Posted August 31, 200816 yr ** See new information lower down this thread ** Yesterday, The Music Factory TV channel broadcast a top 40 of the best selling UK singles released by The Jackson 5/The Jacksons/Michael Jackson to celebrate Michael Jackson’s 50th birthday. The positions were calculated by The Official Charts Company. The Jackson 5/The Jacksons/Michael Jackson OCC All Time UK Top 40 The Music Factory TV 30th August 2008 [The Official Chart Company positions based on sales to celebrate 50th birthday] (Position/Title/Year) 1 Earth Song 1995 2 Billie Jean 1983 3 You Are Not Alone 1995 4 Black Or White 1991 5 Heal The World 1992 6 I Want You Back (The Jackson 5) 1969 7 Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough 1979 8 Say Say Say (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson) 1983 9 Show You The Way To Go (The Jacksons) 1977 10 Beat It 1983 11 She’s Out Of My Life 1980 12 Blame It On The Boogie (The Jacksons) 1978 13 The Way You Make Me Feel 1987 14 Leave Me Alone 1989 15 Bad 1987 16 Remember The Time / Come Together 1992 17 Can You Feel It (The Jacksons) 1980 18 They Don’t Care About Us 1996 19 ABC (The Jackson 5) 1970 20 Smooth Criminal 1988 21 You Rock My World 2001 22 Scream (Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson) 1995 23 Rock With You 1980 24 Give In To Me 1993 25 Blood On The Dance Floor 1997 26 Stranger In Moscow 1996 27 Why (3T feat. Michael Jackson) 1996 28 Dirty Diana 1988 29 History / Ghosts 1997 30 Thriller 1983 31 In The Closet 1992 32 Will You Be There 1993 33 Ben 1972 34 Who Is It? 1992 35 Jam 1992 36 Another Part Of Me 1988 37 Liberian Girl 1989 38 Man In The Mirror 1988 39 One More Chance 2003 40 Cry 2001 There are two very noticeable omissions, namely: One Day In Your Life (1981) was for many years Jackson’s biggest seller in UK. By the end of the 1980s it had sold over 730,000 copies. It should be at number 2 in the above chart. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett) (1987) was the 30th best seller of 1988, with 299,000 copies as reported at the time. This places it in the top 15 above. Edited June 30, 200916 yr by SimonW
August 31, 200816 yr There are two very noticeable omissions, namely: One Day In Your Life (1981) was for many years Jackson’s biggest seller in UK. By the end of the 1980s it had sold over 730,000 copies. It should be at number 2 in the above chart. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett) (1987) was the 30th best seller of 1988, with 299,000 copies as reported at the time. This places it in the top 15 above. Yes but neither of those two songs had promo videos, and hence why they were probably excluded from the countdown. A bit like when a similar countdown was done for the Best Selling Acts of All-Time in the UK, and the Beatles were excluded from the countdown as they would not licence any of their promo films (videos) to the cable channel (VH1).
August 31, 200816 yr Ah, so the list is really 'MJ's Top 40 Best Selling Songs Of All Time We Could Get The License To Show The Videos For'. Not quite as snappy a title :D
September 2, 200816 yr http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77567 linking this thread topic to this week's sales thread, some Michael Jackson sales have been posted
September 5, 200816 yr There are two very noticeable omissions, namely: One Day In Your Life (1981) was for many years Jackson’s biggest seller in UK. By the end of the 1980s it had sold over 730,000 copies. It should be at number 2 in the above chart. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett) (1987) was the 30th best seller of 1988, with 299,000 copies as reported at the time. This places it in the top 15 above. I would have thought "Farewell My Summer Love" would have been somewhere in the top 40 as well. -- Richard
June 29, 200916 yr Author On BBC Radio 2 on 29th December 2008, a programme was broadcast to celebrate Michael Jackson's 50th year, called Michael Jackson: 30 at 50 The Top 30 best selling MJ UK solo singles, using information provided by the Official Charts Company, was: 1 Earth Song 1995 2 One Day In Your Life 1981 3 Billie Jean 1983 4 You Are Not Alone 1995 5 Black Or White 1991 6 Heal The World 1992 7 Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough 1979 8 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson 1983 9 Beat It 1983 10 She’s Out Of My Life 1980 11 I Just Can’t Stop Loving You - Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett 1987 12 The Way You Make Me Feel 1987 13 Leave Me Alone 1989 14 Bad 1987 15 Remember The Time / Come Together 1992 16 Rockin’ Robin 1972 17 They Don’t Care About Us 1996 18 Smooth Criminal 1988 19 Off The Wall 1979 20 You Rock My World 2001 21 Scream - Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson 1995 22 Thriller 1983 23 Rock With You 1980 24 Give In To Me 1993 25 The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney 1982 26 Blood On The Dance Floor 1997 27 Stranger In Moscow 1996 28 Farewell My Summer Love 1984 29 Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 1983 30 Dirty Diana 1988 Edited June 29, 200916 yr by SimonW
June 29, 200916 yr Author Here is an amalgamation of the Top 40 and Top 30. The positions were calculated by the Official Charts Company. I have added in some sales estimates (rounded to nearest 5,000). I have taken figures where available from year end charts, Record Mirror, Music Week and the Guardian, with some guestimates. Top 47 UK Selling Singles by Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5/The Jacksons (to December 2008): 1 Earth Song 1995 1,075,000 2 One Day In Your Life 1981 795,000 3 Billie Jean 1983 750,000 4 You Are Not Alone 1995 585,000 5 Black Or White 1991 530,000 6 Heal The World 1992 480,000 7 I Want You Back The Jackson 5 1970 475,000 8 Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough 1979 470,000 9 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson 1983 435,000 10 Show You The Way To Go - The Jacksons 1977 380,000 11 Beat It 1983 360,000 12 She’s Out Of My Life 1980 320,000 13 I Just Can’t Stop Loving You - Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett 1987 300,000 14 Blame It On The Boogie - The Jacksons 1978 280,000 15 The Way You Make Me Feel 1987 275,000 16 Leave Me Alone 1989 250,000 17 Bad 1987 240,000 18 Remember The Time / Come Together 1992 235,000 19 Can You Feel It - The Jacksons 1980 235,000 20 Rockin’ Robin 1972 230,000 21 They Don’t Care About Us 1996 230,000 22 ABC The Jackson 5 1970 220,000 23 Smooth Criminal 1988 210,000 24 Off The Wall 1979 200,000 25 You Rock My World 2001 195,000 26 Scream - Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson 1995 190,000 27 Thriller 1983 190,000 28 Rock With You 1980 190,000 29 Give In To Me 1993 190,000 30 The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney 1982 185,000 31 Blood On The Dance Floor 1997 185,000 32 Stranger In Moscow 1996 175,000 33 Why - 3T feat. Michael Jackson 1996 175,000 34 Farewell My Summer Love 1984 175,000 35 Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 1983 170,000 36 Dirty Diana 1988 170,000 37 History / Ghosts 1997 160,000 38 In The Closet 1992 150,000 39 Will You Be There 1993 145,000 40 Ben 1972 135,000 41 Who Is It? 1992 125,000 42 Jam 1992 115,000 43 Another Part Of Me 1988 105,000 44 Liberian Girl 1989 100,000 45 Man In The Mirror 1988 90,000 46 One More Chance 2003 85,000 47 Cry 2001 85,000 The Guardian reported on 26th June 2009 that MJ's top 5 UK singles, according to the Official Charts Company, were: 1. EARTH SONG 1,000,000. 2. ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE 800,000. 3. BILLIE JEAN 760,000. 4. YOU ARE NOT ALONE 590,000. 5. BLACK OR WHITE 530,000. The link is: guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jun/26/michaeljackson One can download an Excel file, which includes all chart positions for singles and albums, and top 5 sales for the latter as well: 1. THRILLER 3,900,000. [this total includes Thriller 25]. 2. BAD 3,600,000. 3. DANGEROUS 2,200,000. 4. NUMBER ONES 1,600,000. 5. HISTORY - PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE BOOK 1 1,500,000. Edited June 29, 200916 yr by SimonW
June 30, 200916 yr Alan Jones in Music Week 04/07/2009 has the following (sales to 27/06/2009) Earth Song 1,092,596 One Day In Your Life 801,823 Billie Jean 752,766 You Are Not Alone 587,722 These figures are very close to what Simon has estimated. No others above 500,000 but Don't Stop Till You Get Enough is on 494,675 and is expected to reach 500,000 thiw week.
June 30, 200916 yr ** See new information lower down this thread ** There are two very noticeable omissions, namely: One Day In Your Life (1981) was for many years Jackson’s biggest seller in UK. By the end of the 1980s it had sold over 730,000 copies. It should be at number 2 in the above chart. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett) (1987) was the 30th best seller of 1988, with 299,000 copies as reported at the time. This places it in the top 15 above. Another omission is Farewell My Summer Love which peaked at #7 in 1984 with a 12 week run. Probably this is also due to no promo video. One Day In Your Life was the same but they were both Motown recordings which means they were earlier recordings as the last MJ recording for Motown was in 1973. Also earlier Motown recordings without videos but released as singles in the 80s were: We're Almost There #46 in 1981 Happy #52 in 1983 Girl You're So Together #33 in 1984
June 30, 200916 yr Author My subsequent post #18, which amalgamates two separate OCC charts, includes One Day In Your Life (1981), I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett) (1987) and Farewell My Summer Love (1984).
June 30, 200916 yr Great seeing all this info and thanks for the post what a shame man in the mirror is so low but hopefully its current run will help push it up the list a bit
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