Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits Jumps to Number 2; McCartney May Beat Van Halen

Whitney Houston's continues to climb back up the charts with her 2000 album, Whitney: The Greatest Hits, a sure bet to come it at number 2 when Billboard announces their new album chart on Thursday.

Prognosticators Hits Daily Double, who samples stores from across the country, has the Houston album selling 170,000 copies, well ahead of number 3's (NOW That's What I Call Music 41) 93,000 but nowhere near Adele's spectacular total of 715,000 for 21.

From there down the list, it gets a little more fuzzy. Numbers 4 and 5 will definitely be Adele's first album, 19, and the Grammy Nominee's compilation, but they are close together at 86,000 and 84,000 respectively.

Even closer are two other veteran artists, Paul McCartney and Van Halen. McCartney is definitely the stronger artist in week two with Kisses on the Bottom selling an estimated 58,100, down only 22% from week 1. On the other hand, Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth is looking at a 69% drop in week two with estimated sales of 57,900. Which falls at 5 and which at 6 for the week will be determined when final numbers come in.