Michael Jackson Tops Uk Album Charts As Sales Surge

Michael Jackson returned to the top of the album chart tonight as his death was marked by a surge in sales of his music around the world.

Jackson's Number Ones album, that features many of his biggest hits, reached the top spot and four other albums made it into the top 20.

In total 11 Michael Jackson or Jackson Five albums made it into this week's top 200 and 43 out of the top 200 singles featured the singer.

Music retailers said demand for his music had been overwhelming since his death on Thursday. HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the music store had seen sales rise 80 times over in the 24 hours after Jackson's death – the biggest one day increase for any artist in the store's history.

"There's been huge demand for Michael's recordings over the past few days - so it's really no surprise that Number Ones has gone to the top of the official UK album charts, which pretty much has all his greatest hits on, and is the CD most people have been going for," Castaldo.

"Almost overnight HMV experienced an 80-fold increase in demand for his music – in our stores and online. This is the biggest one-day rise in sales we have seen for any artist - greater even than when Elvis and John Lennon died.

Man in the Mirror re-entered today's charts at number 11, nearly 20 years after its original release and Jackson hits accounted for all but one of the new entries in this week's top 40 singles chart.

Billie Jean got to 25, Smooth Criminal to 28, Beat It reached 30 and Earth Song reached 38. Thriller, still the biggest selling album of all time, moved from 179 to number seven, King of Pop reached 14, Off The Wall got to 17 and The Essential Michael Jackson came in at number 20.

Jackson has also been dominating sales on download sites around the world. Today his songs had topped Apple's iTunes download charts in every country except Japan. And Jackson's 25th anniversary reissue of Thriller was at the top spot on Amazon.com 24 hours after his death and was closely followed by the 1979 album Off the Wall and 1987 album Bad.

His last studio album Invincible, which he released in 2001 came in at number 10.

The online music retailer Play.com sales of Jackson's 10 most popular albums increased by a staggering 7,860 percent.

In the UK HMV said Jackson fans had cleared shelves of his albums in many branches.

"Initially HMV stores were able to respond to this surge in demand, as they had been stocking up for the forthcoming O2 concerts anyway, but by the end of Saturday quite a few had started to run out, and we had to place an urgent order to get more copies in for Monday morning.

"We expect this interest to carry on building well into this week and beyond, so it's possible Michael's music will dominate the official charts in the coming weeks."