When you put the cd in and iTunes reads it, make sure all the song information is the same as what you want to replace. Begin importing and iTunes will ask if you'd like to replace the song, click yes. Playcounts, etc. will be saved. And the bitrate will be higher. I found this out when I was re-importing, at the time, i didn't care too much, i just wanted higher bit rates, but keeping the metadata was a plus.