June 29, 2009

By By Andre Paine, London

Michael Jackson's greatest hits set "Number Ones" (Epic) has entered the U.K. albums chart at No. 1, while four other albums made an appearance in the top 20.

The Official Charts Co said that Jackson sold more than 300,000 units, across singles and albums, in two days.

"Number Ones" moved 46,000 copies last week, the vast majority following his death, which was confirmed late on Thursday evening (June 25) in the U.K. "Thriller" is at No. 7, while the 25th anniversary edition of that set makes an appearance at No. 45.

Other new entries in the top 75 include the compilation "King of Pop" (No. 14), "Off the Wall" (No. 17), "The Essential" (No. 20) and "Bad" (No. 59).

In the singles chart, 43 out of the top 200 singles featured Michael Jackson, although there was not an entry in the top 10. "Man in the Mirror" was the highest-charting track, at No. 11.

Further down the chart, "Thriller" entered at No. 23, "Billie Jean" at No. 25, "Smooth Criminal" at No. 28, "Beat It" at No. 30 and "Earth Song" at No. 38.

U.K. entertainment retailer HMV described the response from fans to Jackson's death as "phenomenal" and confirmed that physical product was a priority for many buying his music. Jackson CD sales were also boosted by sale pricing - "Number Ones" was priced just ?4 ($6.60) at HMV, while "Off the Wall" and Thriller" were part of the '2 for ?10' [$16.50] campaign.

"Our hmv.com online store started taking orders pretty much straight away, and by the Friday morning all its warehouse stock had been accounted for," said HMV in a statement.

"Our 270 stores across the U.K. and Ireland actually had relatively high levels of stock - partly in anticipation of the O2 concerts, but also because some of Michael's catalog was featured in our sale and campaign activity, but by end of play Saturday much of this has been sold through. Stores are only now being restocked. We've calculated that in jut 24 hours consumer demand for Michael's albums at HMV increased 80-fold - the biggest one-day rise for any artist that we've ever seen."

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