POP LP CHART

Two soul albums--Stephanie Mills’ “If I Were Your Woman” (No. 30) and Smokey Robinson’s “One Heartbeat” (No. 35)--are making big waves on the Billboard magazine pop chart. Carly Simon’s “Coming Around Again,” her biggest hit in this decade, has been surging lately, even after 19 weeks on the chart, shooting to No. 38 from No. 49. Super leaps: The “Lost Boys” sound track climbed 47 places to No. 40 and Alexander O’Neal’s “Hearsay” bounded from No. 79 to No. 48. Los Lobos’ cover of Ritchie Valens’ hit “La Bamba” is the new No. 1 pop single. Michael Jackson’s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” is up four notches to No. 6. Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” (No. 8) is racing Jackson’s single to the top. Bet on Houston, who seems to be the hottest artist in the business at the moment.

* Def Leppard’s staunch fans ran out and bought its long-awaited new album, pushing it to No. 9 in its second week on the chart. But insiders predict that mainstream pop fans will buy it too, making the LP an almost certain Top 10 fixture for at least the next two months.

TITLE RANK RANK WEEKS LAST 2 WKS ON WEEK AGO CHART 1. Whitney 1 1 10 Whitney Houston (Arista) 2. Whitesnake 2 3 20 Whitesnake (Warner Bros.) 3. Bigger and Deffer 4 4 11 L.L. Cool J (Columbia) 4. La Bamba 8 17 6 Sound track (Slash) 5. Bad Animals 3 2 12 Heart (Capitol) * Hysteria 36 ---- 2 Def Leppard (Polygram)