Official New Zealand Music Chart 06 July 2009

Please find attached the Official New Zealand Music Chart for your information.

"The Official New Zealand Top 40 premieres Saturday nights at 7:30pm on C4"

chart1676.pdf

Chartbitz:
Wednesday, July 8 2009
by Andrew Miller

Larger Than In Life
Michael Joseph Jackson is proving to be even larger in death than in life as he returns to the top of the Album Chart, sets a new chart record this week and lands his second #1 DVD in as many weeks.

He can now claim the longest gap between initially topping the chart and regaining the throne. Thriller first hit the top here 26 years ago in May 1983. It spent 11 non-consecutive weeks in the pole position and now in the first full week since his passing it leaps 13 places to dislodge Fat Freddy’s Drop and gain #1.

This gives Thriller a combined 12-week chart topping run and 94 weeks on the chart in all.

Jacko also replaces himself at #1 on the DVD list. Gaining his first chart-topping DVD posthumously with the 2DVD set HIStory | HIStory On Film last week, he replaces himself with Number Ones this week. In fact, he holds out the Top 3 on that list.

As well as topping the long-player survey, he has three Top10 entries, King Of Pop is up to #16 and he lands a brand new entry at #27 with a higher-priced collection Visionary: Box Set.

Singleswise he is still to regain a Top 10 placing, however that might just be a matter of time. Man In The Mirror is just a whisker away, rising to #11, while a full 25% of this week’s Top40 is made up by Jackson tunes. Joining the Top40 this week are They Don’t Care About Us at #20, former #1 You Are Not Alone at #22 and Smooth Criminal at #37.

Overall unit sales of Jackson product here, digital or physical, CD or DVD is up 70% from last week. This places him ahead of Elvis, Lennon or Queen’s Freddie Mercury saleswise in a similar timeframe post-death. Of course, the difference this time is digital music sales. Jackson is the first major league artist to pass away in a Digital Age when the entire back catalogue is but a mouse click away.

The New Single
#35 Sarah McLachlan - Angel
On the strength of recent TV exposure via Stars In Their Eyes a 12-year old track originally on Sarah McLachlan’s platinum-selling Surfacing album (#26 in 1997) is the sole ‘new’ entry at #35 this week. It gives the 41 year-old Canadian her first ever hit single here with a song written about the death of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.

The New Albums
#17 Rob Thomas - Cradlesong
Five years and two months back Matchbox Twenty lead vocalist Rob Thomas charted his debut solo Something To Be, reaching #14. This week his sophomore, Cradlesong, lands at #17 featuring Her Diamonds, currently #11 on the RadioScope100.

#20 Black Sabbath - Greatest Hits
Birmingham-formed vintage metallers Black Sabbath, who featured Ozzy Osbourne until 1979, notch up their ninth chart album and first in nine years with their third compilation. Greatest Hits lands at #20 and out-peaks all previous efforts bar 1991’s #5 Back Trackin’ during their now 33 year, nine month New Zealand chart career.

#26 Wilco - Wilco: The Album
It’s the Wilco New Zealand album. Recorded at Piha and Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studio in January during their time here for the 7 Worlds Collide gigs, the Illinois-formed band, land their highest-charter out-of-the-box at #26. Wilco: The Album is also their third to chart here.

#27 Michael Jackson - Visionary: Box Set
See story above.

#33 The Mars Volta - Octahedron
The Mars Volta is very consistent. All three previous chart albums have charted two weeks. The Texan quintet’s Octahedron, new at #33, brings their tally to four.

#38 Regina Spektor - Far
Twenty-nine-year-old Soviet-born New Yorker Regina Spektor’s Far arrives at #38. It follows her debut Begin To Hope which went Top10 just over two years ago.

#40 Moby - Wait For Me
Native New Yorker Richard Hall took nine months to make #1 with his New Zealand chart debut set Play at the turn of the century. It became the third bestseller of 2000. It was always going to be hard to top that record but Moby returned to the summit with follow-up 18 in 2002 and this his sixth studio album Wait For Me anchors the list fresh at #40.

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