The recent No. 1 debut of his "You Are Not Alone" on the Billboard singles chart is truly a first--but it's not quite the historic accomplishment that his publicist suggests while trying to put a positive spin on the sluggish sales of the "HIStory--Past, Present and Future Book 1" collection.

"Michael [Jackson] did not respond to the media sniping about the sales of his albums," declares a press release from the Lee Solters Company, [Michael] Jackson's publicist, heralding the single's first-week sales of 120,286.

Before SoundScan, a No. 1 debut was all but impossible due to a combination of cumbersome sales and airplay reporting systems and--in the Beatles' and Stones' '60s heyday--slower record distribution, industry experts explain. The reason the industry adopted a scientific monitoring system after all these years was to bring some reality to the charts. No. 1 debuts of singles will now become commonplace, as they have with albums.