Michael Jackson on track for more chart records

Sat Jul 4, 2009 9:57am BST

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By Keith Caulfield

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - After a record-breaking chart week, the late Michael Jackson will shake up next week's charts, too.

According to SoundScan's Building Chart data, more than 110,000 Jackson albums were purchased during the first two days of the new tracking week (June 29-30).

"Thriller" was Jackson's top seller in those two days, shifting 44,000 copies, while "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Number Ones" were his second- and third-best sellers.

With those kinds of preliminary numbers already racked up, Jackson may yet again dominate Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Pop Catalogue Albums charts.

After the pop star's June 25 death at age 50, eight Jackson solo releases and a Jackson 5 compilation claimed the top nine positions on the Top Pop Catalogue Album chart for the week ended June 28. Collectively, Jackson's solo albums sold 422,000 during the week -- a jump from 10,000 in the week that ended June 21.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

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