MICHAEL Jackson made music history last night by claiming more than a third of the places in the new singles chart.
MICHAEL Jackson made music history last night by claiming more than a third of the places in the new singles chart.
Jackson's songs filled 27 - or 36% - of the spots in the top 75.
Still top of the popsTHE Jackson singles in the Top 20: Man In The Mirror (2), Billie Jean (10), Thriller (12), Smooth Criminal (13) and Beat It (19).Also in the Top 40: Black Or White (25), Dirty Diana (26), They Don't Care About Us (32), Earth Song (33), The Way You Make Me Feel (34), You Are Not Alone (35), Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (38) and Bad (40). Jackson's records in the album Top 40: The Essential Michael Jackson (1), Number Ones (3), King Of Pop (5), Thriller (6), Off The Wall (10), Thriller 25 (18), The Very Best Of Michael Jackson And The Jackson Five (23) and History (33). |
He now has 13 singles in the top 40 - but he is not No 1.
The king of pop also ruled the album chart. He had eight records in the top 40, five in the top 10 and three in the top five, including The Essential Michael Jackson at number one.
Observers of the charts had never seen anything like it. One said: "It's an absolutely amazing tribute to one of the greatest stars of all time."
Jackson's Man In The Mirror was kept off the No1 spot in the singles list by Europop act Cascada.
But the fact that so many of his records made the charts showed how deeply music lovers have been affected by his death.
Fans in Britain started buying up Jackson's back catalogue within hours of his sudden death at the age of 50 on June 25.
And his thousands of fans in the United States were braced for a British invasion ahead of tomorrow's memorial service for the King of Pop in Los Angeles.
More than 1.6 million fans who had registered for tomorrow's service heard last night whether they were among the lucky few to win a ticket for the event.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ.com said: "The British are coming..." amid reports of a surge in airline ticket sales. A British Airways spokeswoman said that while flights from London to Los Angeles for the beginning of this week were "very busy" there were still seats available.
Police and city officials in Los Angeles warned all those without tickets to stay away from the venue, the Staples Centre, and said as many as 700,000 people may try to reach the arena.
Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Jackson's family was planning a "private family function" at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.
A spokesman for the Staples Centre said 8750 names were being chosen in the draw, with each person receiving two tickets and notified by e-mail last night.
Before the ticket drawing, officials of AEG, the owner and operator of the Staples Centre "scrubbed" the entries to eliminate duplicates and any suspected of being made by automated systems, Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said.
Winners will receive a unique code and instructions on how to pick up their tickets at an off-site distribution centre.
