Jackson death 'sparks historic sales rise'

A major music retailer has revealed that it experienced its biggest ever one-day rise in sales of any artist following the death of Michael Jackson.

HMV reported the figures after Jackson's Number Ones compilation topped the UK albums chart and 20 of the star's singles re-entered the top 75.

Spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: "There's been huge demand for Michael's recordings over the past few days - so it's really no surprise that Number Ones has gone to the top of the official UK album charts, which pretty much has all his greatest hits on, and is the CD most people have been going for.

"Almost overnight, HMV experienced an 80-fold increase in demand for his music - in our stores and online. This is the biggest one-day rise in sales we have seen for any artist - greater even than when Elvis and John Lennon died."

Within hours of Jackson's death being reported, the singer's LPs occupied all 15 slots on the best-selling albums ranking from online retailer Amazon.