Xscape chart positions. (incl. singles)

The Black Keys were unprofessional and maybe someone told them that. There is nothing wrong with wanting your album to do well and be #1. But the way they acted they should be embarrassed. It was disrespectful to Michael and to all the people who worked on the album. As much as I didn't like it I hope no one ever does that to them. It's not right.
 
OnirMJ;4015963 said:
Xscape Peak Chart Positions (Update)

Australian Albums (ARIA) #2
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) #2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) #1
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) #1
Canadian Albums (Billboard) #3
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI) #5
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) #1
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts) #2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) #5
French Albums (SNEP) #1
German Albums (Media Control) #2
Greek Albums (IFPI) #6
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) #7
Irish Albums (IRMA) #4
Italian Albums (FIMI) #2
Japanese Albums (Oricon) #4
New Zealand Albums (Recorded Music NZ) #3
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) #2
Polish Albums (ZPAV) #4
Portuguese Albums (AFP) #3
Russian Albums (2M) #1
Scottish Albums (OCC) #3
South Korea Albums (Gaon Chart) #6/#9
South Korea Foreign Albums (Gaon Chart) #1/#4
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) #1
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) #3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) #2
Taiwanese Albums (G-Music) #3
Taiwanese Western Albums (G-Music) #1
UK Albums (OCC) #1
US Billboard 200 #2
US R&B/Hip Hop Albums (Billboard) #1

What happened with South Korea and Hungary?. Wasn't it Hungary that had the Michael stamps? I thought there would be more fans there. Anyway it is still in the top 10.

Onir what do I press to select LNFSG. I clicked on the line with the song to select it but nothing happened.
 
More good news. These figures make me more eager to help this album do better. I hope the figures are motivating others as well. It is so good to see Micahel's name up there in 2014. I wonder if he will get some award for having the strongest posthumous album ever or some such title?
 
What happened with South Korea and Hungary?. Wasn't it Hungary that had the Michael stamps? I thought there would be more fans there. Anyway it is still in the top 10.

It is very good for South Korea because there they counted Deluxe and Standard version separately: South Korea Albums (Gaon Chart) #6 - Deluxe /#9 - Standard. And that is their combined chart. Meaning all 5 entries before Michael were local artists. If they counted Deluxe and Standard together MJ would be even higher, maybe #1.

On the foreign chart Michael is #1 there. South Korea Foreign Albums (Gaon Chart) #1 - Deluxe Edition /#4 - Standard Edition. That is very good.
 
Petrarose;4016011 said:
Onir what do I press to select LNFSG. I clicked on the line with the song to select it but nothing happened.

Open the link: http://www.radiosibenik.com/top10/index.asp

Go below the list of songs and in the first box where it says "...a moj glas ide za..." meaning my vote goes to, select Love Never Felt So Good. When the song shows in the box click ">>>>". Second box leave it like it is because it is irrelevant. It should work. :)

If "Glasovati možete jednom dnevno." shows, that means you already voted this day. You can vote once a day.
 
MKTO – Classic: 44.819 (+ 0.720)
M. JACKSON & J. TIMBERLAKE – Love Never Felt So Good: 43.998 (+ 0.391)
USHER – Good Kisser: 33.549 (+ 0.591)
 
Dorian;4016134 said:
MKTO – Classic: 44.819 (+ 0.720)
M. JACKSON & J. TIMBERLAKE – Love Never Felt So Good: 43.998 (+ 0.391)
USHER – Good Kisser: 33.549 (+ 0.591)

Hey, can you post how much US #1 has? Thanks.
 
Dorian;4016134 said:
MKTO – Classic: 44.819 (+ 0.720)
M. JACKSON & J. TIMBERLAKE – Love Never Felt So Good: 43.998 (+ 0.391)
USHER – Good Kisser: 33.549 (+ 0.591)

Can we make to 50.000? Keep requesting!
 
What happened with South Korea and Hungary?. Wasn't it Hungary that had the Michael stamps? I thought there would be more fans there. Anyway it is still in the top 10.

I'm Hungarian. Yes, the Hungarian Post released MJ stamps here, but this was never the biggest MJ fan country, unfortunately. There are a lot more MJ fans in Romania.
 
Can someone explain the chart-types in Japan. What does the Orican-charts contain?


https://twitter.com/mjThisisitlove/status/473240481476784128/photo/1

BpFJtd8CUAANnP9.jpg
 
We don't have an official chart, though.

We do, but it's not too relevant. I mean we are talking about a country with a record market where only a couple of thousands of records are sold every week. Insignificant. So do not worry too much about that #7 in Hungary. LOL.
 
Two summaries about sales...

CHART-WATCH.jpg


Three weeks in and it seems that sales are still consistent for Xscape, proving that the world cannot get enough of Michael Jackson. Here, MJVibe give you the updates on album and single sales in some of the major music territories:

In the UK the album has dropped 3 places to NUMBER 5 after spending the earlier part of the week at number 3. So far, sales across the UK have been stronger than that of the ‘Michael’ album which opened on the UK charts at Number 4, before falling to Number 30 in week 3. The UK Single charts also show a strong hold for Love Never Felt So Good which finished this week at Number 12 after 5 weeks in the charts.

The U.S Billboards has seen Xscape slip one place to NUMBER 3, after it opened at Number 2. The U.S charts come in later than the UK so hopefully sales have remained consistent to keep Xscape in the top 5. In other news, Xscape is NUMBER 1 on the Billboard R&B Album Chart. Love Never Felt So Good has dropped 7 places to NUMBER 16 on the Hot 100 Singles Charts, but most surprisingly, Billie Jean has re-entered the Hot 100 Single charts at NUMBER 14.

In Australia, Xscape finished the week at NUMBER 4 dropping 2 places from the week before. In the singles charts, Love Never Felt So Good took a huge drop from NUMBER 28 last week, to NUMBER 46; it’s current position after 4 weeks on the singles charts.

France has seen a massive leap in sales for Love Never Felt So Good as the single jumped 6 places to NUMBER 2 where it has remained for 2 weeks. French Charts have not come in for the most recent week yet. The album finished the week at NUMBER 3.

In Germany, Xscape finished the week at NUMBER 5. Love Never Felt So Good is a non-mover, spending another week at NUMBER 25 in the Singles charts.

Source: MJVIBE.COM

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The King of Pop saw more record-breaking success on the U.S. charts this week with an incredible three songs charting on the Billboard Hot 100 and four albums on the Billboard 200.

Current single “Love Never Felt So Good” had a reasonably strong sales and streaming week despite dropping nine spots on the Hot 100 to #16. Overall “Love Never Felt So Good” has been digitally downloaded more than 375,000 times in the U.S. alone, and viewed more than 30 million times worldwide via the official Michael Jackson VEVO channel. The music video featuring Justin Timberlake makes up 16.5 million of those views with an additional 10.5 million views coming from the audio-only version of the same track. The audio of the Michael Jackson solo version has been viewed 2 million times, the Fedde Le Grand remix 580,000 times and the iHeart Radio audio mix 445,000 times.

As a result of the Billboard Awards hologram performance last week “Slave the the Rhythm” has made it’s Hot 100 debut at #45. This marks the 50th time a Michael Jackson song has appeared on the prestigious chart. The track rocketed up the iTunes rankings during the broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards, peaking in the mid-30s in the days following. In the end 75% of its chart position is credited to the 3.9 million online streams it achieved in the U.S. – 2.2 million of which come from views of the the VEVO upload. The video has been viewed more than 13 million times worldwide since being uploaded a week ago.

Perhaps the most impressive of all this week’s chart results is that “Billie Jean”, which was originally released as a single in 1983 and topped the charts for seven weeks that year, has re-entered the Hot 100 at #14 – an astonishing achievement for a song released some 31 years ago!

Michael Jackson has seventeen-year-old Pitman High student Brett Nichols to thanks for the track’s resurgence. The teen busted out an impressive dance tribute to the King of Pop’s historic Motown 25 “Billie Jean” performance during his school’s talent show in Turlock, California recently. A video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube and went completely viral online. The video, which features the original audio sampled from Jackson’s 1982 ‘Thriller’ album, was view so many times that it out-ranked “Love Never Felt So Good” (#16 as previously noted) on this week’s Hot 100 with a mammoth total of 11.2 million streams in the United States alone, according to Nielsen BDS.

The ‘XSCAPE’ album managed to hold steady at #3 on the Billboard 200 this week, selling another 67,000 copies on top of the 157,000 it sold last week. That takes its two-week tally to 224,000 copies sold in the United States so far. Not bad for a posthumous album released in mid-May! Three other Jackson albums remain a presence on the Billboard 200 – ‘Number Ones’ at #33 (down five spots from #28 last week), ‘The Essential’ at #71 (down four spots from #67) and ‘Thriller’ at #88 (down eighteen spots from #70).

In Australia ‘XSCAPE’ has spent its third consecutive week at the top end of the ARIA Albums chart. After debuting at #3 two weeks ago and rising to #2 last week ‘XSCAPE’ drops just two places to #4 this week with sales of 3,200. That takes its Aussie total to more than 15,000 copies. The “Love Never Felt So Good” single drops eighteen spots in its fourth week on the ARIA Singles chart to a disappointing #46 this week with total digital downloads of 17,000 Down Under.

‘XSCAPE’ is currently #4 in Japan with estimated sales of more than 32,000. The album is also #2 in Spain, #3 in France and Italy, #4 in the Netherlands and #5 in the UK and Germany. “Love Never Felt So Good” is currently #2 in France, #3 in The Netherlands, #9 in Spain, #10 in Italy and #12 in the UK.

In the worldwide market ‘XSCAPE’ has had reasonably good second week sales, charting at #2 and selling 224,000 copies (on top of the 365,000 it sold last week). That takes its worldwide sales tally past the half-million mark to 589,000. In comparison to 2010′s ‘MICHAEL’ album, however, this number is significantly less. Two weeks after the ‘MICHAEL’ album was released it had racked up more than 1.2 million in worldwide sales. The big numbers from ‘MICHAEL’ didn’t last long though with the album seemingly vanishing from existence within 5-6 weeks of its release due to continued fan outrage over the authenticity (or lack thereof) of three songs on the album combined with poorly planned promotion. Will the heavily promoted ‘XSCAPE’ be able to stick it out on the charts longer than ‘MICHAEL’?

The longevity of the ‘XSCAPE’ album will be dependent on Epic Records’ ability to keep the album in the public eye. As long as radio is playing “new” Michael Jackson music, people will continue buying the album. Right now the “Love Never Felt So Good” single is, in the eyes of Sony Music, performing well all around the world, so a second single isn’t on their agenda just yet. However judging by the available statistics this week I’d say the single has now peaked in most markets and will begin to fade from here on out, so maybe they should indeed start thinking about a second single. A poll I’ve been running for the last couple of weeks indicates that Stargate’s remix of ‘A Place With No Name’ is the most popular choice among fans. I’ve been told that in the long run there are at least three, possibly four singles to be expected from this particular project. The Estate of Michael Jackson have hinted that they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeve by stating that the whirlwind of promotion they’ve done so far is just the beginning. The Estate say they’re “just getting started” and have asked fans to “keep watching for what’s next.”

http://www.damienshields.com/xscape-sales-chart-performance-week-2/
 
At least Xscape continues on the top 10 on iTunes Mexico. The album is #7 so is LNFSG.

I haven't forgotten my promise on the official Mexican chart. They haven't updated it yet.
 
I don't know how many copies Xscape has sold so far but it puzzles me the amount of Coldplay.

http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums.htm

It sold 589,000 so far. People should not compare it to Coldplay's sales. They are a very popular current band with a very active promotion campaign - including performances, TV specials etc. Xscape won't compete with them. For a posthumus album with the artist not being here to promote Xscape is doing well.

A couple of days ago I quoted an article how Mariah Carey's new album is projected to sell 55-60k copies in the US in its first week. Xscape sold 157k in its first week. It's doing well for a posthumus album, but of course there are going to be more popular current acts. Coldplay is one of them.
 
Thank you, it's doing great, I admit.I hope it outsells MICHAEL. It's not I'm comparing Xscape with Colplay's album, I knew since it was announce the release date a posthumous material could not compete fairly with alive current acts, Michael is no longer here to promote a new album himself. It just puzzles me how they're so popular and many people find them boring at the same time.
 
CHART DATE: 06/02/2014
LAST UPDATE: 06/02/2014 11:15
NOW IN: 50.65%


LW TW artist / album label sales index
2 1 BRANTLEY GILBERT VALORY 47,852 JUST AS I AM
1 2 COLDPLAY PARLOPHONE 47,804 GHOST STORIES
-- 3 MARIAH CAREY DEF JAM 40,945 ME. I AM MARIAH... THE ELUSIVE-- 4 AUSTIN MAHONE CHASE/REPUBLIC 34,619 SECRET
6 5 NOW 50 NOW 26,890 VARIOUS ARTISTS
4 6 FROZEN WALT DISNEY 26,882 SOUNDTRACK
3 7 MICHAEL JACKSON EPIC 15,641 XSCAPE
5 8 THE BLACK KEYS NONESUCH/WARNER BROS. 14,872 TURN BLUE
-- 9 ROYKSOPP & ROBYN INTERSCOPE 10,975 DO IT AGAIN
10 10 IGGY AZALEA GRAND HUSTLE/DEF JAM 10,018 NEW CLASSIC
-- 11 CHER LLOYD EPIC 10,014 SORRY I'M LATE
-- 12 CROWDER SIXSTEPSRECORDS 9,984 NEON STEEPLE
8 13 THE FAULT IN OUR STARS ATLANTIC 9,976 SOUNDTRACK
11 14 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 9,833 HERE'S TO THE GOOD TIMES
13 15 LUKE BRYAN CAPITOL NASHVILLE 9,697 CRASH MY PARTY
9 16 RASCAL FLATTS BIG MACHINE 8,723 REWIND
14 17 ONEREPUBLIC INTERSCOPE 8,340 NATIVE
15 18 LORDE REPUBLIC 6,467 PURE HEROINE
16 19 PHARRELL WILLIAMS COLUMBIA 6,444 G I R L
7 20 PHILLIP PHILLIPS 19/INTERSCOPE 6,051 BEHIND THE LIGHT
-- 21 NEIL YOUNG REPRISE 5,822 LETTER HOME
24 22 ERIC CHURCH EMI NASHVILLE 5,492 THE OUTSIDERS
17 23 JOHN LEGEND COLUMBIA 5,032 LOVE IN THE FUTURE
21 24 JASON DERULO WARNER BROS. 4,896 TALK DIRTY
19 25 IMAGINE DRAGONS KIDINAKORNER/INTERSCOPE 4,724 NIGHT VISIONS
23 26 HUNTER HAYES ATLANTIC 4,617 STORYLINE
22 27 KATY PERRY CAPITOL 4,447 PRISM
30 28 NOW 49 NOW 4,392 VARIOUS ARTISTS
38 29 BLAKE SHELTON WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 3,815 BASED ON A TRUE STORY
34 30 BASTILLE VIRGIN 3,695 BAD BLOOD
40 31 DIERKS BENTLEY EMI NASHVILLE 3,546 RISER
-- 32 COLE SWINDELL WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 3,428 COLE SWINDELL
42 33 PARAMORE FUELED BY RAMEN 3,311 PARAMORE
43 34 BEYONCE COLUMBIA 3,274 BEYONCE
41 35 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER CAPITOL 3,182 SHE LOOKS SO PERFECT - EP
-- 36 LANA DEL REY INTERSCOPE 3,144 BORN TO DIE
48 37 MUD DIGGER AVERAGE JOE'S 3,035 MUD DIGGER 5
-- 38 POWERMAN 5000 UME 2,948 BUILDERS OF THE FUTURE
37 39 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE RCA 2,864 THE 20/20 EXPERIENCE: 2 OF 2
49 40 BRUNO MARS ATLANTIC 2,822 UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX
12 41 THE ROOTS DEF JAM 2,802 ...AND THEN YOU SHOOT YOUR COUSI
29 42 SHAKIRA RCA 2,719 SHAKIRA.
31 43 EMINEM SHADY/AFTERMATH/INT 2,592 MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2
28 44 DOLLY PARTON SONY MASTERWORKS 2,434 BLUE SMOKE
18 45 SARAH MCLACHLAN VERVE 2,392 SHINE ON
-- 46 THE READY SET RAZOR & TIE 2,268 BAD & THE BETTER
50 47 AUGUST ALSINA NNTME/DEF JAM 2,226 TESTIMONY
-- 48 SCHOOLBOY Q TDE/INTERSCOPE 2,018 OXYMORON
45 49 YG CTE/DEF JAM 1,988 MY KRAZY LIFE
35 50 FUTURE EPIC 1,966 HONEST
 
last week it was 23k on 69% and the hard copies were like 46K. :) so digital sales aren't down by lots of copies if at all, I didn't see last week's 50% positions.
 
OnirMJ;4016128 said:
Open the link: http://www.radiosibenik.com/top10/index.asp

Go below the list of songs and in the first box where it says "...a moj glas ide za..." meaning my vote goes to, select Love Never Felt So Good. When the song shows in the box click ">>>>". Second box leave it like it is because it is irrelevant. It should work. :)

If "Glasovati možete jednom dnevno." shows, that means you already voted this day. You can vote once a day.


Did it, but we need a lot of votes for this one.
 
Did it, but we need a lot of votes for this one.

MJ is #1 this week on that radio station (last week it was #10). This week LNFSG has 22,2% of all votes!

Tomorrow official Croatian radio airplay Top 100 chart will be released. I'll post about the results. Last week it was hot airplay/greatest gainer and jumped 51-15.

Album chart will be released wednesday.
 
CHART DATE: 06/02/2014
LAST UPDATE: 06/02/2014 14:00:43
NOW IN: 68.46%

LW TW artist / album label sales index
1 1 COLDPLAY PARLOPHONE 57,359 GHOST STORIES
2 2 BRANTLEY GILBERT VALORY 52,593 JUST AS I AM
-- 3 MARIAH CAREY DEF JAM 48,178 ME. I AM MARIAH... THE ELUSIVE
-- 4 AUSTIN MAHONE CHASE/REPUBLIC 37,066 SECRET
4 5 FROZEN WALT DISNEY 36,296 SOUNDTRACK
6 6 NOW 50 NOW 34,067 VARIOUS ARTISTS
3 7 MICHAEL JACKSON EPIC 21,968 XSCAPE
5 8 THE BLACK KEYS NONESUCH/WARNER BROS. 17,947 TURN BLUE
9 9 RASCAL FLATTS BIG MACHINE 13,714 REWIND
10 10 IGGY AZALEA GRAND HUSTLE/DEF JAM 12,825 NEW CLASSIC
-- 11 CHER LLOYD EPIC 12,705 SORRY I'M LATE
13 12 LUKE BRYAN CAPITOL NASHVILLE 11,980 CRASH MY PARTY
11 13 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 11,974 HERE'S TO THE GOOD TIMES
8 14 THE FAULT IN OUR STARS ATLANTIC 11,434 SOUNDTRACK
-- 15 ROYKSOPP & ROBYN INTERSCOPE 10,975 DO IT AGAIN
7 16 PHILLIP PHILLIPS 19/INTERSCOPE 10,284 BEHIND THE LIGHT
-- 17 CROWDER SIXSTEPSRECORDS 9,984 NEON STEEPLE
14 18 ONEREPUBLIC INTERSCOPE 9,593 NATIVE
16 19 PHARRELL WILLIAMS COLUMBIA 8,067 G I R L
15 20 LORDE REPUBLIC 7,663 PURE HEROINE
17 21 JOHN LEGEND COLUMBIA 6,547 LOVE IN THE FUTURE
21 22 JASON DERULO WARNER BROS. 6,370 TALK DIRTY
24 23 ERIC CHURCH EMI NASHVILLE 6,319 THE OUTSIDERS
19 24 IMAGINE DRAGONS KIDINAKORNER/INTERSCOPE 6,116 NIGHT VISIONS
23 25 HUNTER HAYES ATLANTIC 5,904 STORYLINE
-- 26 NEIL YOUNG REPRISE 5,822 LETTER HOME
22 27 KATY PERRY CAPITOL 5,634 PRISM
30 28 NOW 49 NOW 5,508 VARIOUS ARTISTS
34 29 BASTILLE VIRGIN 4,997 BAD BLOOD
41 30 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER CAPITOL 4,932 SHE LOOKS SO PERFECT - EP
40 31 DIERKS BENTLEY EMI NASHVILLE 4,202 RISER
42 32 PARAMORE FUELED BY RAMEN 4,012 PARAMORE
29 33 SHAKIRA RCA 3,968 SHAKIRA.
-- 34 LANA DEL REY INTERSCOPE 3,835 BORN TO DIE
38 35 BLAKE SHELTON WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 3,815 BASED ON A TRUE STORY
18 36 SARAH MCLACHLAN VERVE 3,805 SHINE ON
37 37 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE RCA 3,639 THE 20/20 EXPERIENCE: 2 OF 2
49 38 BRUNO MARS ATLANTIC 3,612 UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX
31 39 EMINEM SHADY/AFTERMATH/INT 3,571 MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2
39 40 FROZEN WALT DISNEY 3,500 DISNEY KARAOKE SERIES
-- 41 COLE SWINDELL WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 3,428 COLE SWINDELL
43 42 BEYONCE COLUMBIA 3,274 BEYONCE
28 43 DOLLY PARTON SONY MASTERWORKS 3,215 BLUE SMOKE
-- 44 MUSIC OF NASHVILLE, SEASON 2 BIG MACHINE 3,182 SOUNDTRACK
48 45 MUD DIGGER AVERAGE JOE'S 3,035 MUD DIGGER 5
-- 46 POWERMAN 5000 UME 2,948 BUILDERS OF THE FUTURE
45 47 YG CTE/DEF JAM 2,863 MY KRAZY LIFE
50 48 AUGUST ALSINA NNTME/DEF JAM 2,827 TESTIMONY
12 49 THE ROOTS DEF JAM 2,802 ...AND THEN YOU SHOOT YOUR COUSI
-- 50 SCHOOLBOY Q TDE/INTERSCOPE 2,764 OXYMORON
 
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articl...hael-jackson-has-a-hit-now?utm_source=twitter

Ross On Radio: Why Michael Jackson Has A Hit Now
News /By Sean Ross, New York | June 02, 2014 7:20 AM EDT

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And Why "This Is It," Wasn't
Not even the overwhelming surge of interest in Michael Jackson following his death in 2009 could make "This Is It" a radio hit. Urban AC showed the most support for Jackson's first posthumous song. Top 40 supplied a mere handful of event spins. Radio might have come around if there was a sales story, but "This Is It" was never released as a single, and still isn't available as a stand-alone download.

When "This Is It" underwhelmed, I suggested in a column at the time that maybe the rumored Jackson material in the can with current hot producers would have fared better. A year later, "Hold My Hand" (feat. Akon) finally surfaced and got as far as No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent singles from the Michael project failed to attract much notice. It seemed that the interest in Jackson had been squandered on material that only made Jackson's classics sound better by contrast.

But the Jackson/Justin Timberlake duet, "Love Never Felt So Good," has already been No. 9 on the Hot 100. On the Mainstream Top 40 chart, it is up 37-34 at this writing and +485 spins. That puts the song just inside the 20 biggest gainers, but "Love" has survived a second-week bounce after its initial exposure at Clear Channel stations wore off, and is still building two weeks after the appearance of a Michael Jackson hologram on the 2014 Billboard Music Awards. The song is also No. 3 on Adult R&B and No. 13 at Adult Contemporary.

CODE Picks of the Week: deadmau5, Michael Jackson & More
Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' Returns To Hot 100; Legend Lands 50th Hit
Ross On Radio: Did Cumulus Just Fragment Country Radio?So why does Jackson finally have the radio coda that was denied him at the time? In the 2009 column, WKTU New York PD Rob Miller noted that he was hoping for something along the lines of "Billie Jean" or "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." "Love Never Felt So Good" isn't quite that. Like "This Is It," it was co-written in 1983 with Paul Anka, who was working on his own solo album at the time. The song finally appeared on a Johnny Mathis album a year later.

Musically, "Love Never Felt So Good" would have been more at home on Off the Wall, and might have already sounded a little dated on the Thriller album. But because "Love Never Felt So Good" doesn't sound like the hits from Thriller, it also doesn't sound like anything from the four solo albums that followed during Jackson's lifetime. It doesn't sound like the song "Bad" sounding like the song "Thriller." It doesn't sound like "Who Is It" or "Scream" or any of the songs that tapped that formula again and wore down Jackson's musical goodwill.

A few other things have happened since 2009. By the time "This Is It" came out, Jackson had already become one of adult contemporary radio's most potent artists, a stark contrast to the period before his death when only adult R&B stations still played any of his gold in a significant way. Jackson's strength at AC has barely tapered off since, and his prominence there has only increased since that format phased out music from the '70s and relied more heavily on music of the '80s.

As important, while "Love Never Felt So Good" and the other songs from Jackson's Xscape album have been built on recently cut tracks, there's not quite the same need now to make Jackson sound compatible with today's music. Today's music has been working much harder to sound compatible with Michael Jackson. MKTO invokes Jackson on "Classic." Timberlake has devoted the last 18 months to his own Off the Wall-era throwbacks. Each new public display of Bruno Mars' talent recalls anew the shock of seeing Jackson in 1983 on the Motown 25 special.

Finally, "Love Never Felt So Good" is getting the concerted push from Epic that the previous posthumous Jackson singles never received. As regular "ROR" readers know, it's the rare song that radio finds of its own volition. "Thriller," already a phenomenon at the time of Motown 25, needed one TV performance to propel it into legend. "Xscape" has had two awards show tie-ins, one of them followed by the concerted Clear Channel push.

Three other notes, for trivia fans:

With Timberlake's participation, "Love Never Felt So Good" continues a tradition of studio duets that effectively began in fall 1978 with the official release of the Neil Diamond/Barbra Streisand version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." That song was a hit around the same time as the Jacksons' "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)," the act's biggest hit after a dry spell of several years, and the first song to define Jackson's signature sound. The first posthumous studio duet hit, which allowed Deborah Allen to sing with the late country star Jim Reeves, took place in 1979. Justin Timberlake was born two years later.

"This Is It" brought with it an eerie coincidence, making Anka the author of the first posthumous releases by Buddy Holly ("It Doesn't Matter Anymore"), Elvis Presley (his version of "My Way") and Jackson. With "Love Never Felt So Good," you can modify that to "posthumous hits," and it remains true.

It is the second time that Michael Jackson has covered Johnny Mathis covering him. In 1976, Mathis had a minor AC hit with the Jackson album cut, "One Day In Your Life." In 1981, Jackson's version of that song was pulled from the Motown vaults to take advantage of the lull between Epic's "Off The Wall" and "Thriller," becoming a mid-chart record here and a bigger U.K. hit.
 
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