List of posthumous number ones on the UK Albums Chart

The UK Albums Chart is a weekly record chart based on sales of albums in the United Kingdom. The first weekly albums chart in the UK was published by Record Mirror in July 1956[2] – since then, 28 albums by deceased artists have posthumously reached number one. Until 2007, the chart was based solely on sales of physical albums; from 2007 onwards, it has also included albums sold through digital distribution.[3] As of April 2016, the listing is created using Friday to Thursday record sales from more than 3,500 vendors across the UK.[4] It is compiled by the Official Charts Company on behalf of the UK music industry,[5] and each week's new number one is first announced on Friday evenings on The Radio 1 Chart Show.[6]

Elvis Presley has achieved five posthumous number ones on the UK Albums Chart, more than any other artist.[1]

The first deceased artist to top the UK Albums Chart was Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash on 10 December 1967.[7][8] On 20 May 1968, Redding's sixth studio album, The Dock of the Bay, was released in the UK – three weeks later, it became his first and only UK number-one album.[9] Since Redding, 14 further artists have posthumously topped the albums chart, of which three have done so more than twice.[7] The first of these was American singer Eva Cassidy; after dying in 1996, three posthumous releases from Cassidy reached number one in consecutive years, 2001–03.[10][11] The second musician to achieve this feat was American entertainer Elvis Presley. Following his death from a heart attack in August 1977, Presley's compilation album 40 Greatest climbed to number one within three weeks.[12][13] Subsequent compilations ELV1S (2002), The King (2007), If I Can Dream (2015) and The Wonder of You (2016) also topped the chart.[14] With If I Can Dream, Presley achieved his fourth posthumous number one, more than any other artist.[1]

The death of a musician can often result in an immediate increase in sales of their albums. As UK chart commentator James Masterton remarked in December 1995: "Death is very commercial."[15] Following his death in 2009, the number of purchases of Michael Jackson's albums grew significantly worldwide.[16] In the UK, sales of the singer's albums increased by more than 80 times in a single day. On 28 June, Jackson's 2003 release Number Ones climbed 120 places to the top of the chart;[17] the following week, his 2005 compilation The Essential Michael Jackson reached number one.[18] The two albums spent a combined total of eight weeks at number one.[18] Five of Jackson's records were featured in the top twenty biggest-selling albums of 2009's third quarter, and sales of his albums during the year lifted Warner/Chappell Music's share of the albums market to its highest level in nearly six years.[19] In May 2014, Jackson's album Xscape topped the chart, making him the third musician to top the listing with three posthumous releases.[20][21]

Like Jackson, British singer Amy Winehouse received a significant increase in sales after her death in 2011, when purchases of her albums grew 37 times over.[22][23] This resulted in her 2006 album, Back to Black, returning to the top of the UK Albums Chart for three weeks and becoming the UK's biggest-selling album of the 21st century for three months before being overtaken by 21 by Adele.[24] Four months later, Winehouse's first compilation album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures, became her second release to posthumously reach number one.[25] Over the year following her death, 1.2 million copies of Winehouse's albums were sold.[7]