In death, Jackson rises to top of charts again

Pop star setting records on Billboard as fans snatch up old catalog of music

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King of Pop dances back to the top
July 1: Michael Jackson's death has sparked sales of his albums, giving him the top three spots on Billboard's chart. Mark Barger reports.

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updated 12:45 p.m. ET July 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES - The "King of Pop" returned to the top of the music charts this week.

Sales of Michael Jackson’s music shot up drastically after his death last Thursday, and on Wednesday, Billboard reported that Jackson sold over 415,000 copies of his albums this week, including “Thriller” and “Off The Wall.”

Two greatest hits compilations, “Number Ones” and “The Essential Michael Jackson,” topped the charts with sales of 108,000 and 102,000, respectively, with “Thriller” following closely with 101,000 copies.

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The albums will not appear in the Billboard 200 chart due to their status as catalog releases — albums more than 18 months old that have fallen off the top half of the Billboard 200 chart. But on the Top Comprehensive Albums tally, Jackson’s top three albums take the top three spots, with the Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.” following at No. 4 with over 88,000 copies.

Jackson's impressive numbers set a few chart records — it’s the first time a catalog release (much less three of them) has outsold a Billboard 200 No. 1, and he set records for the Hot Digital Songs chart with 25 songs charting and the Digital Albums chart, where he notched six of the top 10 spots.

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Michael Jackson: 1958 - 2009
Click to see pictures from the highs and lows of Michael Jackson's career.
And Jackson also holds a staggering nine out of the top 10 spots on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.

By contrast, Jackson sold 10,000 total of his releases in the previous week – and a grand total of 297,000 through 2009 thus far, a number eclipsed by this week’s sales.

In the wake of his death on Thursday, fans flocked to stores such as Amazon.com and iTunes to purchase the singer’s music, driving his past hits back up the charts.