US fans shun Michael Jackson CD

Michael Jackson's latest greatest hits album has sold just 8,000 copies in the US in its first week of release, reaching number 128 in the chart.
The Essential Michael Jackson is the star's first release since he was cleared of child abuse a month ago.

Jackson's two-disc set went straight to number two in the UK - but he failed to match that success in his home country.

The number one US album, multi-artist compilation CD Now 19, sold 436,000 copies in its first week.

Jackson faces a struggle to repair his image and repay debts that prosecutors in his trial claimed amounted to $300m (£170m).

Joe Jackson has been promoting his son's CD

British public relations supremo Max Clifford has revealed he turned down a request to represent the singer after his trial.

"He came to me a month ago and I turned him down," Mr Clifford said.

"It would be the hardest job in PR after Saddam Hussein and I would be astounded if he could turn things around.

"People were extremely offended by even some of the things he admitted in court.

Record sales

"The final judgement is with the record buying public and they have made their verdict clear."

Jackson has sold more than 135 million albums during his career, including 60 million copies of Thriller.

His last original album, Invincible, sold two million copies when it came out in 2001.

The Essential Michael Jackson is the latest in a string of greatest hits packages that has also included HIStory, Number Ones and The Ultimate Collection.

Why are people reporting on the sales of a generic compilation, of which there have been 3-4 just like it released in the last 5 years already?

Michael's current fans are mostly from Europe & Asia. He should do a Kylie and just focus on those areas outside of America.

Ellie said:

The best Michael Jackson collection is the one you can make yourself via mp3.

TonyVanDam said:

I'll stick with my iPod Jacksons playlist consisting if 867 tracks It's the ONLY definitive one

Who even cares about Michael Jackson? The last MJ album I bought was Thriller.

Fans of MJ already own these songs! We have been oversaturated by MJ greatest hits packages! Enough already!

I've been pulling for M.J since the trial.

I honestly did not know this album was out.


If there has been publicity, it's escaped me.


But really, if he wants me to buy a classic collection he needs to put one or too brand news songs on it... release the brand new songs to push the album and release a video for the brand new songs.


I'm not buying the same shit over and over. Not because I'm shunning him, but because it's repetitive and unnecessary.

SynthiaRose said:

His contract is up, it's a GH being put out by Sony alone. Number Ones and The Ultimate Collection were part of a deal and at least had unreleased material on them, but this one is just a generic thing labels put out for all their big artists.

Strangely enough it's being advertised in the UK, despite the generic packaging.

he need to give sly and Macartney thier cataloges back.

Mike is a free agent, since "Number Ones" in 2003. He agreed to release this compilation and gets part of the royalties. It is a Sony-only stunt without any major promotion.

His total album sales last week were around 20.000 copies. Janet shipped 2.000 copies and Madonna 5.000. MJ doesn't have to whine about his sale figures, he is still the most successful artist of the 80s.

We won't hear any news about his music career until 2006.

BlueNote

TheRealFiness said:

Really? Why?

BlueNote

TheRealFiness said:

And why is that?

Oh I forgot. Because some ...blankity blank said so.



[Let's play nice, guys... eh? Thanks - June7]

TheRealFiness said:

Actually, Sly sold his publishing & masters to Michael for advance money.

Michael need to sell at least 66% of the beatles publishing back to Paul & Yoko.

amit1234 said:

Oh! I see. But that doesn't count, right?

BlueNote

amit1234 said:

touchy touchy... at least i support real musicians like sly and macartney

I love Sly Stone just as much as the next guy, however, I don't see what makes him anymore of a musician than MJ.

amit1234 said:

Sorry, amit, the guy is an absolutely incredible musician (ie. instrumentalist), while MJ is not. This is what finess means by "real musician".
[Edited 7/30/05 14:06pm]

Well i was suprised to see him at #128 which is reducilously low by his standards. The same album sold 45k albums in the uk with about 1/5 the population.

No wonder he is moving to germany. I think he can still sell stuff in europe

In this age of itunes the effect of addin one or 2 songs doesnt really help in the album sales

SynthiaRose said:

Let´s wait for an album with NEW songs to see how Mike will do. Those compilations are ridicilous. People already have all those songs.

Whoever wrote this story either doesn't know what the those "Essentail" collections or or indeed does and it just twisting it around. I'm not a huge MJ defender, but this is not a typical greatest hits CD.

VoicesCarry said:

, Sly, along with Paulie and Stevie, was among the first to use overdubbing to enable him to play all or most of the instruments on his songs himself. He rates very high on my ratings for skill, taste and style on guitar, keyboards (particularly organ and piano), bass, drums and harmonica, and considering one of his majors at vallejo junior college was trumpet, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the horn tracks on the Riot-Fresh era were sly as well (there's also speculation as to who exactly played that dixieland clarinet on Dance To The Music ). Plus Sly's a much better songwriter and producer than MJ, and practically every R&B artist of the 70s INCLUDING MJ and Jacksons were either copping or at least building on his sound.

How many MJ greatest hits albums do we need anyway? Brotha's broke

So THIS is supposed to promote something??

CalhounSq said:

He decided to add a bit of nostalgia by citing the Thriller-rap;

The funk of forty thousand dics
of grizzy ghouls that need be sold
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to get a hold
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
a disc without the thrillaaah-ahahahahahaha.

He was quoted saying: "You see, I told Michael that when he was dressed up for the Thriller-video, that he
wouldn't come off credible without mastering his facial expression. I said, do you think you look scary without
the right look on your face? He then practiced this look in the mirror, but made sure to avoid the clock
striking twelve. It looked a bit like this."

doctamario said:

are you reading anyone's post, he did not put out the record, it was sony. u know, since they control the masters right now.

dag said:

it'll flop, he's finished

Its a silly compilation album, which i must stress, MJ KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT! These things will crop up all the time from now on, its not a Michael Jackson album, its a Sony Music compilation CD.

Also can i stress, that its already the most successful Essential album ever. Its sold well in Europe. MJ is not over, he is a global icon and has been successful for 35 years, had hits in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90, 00s, he is the biggest back catalogue seller in the world. Number Ones sold 7million worldwide, 2.1million in the UK alone.

Put that in2 perspective with 2005 where the biggest selling album of the year has sold 5million and the 2nd biggest (Mariah) is currently at 4.5million.

Yes, I was right, he's finished, the biggest fall off ever, the biggest definitely...