On the Charts: David Bowie Scores First Number One With ‘Blackstar’

'Best of Bowie' also soars to Number Four as music fans remember Thin White Duke's musical legacy

Published by

January 19, 2016

On the Charts: David Bowie Scores First Number One With ‘Blackstar’

A week after his death, David BowieÂ posthumously reached a new high on the Billboard 200 as his new LP â˜…Â (pronounced Blackstar) gave the rock legend his first Number One album while also ending Adele’s seemingly unstoppable reign atop the charts. â˜…, released just two days before Bowie passed away, sold 181,000 copies in its debut week, Bowie’s best-selling week since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. â˜…‘s monster opening week more than doubled the sales of Bowie’s 2013 comeback LPThe Next Day, which debuted at Number Two and 85,000 copies, Billboard reports.

As music fans mourned Bowie’s death, the Thin White Duke’s entire catalog saw a massive spike in sales, including the greatest hits compilation Best of Bowie, which ended the week at Number Four and 94,000 copies; that’s a nearly 6,700-percent increase of last week’s Best of Bowie sales. The 2002 collection initially peaked at Number 70 on the Billboard 200.

Bowie’s landmark 1973 LP The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars also saw a big boost, climbing up to Number 21 this week. Withâ˜… at Number One and Best of Bowie at Number Four, Bowie entered a small club of artists who have simultaneously placed two LPs in the Top Four; the last to do it was Adele’s 19 and 21 in February 2012.

Bowie’s best-selling week put an end to Adele’s seven-week streakÂ atop the Billboard 200 as the dethroned 25 finished at Number Two and 143,000 copies sold. Justin Bieber’s Purpose dropped one spot to Number Three, followed by Best of Bowie and then Twenty One Pilots, the biggest new band of the past year, and their Blurryface at Number Five.

â˜… was the only new release to break into the Top 10 this week. Similarly, the album also topped the U.K.’s Album Charts. While â˜… and Best of Bowie will likely hang around the Top 10 again this time next week, Adele’s 25 is the favorite to reclaim the Number One unless Panic! at the Disco’s Death of a Bachelor holds the album off.

Daniel Kreps