Industry sources predicted Wednesday that Em's new "Recovery" album, released on June 21, was on track to easily debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with perhaps 600,000 copies sold by week's end on Sunday, June 27. Sources now estimate "Recovery" will rack up the biggest sales week for a single album in more than 18 months, as it should sell in excess of 700,000 by week's end on Sunday, June 27.

Thus, it may earn the best sales week for an album since - wait for it - October 2008. That's when AC/DC's "Black Ice" debuted with 784,000 in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. (Eminem will also blow past 2009's best sales week, when Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" started with 701,000 last November.)

"Recovery" is on track to be Eminem's sixth straight No. 1 debut - and sixth overall No. 1. His only album to miss the top spot was his "Slim Shady LP" debut, which bowed and peaked at No. 2 in 1999.

Last week's No. 1, Drake's "Thank Me Later," will likely slip to No. 2 on next week's Billboard 200 chart with perhaps 180,000 to 200,000 copies sold in its second week, while Miley Cyrus' new "Can't Be Tamed" might debut at No. 3 with around 120,000 to 130,000.

Next week's album charts competes with the same week in 2009 when in the wake of Michael Jackson's death, the King of Pop ruled with the top three selling albums in the U.S. as "Number Ones," "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Thriller" ranked at Nos. 1-3 with 108,000; 102,000 and 101,000; respectively.