise is on track to sell between 8-10k in the wake of their 500k free downloads through its Textango promotion.

In its second week (which would have been its debut week), Downtown/Atlantic’s Gnarls Barkley, #1 at iTunes, chalks up another 25k to add to its total of 31k this week.

The market was up 11% vs. last week, up 1% vs. same week last year and now down 10% year-to-date, but don’t get too excited because the week we’re comping against last year was not Easter.

We now return you to your three-way date with the McGreeveys.