MICHAEL JACKSON CHART WATCH

Just over a week after the death of Michael Jackson and his singles and albums are dominating the Australian charts this week, with the top three albums all his and four of the top ten singles spaces also belonging to MJ. He's breaking records with some of his chart success, with 14 songs inside the top 40 singles chart, 15 places inside the digital top 40, seven music DVDs within the DVD music chart top 20 and with the singer occupying the top three on the ARIA albums chart, he becomes the first singer in history to do so. In just one week of sales combined, he notched up an incredible 109,318 sales of his singles within the ARIA top 100. His top ten album sales this week alone have notched up almost 50,000 copies.
SINGLES : On the singles chart, Michael's mega-hit 'Thriller' debuts in the No.3 position, beating it's original 1984 peak of No.4. It sold 11,845 copies in the last week to be held off the No.1 spot on the ARIA singles chart by only the Black Eyed Peas (No.1) and Lady Gaga (No.2). Elsewhere in the top ten, debuts at No.6 for 'Black Or White' (8720 copies), No.7 for 'Billie Jean' (7533 copies) and 'Man In The Mirror' (6981 copies). But Michael's dominance of the singles chart didn't stop there. From places 11 - 20, there were a further four MJ tracks, placing at No.13 was 'The Way You Make Me Feel' (5756 copies), at No.14 was 'Ben' (5213 copies), 'Smooth Criminal' made it to No.16 (4966 copies) and 'Beat It' to No.17 (4907 copies). Success continued outside the top 20, with another four Michael tracks between 21 and 30; 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough' at No.21 (4498 copies) and 'You Are Not Alone' at No.22 (4315 copies). Plus 'Bad' at No.27 (3658 copies) and 'Heal The World' at No.30 (3467 sales) makes it 12 tracks inside the top 30. Positions 36 and 40 also belong to Jackson, with 'Rock With You' (No.36 - 2945 copies) and No.40 'Remember The Time' (2795 copies) respectively. Continuing down the list and there are re-emergences for 'Can You Feel It' at No.41 (2647 sales), 'ABC' at No.43 (2561), 'Blame It On The Boogie' at No. 44 (2393 sales) and 'They Don't Care About Us' at No.45 (2389 sales). There was more chart success at Nos.52 and 53 with 'I Want You Back' (1984 copies) and 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (1980 copies) respectively, while between No.61 and No.70 there were a further three re-entries. No.63 was 'Give In To Me' (1683 copies), No.64 was 'Dirty Diana' (1631 copies) and No.65 was 'You Rock My World' (1611 sales). But it didn't stop. It kept on coming.... No.70 'Will You Be There' (1446), No.71 'Scream' (1375), No.77 'Earth Song' (1321 sales), No.80 'Thriller Megamix' (1183 copies), No.84 'I'll Be There' (1040), No.86 'Human Nature' (1007), No.88 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' (988). There was No.93 'The Girl Is Mine' (934 copies), while positions No.95, 96, 97 and 98 all belonged to MJ, with 'Stranger In Moscow' (906), 'Off The Wall' (892), 'She's Out Of My Life' (887) and 'PYT' (861) rounding out his extraordinary dominance of the ARIA top 100 singles chart. 35% of this week's Australian top 100 belongs posthumously to the King Of Pop.
ALBUMS : With 35 places of the top 100 on the singles chart belonging to MJ this week, it comes as no surprise to find a staggering 15 of his albums (solo or otherwise) occupying the top 100 this week, including the top three. It's the first time in Australian chart history that a single act has occupied the top three positions. Even more staggering is that it came on the back of a week in which Michael Jackson album stock was sparse, as Sony Music's Australian warehouse struggled to cope with the unprecedented demand. So let's do a listing to make it easier for you to see where Michael's albums came into the equation;
No.01 : The Essential (19,360 copies)
No.02 : #1s (12,394 copies)
No.03 : Thriller (10,651 copies)
No.07 : King Of Pop (7300 copies)
No.19 : Off The Wall (2729 copies)
No.24 : Dangerous (2137 copies)
No.28 : Bad (1957 copies)
No.48 : HIStory (1103 copies)
No.55 : Invincible (908 copies)
No.60 : The Very Best Of With The Jacksons (779 copies)
No.66 : Can You Feel It - The Jacksons Collection (653 copies)
No.78 : The Essential Jacksons (560 copies)
No.79 : The Very Best Of The Jacksons And The Jackson 5 (557 copies)
No.87 : Bad/Dangerous (502 copies)
No.99 : Gold (The Jacksons) (425 copies)

Success also came over on the top 20 Music DVD charts;
No.01 : #1s
No.02 : Live In Bucharest - The Dangerous Tour
No.05 : Video Greatest Hits - History / History On Film Vol.2
No.06 : Video Greatest Hits - History
No.08 : Dangerous - The Short Films
No.10 : History On Film Vol.2
No.18 : The One

OFFICIAL ARIA CHARTS