In the first full chart week to elapse since his untimely death on January 10 - just two days after his 69th birthday - David Bowie sold a further 198,600 albums and 214,717 singles (including streaming sales), and continues to have a raft of charted titles.
Twenty three Bowie albums are on the Top 200 - down from a record 25 last week - and it is no surprise to find that his latest release, Blackstar, which dropped two days before his death - completes an easy second week at No.1 on sales of 81,403 copies, including 1,117 from streams.
With physical stocks largely replenished, the compilation Best Of Bowie has taken on the mantle of being his top compilation, scorching 18-3, with sales up 295.22% week-on-week at 34,052. It is the album's 299th week in the Top 200, its 83rd week in the Top 75, and its first ever in the Top 10. It previously peaked on debut at No.11 in 2002. A perennial seller, it raises its cumulative sales to 1,171,014.
Bowie's more recent compilation Nothing Has Changed, which was released in 2014, charged 118-5 to reach a new peak last week, and continues to sell well, shifting a further 16,031 copies, but slips back to No.6.
1997 Bowie release The Best Of - 1969/1974, which re-entered at No.11 last week to establish a new peak, suffers most from Best Of Bowie's wider availability, diving to No.41 (2,957 sales).
With three Bowie albums returning to the Top 75 this week, and another three leaving, he equals the record of 16 albums in the Top 75 he set last week. Those not yet mentioned, all regular studio albums are: Hunky Dory (14-12 9,211 sales), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust (17-19, 7,052 sales), Aladdin Sane (23-22, 5,360 sales), The Next Day (25-24, 5,127 sales), Low (31-31, 3,895 sales), Let's Dance (42-35, 3,439 sales), Heroes (45-45, 2,638 sales), Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (61-46, 2,635 sales), The Man Who Sold The World (89-54, 2,214 sales), Diamond Dogs (37-55, 2,214 sales), Space Oddity (95-62, 1,819 sales) and Lodger (114-64, 1,806 sales). Departing from the Top 75 are Station To Station (55-89, 1,467 sales), Young Americans (60-99, 1,261 sales) and The Best Of: 1980/1987 (59-198, 664 sales).
In America, where Blackstar became Bowie's first ever No.1 album last week, it is on schedule to be dethroned by Panic At The Disco!'s fifth studio album, Death Of A Bachelor, which provides the Las Vegas rockers with their third Top 10 album here this week, debuting at No.4 (26,392 sales). That means it sold more than three times as many on its first week as their last studio album, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die, which debuted and peaked at No.10 (7,884 sales) in 2013. Their highest charting album is 2008 set Pretty Odd, which debuted and peaked at No.2 (28,015 sales), being prevented from topping the chart only by Duffy's Rockferry. Panic! At The Disco's 2005 debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, made a much quieter start, making the Top 200 for the first time on its 16th week in the shops, and the Top 40 the following week before reaching its peak position of No.17 a further 12 weeks down the line. It has proved to be a great catalogue seller over the years however, with 357,202 sales to date - significantly more than all their subsequent albums added together.
After 11 straight weeks in the top three, the last five of them at No.2, Elvis Presley & The London Philharmonic Orchestra's If I Can Dream suddenly loses its grip, sliding to No.8 (12,510 sales). The vacant runners-up slot passes to Adele's 25, which enjoys an 11.81% jump in sales week-on-week to 36,937, as second single All I Ask leaps 188-41.
An appearance on the Graham Norton Show, rising radio support for new single Catapult - which makes its Top 200 debut at No. 89 (6,579 sales) - and its availability on iTunes for £4.99 all helped London-based singer/songwriter Jack Savoretti's fourth studio album Written In Scars to re-enter the album chart at No.7 (14,208 sales). It is the first time in the Top 10 for either Savoretti or the album, which debuted at No.13 on release 11 months ago, and improved its peak position to No.12 last July, when the title track was a hit single. Overall sales of Written In Scars, at 97,824, are significantly higher than those of all three of Savoretti's previous albums combined.
The rest of this week's Top 10: Justin Bieber's Purpose (4-5, 25,953 sales), Jess Glynne's I Cry When I Laugh (7-9, 12,396 sales) and James Bay's Chaos And The Calm (6-10, 11,284 sales).
Departing from the Top 10 are Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams (10-11, 9,367 sales), One Direction's Made In The A.M. (9-13, 8,271 sales) and Little Mix's Get Weird (8-14, 8,110 sales).
Multi-national (British/French/Swiss) London folk trio Daughter's second album Not To Disappear debuts at No.17 (7,534 sales) nearly three years after their first album, If You Leave, debuted and peaked at No.16 on sales of 6,750. It has held up well since release, having thus far sold a very healthy 74,489 copies.
Another London-based act to make its debut in 2013 is blues/rock quartet The Temperance Movement, whose eponymous debut opened and peaked at No.12 on sales of 6,509 copies, and has since gone on to sell 31,645 copies. Their follow-up, White Bear, now debuts at No.18 (7,181 sales).
He's charted higher with albums as a member of both Squeeze and Mike & The Mechanics, but 64-year-old Paul Carrack secures his highest charting album in his own right with 15th regular solo set Soul Shadows, which debuts at No.25 (5,091 sales). Making solo albums since 1980, he had his previous highest charting studio album in 2012, when Good Feeling got to No.46, and surpassed that with 2013 compilation, The Best Of, which reached No.35. Carrack is a very popular live act, but the main reason for Soul Shadow's high debut seems to be the self-penned introductory single, Keep On Lovin' You, which leaps 128-27 on the radio airplay chart this week, thanks in no small part to Radio Two, where it was the third most-played song last week with 16 spins.
Curve Of The Earth is the fifth studio album by London indie favourites Mystery Jets. The first four all charted within a small range, with peak positions varying only between No.32 and No.42 - Curve Of The Earth improves slightly on them all, debuting this week at No.30 (3,934 sales).
Classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic from Montenegro has previously charted with The Guitar (No.49, 2011), Latino (No.38, 2012) and Aranjuez (No.53, 2014). Surprisingly, despite guest vocals by Tori Amos (She's Leaving Home) and Gregory Porter (Let It Be), his Beatles covers album Blackbird only debuts at No.47 (2,634 sales).
Also new to the Top 75 this week are US rapper Bryson Tiller's debut album T R A P S O U L (96-57, 1,940 sales), Californian singer/songwriter Elle King's introductory album Love Stuff (151-58, 1,928 sales) and Motorhead compilation The Best Of (195-59, 1,915 sales). Tiller's album was released last September and has spent 15 of the last 18 weeks in the Top 200. King's album first registered sales here as an import last March, was officially released here in September and is on its fifth week in the Top 200, as interest in the single Ex's & Oh's (which also enters the Top 75 this week) grows. The Motorhead album is a 2006 Sanctuary distillation of an identically-titled 2000 album on the related Metal-is label that reached No.52
Glenn Frey's death in the week at the age of 67 has not spurred his band, The Eagles, to the kind of sales that David Bowie's death triggered - but it has had some effect, most visibly with their compilation The Complete Greatest Hits. Released in 2003, it peaked three years later at No.9, revisited that position in 2013, and now re-enters the Top 200 at No.29 (3,993 sales). Their classic 1976 single Hotel California - which Frey co-penned - returns to the singles chart at No.119 (4,931 sales).
On the compilation chart, Acoustic Cafe debuts at No.1 (14,093 sales).
Overall album sales are down 8.35% week-on-week at 1,748,505. Streaming accounted for 473,082 sales - 27.06% of the total. Sales of paid-for albums are down 11.48% week-on-week at 1,275,423 - 0.68% above same week 2015 sales of 1,265,641.
