David Bowie's new album Blackstar looks set for #1 as his iconic records flood iTunes chart

The iconic star currently has 16 albums in the top 40 chart
Chart-topper: David Bowie's new album Blackstar looks set for #1 spot following his death
Sony Music Ents
Ben Travis11 January 2016

David Bowie’s new album Blackstar has charged into the number one spot and several of his other classics have seen a surge in sales following his death.

The singer’s 25th studio album was released on Friday to coincide with his 69th birthday and had already taken an early lead.

Blackstar has combined sales of more than 43,000, which puts Bowie 25,000 ahead of his closest competitor, Elvis Presley, and almost guarantees a number one when the charts are announced on Friday, according to the Official Charts Company.

If it achieves the feat, Blackstar will be Bowie’s 10th chart-topping album.

On iTunes, 16 Bowie albums could be found in the top 40 on Apple’s download charts at the time of writing.

Blackstar was number one, whilst a compilation of his 1969-1974 work sat at number 2. The 39-track best-of retrospective Nothing Has Changed, released in 2014, was at number 3, with the Deluxe Edition at number 10.

Further down the chart were many of his classic records, including The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars at number 6, and Hunky Dory at number 7.

Aladdin Sane was at number 16, Let’s Dance at number 17, and 2013 album The Next Day at number 18.

Diamond Dogs was at number 29, Young Americans at number 31, The Best of David Bowie 74-79 at number 35, and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) at number 40.

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot said: “Today is an awful day for all lovers of music.

“And the fact that David Bowie’s new album Blackstar was on course for number one this week, even before today’s terrible news, says everything about his continuing relevance - over 40 years since his first hit records.

“We are expecting a huge surge for a wide range of Bowie albums in this week’s Official Albums Chart.

“Bowie made so many great albums, constantly reinventing himself, that everyone has their own favourites and fans are clearly reminding themselves of his massive contribution to popular music by buying these great, iconic works.”

David Bowie - in pictures

1/21

Bowie first entered the charts in July 1969 with his track Space Oddity, and scored 25 top 10 singles and 29 top 10 albums across his career.

Several of his songs are expected to re-enter the singles chart this week as fans pay tribute to the singer.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT