Michael Jackson shatters chart records

By Keith Caulfield

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - As expected, Michael Jackson is once again the King of the Pop charts.

Based on preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, the top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalogue Albums chart will house Jackson-related titles when the tally is released in the early morning on Wednesday. Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week ended at the close of business Sunday (June 28) night.

Jackson himself -- who died June 25 of cardiac arrest at age 50 -- has a record eight out of the top 10, and a Jackson 5 compilation also finds its way into the upper tier.

"Number Ones" will fittingly lead the pack at No. 1 with sales of 108,000 (an increase of 2,340 percent) while "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Thriller" are in the second and third slots with 102,000 and 101,000, respectively. Last week "Number Ones" was the only Jackson title on the chart, at No. 20 with 4,000 copies; both "Essential" and "Thriller" re-enter the tally this week.

Additionally, his classic 1979 studio set "Off the Wall" re-enters at No. 4 with 33,000 while his 1987 album "Bad" returns at No. 6 with 17,000. At No. 5, the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" debuts with 18,000. Jackson's fourth studio album for Epic Records, 1991's "Dangerous," re-enters at No. 7 with 14,000, and his 2001 compilation, "Greatest Hits: HIStory -- Volume 1," returns to the list at No. 8 with 12,000. Finally, Jackson's 2004 box set, "The Ultimate Collection," charts its first week on the Pop Catalogue chart, arriving at No. 9 with 11,000.

The lone non-Jackson-related set in the top 10 is a reissue of the "Woodstock" movie soundtrack, which bows at No. 10 with 8,000.

CHART FIRSTS

Collectively, Jackson's solo albums sold 415,000 this past week. That's extraordinary, given that his titles sold a combined 10,000 in the week ended June 21. Of the 415,000, 58 percent were digital downloads.