LONG LIVE THE KING!

The King of Pop would be pleased to see three of his Epic albums make history this week, as Thriller, Essential and Number Ones land in the first three positions on the HITS Album sales chart, all scoring over 100k.

It’s the first time ever that one catalog title, let alone three, sold more than any currently released album during a single week. The closest call previously was February 2008, when Sony Legacy’s 25th anniversary reissue of Thriller finished #2 with 157k to Jack Johnson’s chart-topping Sleep Through the Static, which nabbed 170k in its second week.

In all a total of nine Jackson-related albums (including eight Epic solo albums and one Jackson 5 collection on Motown) made the Top 50, including Off the Wall (#14), Bad (#25), Jackson 5’s Ultimate Collection (#26), Dangerous (#32), Ultimate Collection (#35) and HIStory: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (#39).

Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas, which would have been #1, take #4 with 85k, while Hollywood’s Jonas Brothers complete the Top 5 with 67k.

Warner Bros. folk-punk chanteuse Regina Spektor is the week’s top newcomer at #6 for her new album Far, with an impressive 50k, followed by RCA/RMG’s Dave Matthews Band (#7) and Shady/Aftermath/Interscope’s Eminem (#8).

Chart bows from Roadrunner’s prog-metal veterans Dream Theater (#9) and Asylum R&B star Ginuwine (#10) round out the leader board.

Reprise’s Transformers: Music From Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack (#11) leads the rest of the Top 50 newcomers, which also includes Mars Volta’s WB debut (#17) and Universal Music Latino’s Paulina Rubio (#41).

Coming this week and expected to chart are such titles as Arista Nashville’s Brad Paisley, Sony Legacy’s Now 31, Atlantic’s Rob Thomas, Nonesuch’s Wilco, Def Jam/IDJ’s Jeremih, Roadrunner’s Killswitch Engage and Atlantic’s Maino.