PLACE AND SHOW

While Morissette’s “Pill” heads for the winner’s circle, “The Score” is losing ground in its battle for second place with Celine Dion’s fast-charging “Falling Into You.”

The Dion collection, which has sold 4.1 million copies since its release in March, has outsold the Fugees’ record by more than 600,000 copies during the last two months as it builds momentum going into the lucrative holiday record-buying season.

“The astounding thing is--and I get this comment from people all the time--it feels like it’s just starting,” says Polly Anthony, president of Dion’s record label, 550 Music. “We are only now on our second single, and we’re only in the middle of that single in terms of its [shelf] life.”

Dion’s fourth English-language album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard chart in March after the first single, “Because You Loved Me,” was used as the theme for the Michelle Pfeiffer-Robert Redford movie “Up Close & Personal.”

It got another major boost in July when the French-Canadian singer performed during the opening ceremonies at the Atlanta Olympics, even though the song, “Power of the Dream,” is not on the album.

With sales sparked again by the release of a second single from the album, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” “Falling Into You” hasn’t been lower than No. 4 on the chart since late July, topping the list three of the last five weeks.

“I don’t want to predict in print what it’s going to sell, but it’s going to sell a lot,” says Anthony, anticipating strong interest in the record through the end of the year and well into 1997. “There aren’t a lot of artists who over a decade will sell the kinds of numbers she’s going to sell on this album alone.

“It’s her turn. She has always been acknowledged by her peers as having one of the truly great voices in the world. Now the public has figured that out too.”

The mainstream also discovered the New Jersey rap trio Fugees this year, making “The Score” a No. 1 album and the collection’s showcase cut, “Killing Me Softly,” a radio staple all through the spring and summer.

“It was the right record at the right time,” Alan Light, editor in chief at Vibe magazine, says of “The Score,” whose positive messages stand in sharp contrast to the gangsta rap that has dominated hip-hop in the last few years. “But mostly it’s a really strong pop record--the hooks were really strong and the melodies were well done. And Lauryn [Hill] is a natural star.”