Nice try, Rod - but even a bumper album of Christmas crooners with Mary J Blige and Michael Buble won’t be enough to beat One Direction this year.
The boy band pin-ups are on target to achieve the fastest-selling album of the year with Take Me Home, which went on sale on Monday and had already sold 94,000 copies by Wednesday - beating the 67-year-old Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby by three to one.
The quintet's album is on track to beat Mumford And Sons to the fastest-seller title by selling 5,000 more copies than the folk-rock band did at this stage with Babel.
One Direction, who this week announced they were working on a 3D movie, will need to shift more than 158,000 copies by the end of the week to be 2012's fastest mover.
Their debut album Up All Night was beaten to the top of the chart by Rihanna’s Talk That Talk in December, but this year's nearest contender Stewart seems unlikely to be threat.
The latest Rolling Stones greatest hits package, Grrr!, is set for number three, according to midweek sales figures from the Official Charts Company.
Green Day are on course for number four with current chart-topper Robbie Williams expected to slide to number five with his release Take The Crown.
Bruno Mars's Locked Out Of Heaven and Little Mix's DNA are battling to top the singles chart on Sunday.
Newcomer Gabrielle Aplin has shot to number five with her cover of The Power Of Love, which was featured in the John Lewis Christmas ad campaign.
