SIMON SAYS SMASH X 2

Simon Cowell’s got Talent, and now so does Steve Barnett’s Columbia Records.

The label will sport the top two albums on next week’s HITS sales chart with a pair of the U.K. music/TV exec’s discoveries at different ends of the age spectrum in 49-year-old Susan Boyle and 10-year-old child prodigy Jackie Evancho, alumni from his shows Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, respectively.

Boyle looks like a repeat for the top spot, with an early projection of 300k+, based on one-day sales from those music retailers who haven’t turned in their leases for yogurt franchises.

The remarkable Evancho is the big story, as the diminutive operatic crooner bests all prognostications with 270-290k in first-week sales, good for #2 on next week’s chart.

Those two, along with six other debuts, and the returning Taylor Swift, will give next week’s Top 10 nine titles of 100k or more.

Rihanna’s fifth Def Jam/IDJ album, Loud, will debut with between 180-190k, followed by Rascal Flatts’ Big Machine debut, Nothing Like This, is earmarked for between 170-180k, the same projected total for Capitol Nashville/EMI country star Keith Urban’s Get Closer and Reprise crooner Josh Groban’s Rick Rubin-produced Illuminations.

Atlantic’s Kid Rock returns with Born Free, his follow-up to the triple-platinum Rock N Roll Jesus, which is just behind that trio in the 160-170k range.

Columbia has yet another Glee entry, with the Christmas album hitting the street, slated for between 150-160k.

Universal Motown’s Nelly album, 5.0, should be in the 55-60k range, with Tony Brummel’s Victory Records scoring one of their biggest albums ever in veteran Ocala, FL, rockers A Day to Remember’s What Separates Me From You, fueled by the hit, “All I Want,” looking at a projected total of 50-60k.

Columbia icon Bruce Springsteen’s two-CD set of outtakes from the Darkness at the Edge of Town sessions, The Promise, should do between 40-50k, while the Darkness deluxe box set edition will do an additional 28-32k, with 22k sold on the first day alone.

LaFace/JLG stalwart Pink’s Greatest Hits is one of three albums set to do 40-45k, along with 19/RCA/RMG American Idol winner Lee Dewyze and Six Steps’ Dove award-winning Christian artist Chris Tomlin.

Blue Note/EMI perennial Norah Jones’ compilation of duets, … Featuring, which will do 18-22k. The last debut of note is Heinz lounge-rockers Pink Martini’s holiday-themed Joy to the World, which should see first-week sales of 15-18k

The market was up 16% vs. last week, down 11% vs. same week last year and down 13% year to date. You may now return to watching Sarah Palin’s Alaska and rooting for her daughter to win Dancing with the Stars. Or not.