Number Ones (Michael Jackson album)

Background

In 2003, Sony released Number Ones, which was different from Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I in several ways. The latter sold over 5 million copies, comprised fifteen singles (fourteen of them Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits): three from Off the Wall, five from Thriller, four from Bad and three from Dangerous. The versions of those songs were included exactly as they appeared on the original albums, whereas Number Ones included radio edits, single versions and new edits. Number Ones also offered singles from the second disc of HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, plus the title track from Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix and "You Rock My World", the hit single from Invincible. The album also included two bonus tracks: "Break of Dawn" (a song from Invincible that Jackson planned to release as a single) and the new, previously unreleased single, "One More Chance", which became his final hit single during his lifetime. The beat-heavy ballad "One More Chance", which was written for Jackson by R. Kelly, was recorded exclusively for this collection. The U.S. release also included another track, a live rendition of "Ben".

The Number Ones title is a bit of a misnomer, as "Thriller" only went to number 1 on the US Dance/Club charts (it did, however, go to number 1 in Belgium and France) and "Smooth Criminal" only went to number 1 in Belgium and Ireland.

There were four covers for the Number Ones album: a shot from the "Bad" music video, a shot from the "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" music video, one where he is suspended on his toes while performing his song "Billie Jean", and the final cover shows him holding his signature fedora, in the midst of a kick (from the music video of "Black or White").

2009

Number Ones had already sold 1,825,000 copies in the US the week before Jackson died. Following Jackson's death, the album sold 108,000 units in the US on the chart week ending July 1, 2009 and was the biggest-selling album of the week, though only one quarter of Jackson's entire US album sales recorded that week, shifting just under 425,000 albums and 2.6 million digital singles (more than 50 times of all the combined digital single sales of the previous week and making Jackson the first artist to sell more than one million downloads in one week). The following week it remained the biggest selling album shifting its largest one-week sales since being release in 2003 with 350,000 copies sold, as Jackson's overall album sales tally swelled to 1.1 million for the week. Number Ones was 2009's third biggest-selling album according to SoundScan, behind Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream and Taylor Swift's Fearless. Although the best selling album for three weeks in a row, the record was not allowed to chart on the Billboard 200 due to (now defunct) rules, but entered the Comprehensive Chart at number 1 where it remained for six weeks. Number Ones was the best-selling album in the United States for six consecutive weeks amassing sales of 2.36 million by the end of 2009. The Billboard Catalog chart also allowed Number Ones to chart, where it led Jackson in occupying the entire top 12 positions on the chart. Number Ones has topped Top Catalog Albums Chart several times; most recently for three consecutive weeks in May and June 2014. As of November 8, 2014, the album has sold 5,106,357 copies in the US.

In the UK, Ireland and Canada the album re-entered the UK charts at number 1 the week following Jackson's death.

In New Zealand, Number Ones re-entered the chart following Jackson's death at number 38, climbing to number 4 the following week. It then reached number 1 the next week; the album was also certified 4x Platinum, shipping over 60,000 copies.

Track listing

The songs included on each international version and format are summarised below, sortable using the position within an edition.