Below I’ve included each of the nine Michael Jackson albums (and two Jackson 5 albums) that were among the top 100 sellers in the US last week and it’s rank. Amazingly he had the top three selling albums in the United State simultaneously. I don’t know when the last time that happened was (if it ever has?)

Five of his six studio albums reached the top 100 (with four of them in the top 34.) The only that did not was his most recent album, 2001’s Invincible but it did make it to #20 on the “Pop Catalog” charts (only albums which have been excluded from the Billboard 200.) MJ had 13 of the 20 on that list (the 11 below plus another Jackson 5 greatest hits disc and Invincible.) He also had the top 9 slots.

#1 Number Ones

#2 The Essential Michael Jackson

#3 Thriller

#15 Off the Wall

#25 Jackson 5 - The Ultimate Collection

#27 Bad

#34 Dangerous

#39 Greatest Hits: HIStory Vol. 1

#41 The Ultimate Collection

#67 Jackson 5 - The Best of the Jackson 5

#85 HIStory: Past, Present, & Future Book 1

This impressive showing is even more impressive when you consider that a lot of stores only had limited copies on hand (which is why a great many of these sales were digital downloads) and that this rush of album sales only happened after Jackson’s death on Thursday (The album charts are Monday through Sunday.)

Note: The Billboard “comprehensive album chart” is actually the real chart of best selling albums because the Billboard 200 album removes any albums from the list that are older than 18 months (and have fallen out of the top 100 at some point.) Because of this I will avoid looking at the Billboard 200 chart as it’s clearly designed to promote new music instead of getting across the actual information on best selling albums.

For example, The Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. is listed as the #1 album on the Billboard 200 but it was actually the 4th best selling of the week (after the top three Michael Jackson albums.)

Apparently this is the first time ever that the #1 album on the Billboard 200 wasn’t actually the top selling album that week since this rule to exclude older albums was first introduced in 1991. I think having the #1 album actually being the 4th best selling album of the week makes clear the stupidity of this rule. The UK album charts have no such rule and Number Ones reached #1 there.

Billboard, Michael Jackson

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