June 29, 2009

By By Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

Airplay for Michael Jackson's biggest hits, and some of his overlooked gems (including a few dozen spins for some of the Jackson's Christmas songs), blanketed airwaves from coast to coast immediately after his death on Thursday, and continued throughout the weekend.

According to research provided by Nielsen BDS of monitored airplay from over 1,600 terrestrial and satellite radio stations, 143 of Jackson's recordings totaled 67,383 plays for the week ending June 28, up 1,735% from last week's sum of 3,671 plays.

After having just one song, "Rock With You," post more than 500 plays in the week prior to his death, 22 of Jackson's tracks eclipsed 1,000 plays this past week, led by his biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit, "Billie Jean" (4,500 spins). That total places the track at No. 51 among all current or recurrent titles for the week.

Here is a list of the 10 most played Michael Jackson songs for the week of June 22 to June 28.

Rank ? Title - Hot 100 Peak - TW Plays - LW Plays
1) Billie Jean, #1 (7 wks) 1983, 4,540 318
2) Thriller, #4 1984,3,570, 39
3) Rock With You, #1 (4 wks) 1980, 3,546, 526
4) Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough #1 (1 wk) 1979, 3,135, 419
5) P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), #10 1983, 2,986, 291
6) Beat It, #1 (3 wks) 1983, 2,852, 139
7) Man In The Mirror, #1 (2 wks) 1988, 2,827, 27
8) Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', #5 1983, 2,493, 199
9) The Way You Make Me Feel, #1 (1 wk) 1988, 2,387, 171
10) Human Nature, #7 1983, 2,175, 124

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