US CHart analysis

In the first full week since his death, Michael Jackson sold upwards of 800,000 albums in America and again fills three of the top five slots in the comprehensive albums chart.

For the second week in a row, Number Ones tops the list, on sales of 339,000, with Thriller in second place on sales of 187,000. Albums by Jackson solo and with his brothers fill all of the Top 10 places on the catalogue chart, earning the late legend yet another chart first.

The biggest-selling current album – and thus number one on the Top 200 – is Now That’s What I Call Music! 31, which dashed to first-week sales of 169,000 thanks to a stellar track list, which includes Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow, Flo-Rida’s Right Round and Lady GaGa’s Poker Face.

It’s the 14th number one album in the series, and opens higher than Now! 30 did three months ago.

Five other albums debut inside the Top 10: Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night debuts at number two on sales of 130,000. It’s the country superstar’s fifth straight Top 10 album, and equals his highest placing on the Top 200, as well as providing his fifth straight number one on the country chart.

Former Matchbox 20 vocalist Rob Thomas debuts at number three with his second solo album, Cradlesong, on sales of 122,000, falling short of the number one debut of his introductory solo album, 2005’s Something To Be.

Wilco (The Album) is Wilco’s 10th album since their 1995 debut, and debuts at number four on sales of 99,000 copies, equalling the entry/peak position of their previous highest charting set, 2007’s Sky Blue Sky.

R&B newcomer Jeremih debuts at number six with his self-titled debut album, on sales of 59,000, following the number four success of debut single, Birthday Sex.

Hard rockers Killswitch Engage’s second eponymous album - and fifth album in all - debuts at number seven (58,000 sales) to provide their first Top 10 success, and comprehensively beats their first self-titled set, which failed to chart at all following its release in 2000.

George Harrison is the highest placed of just four British acts in the top half of the chart, all of whom are in decline. Harrison’s compilation Let It Roll dips 41-66, while Adele’s 19 slips 61-70, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends ebbs 78-86, and the Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood concert recording Live From Madison Square declines 68-98.

After a six week gap, there is, once again, a British presence on the Hot 100 singles chart. Our profile has been lacking since That’s Not My Name by The Ting Tings fell off the list at the start of June – but the same record re-enters the chart this week at number 45, beating, at a stroke, its previous peak of number 53.

If a track has been on the Hot 100 for 20 weeks but doesn’t have enough points from sales and airplay to feature in the Top 50 portion of that list it is removed from the chart and dubbed ‘recurrent’. That fate befell That’s My Name at the start of last month.

Ironically, That’s Not My Name rose as high as number 30 on the digital sales list while absent from the Hot 100 but was let down by airplay. Since then, its sales have dipped, and it has fallen from the Top 50 digital sales list. However, its fall in sales points has been more than compensated for by its fast growing airplay profile, and it earned enough chart points (a combination of sales, airplay and internet streaming) to make the Top 50 – and thus lose its ‘recurrent’ status and return to the chart this week.

At the top of the chart, Black Eyed Peas continue to dominate, taking the number one slot for the 14th week in a row. I Gotta Feeling, the second single from their current album The E.N.D., completes a second week at the summit, while Boom Boom Pow – which occupied the top berth for 12 weeks – holds at number two in an unchanged top five.