A dele's magic touch will help the "Glee" cast score its highest-charting hit this season, as its mash-up of her "Rumour Has It" and "Someone Like You" is set to storm next week's Billboard Hot 100 and Digital Songs charts.

The single is shaping up, in fact, to be one of the Fox show's top tracks overall dating to its May 19, 2009, premiere.

Industry sources suggest that the medley, released Tuesday (Nov. 15), could sell 160,000-180,000 downloads by the end of the current chart tracking week (Nov. 20).

"Teenage Dream" marks the "Glee" cast's best sales frame, having arrived with 214,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, on the Digital Songs (No. 1) and Hot 100 (No. 8) charts dated Nov. 27, 2010.

"Rumour"/"Someone" may sell enough to secure the "Glee" cast its fourth Hot 100 top 10. As a gauge, Taylor Swift's "If This Was a Movie" opened at No. 10 on this week's Hot 100 on the strength of 161,000 downloads sold. (The Hot 100 blends sales, airplay and streaming data).

Similar to Swift's "Movie," "Rumour"/"Someone" will bow on the Hot 100 almost exclusively due to digital sales. As with the bulk of "Glee" remakes, radio is offering only minimal support of the mash-up, content instead to continue focusing on Adele's original versions of the songs.

Still, Columbia Records welcomes airplay for "Rumour"/"Someone." "We encourage stations to play it," says VP/promotion Lee Leipsner. "And, they should, as it is clearly resonating with their listeners."

Since its release, "Rumour"/"Someone" has received a mere 21 plays among the more than 1,200 stations monitored by Nielsen BDS for the Hot 100.

(The label is concurrently promoting Adele's new single, "Set Fire to the Rain," to pop and adult radio).


IMPROVING GRADES

"Rumour"/"Someone" will easily become the highest-charting song of the third season of "Glee," which has yet to yield a top 40-peaking Hot 100 hit. While the ensemble holds the record for the most charted titles in the Hot 100's 53-year history (164, including 46 visits to the top 40), since the series returned in September it hasn't risen past No. 53, where the cast's cover of Coldplay's "Fix You" peaked the week of Oct. 22; the song debuted on Digital Songs that week with 50,000 downloads, its best weekly sales sum this season.

Leave it to "Glee" Columbia labelmate Adele to reinvigorate the musical comedy's chart fortunes.

Adele ranks at No. 3 on the Hot 100 with "Someone Like You," which led the list for five weeks. ("Rumour" reigned on the adult alternative Triple A radio chart in August amid a 20-week chart run).

Adele boasts the year's top-selling album and digital song in the U.S., according to SoundScan. Her second studio set "21" has shifted 4.4 million, while its lead single "Rolling in the Deep," which topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks, has sold 5.4 million.