Jacko to beat Ruby Murray record

By Johnny Caldwell
BBC News

Jackson was not born when the Belfast singer set her 1955 record

Michael Jackson is expected to break one of the UK's longest standing chart records this weekend.

BBC News understands that the recently deceased popstar has six singles in the UK top 20, according to midweek sales.

Belfast singer Ruby Murray previously held the record for the most singles in the top 20 with five hits in the same week in March 1955.

Jackson's Man in the Mirror is also expected to be in contention for the top spot come Sunday.

When it was first released in the UK, the single only managed to reach number 21.

The so-called King of Pop's Number Ones album is currently at number one in the UK album chart, jumping 120 places in the week following his death.

He would not be born for another three years when Ruby Murray set the record he now looks set to break.

Born on the Donegall Road in Belfast, she remains one of the biggest stars to hail from Belfast.

Estranged

But the high point of her career, which included hits such as Softly Softly and Let Me Go Lover and Evermore, lasted only a few years in the 1950s.

As she struggled to cope with her success, she became an alcoholic and was estranged from her young children.

Her name is probably best known to younger people as the (Oxford Dictionary of English-recognised) rhyming slang for a curry.

A play about Murray's life, Ruby, was written by the Belfast playwright, Marie Jones.