Within hours of Prince’s death being confirmed, fans channelled their grief by buying, downloading and streaming music from his extensive back catalogue.

By the early hours of yesterday, the top bestselling physical albums on Amazon.co.uk all belonged to the multi-instrumentalist.

This included two greatest hits collections, CD and a vinyl editions of his seminal Purple Rain, and 1987 classic Sign O’ The Times.

And seven of the online retailer’s 10 most popular albums were also Prince releases – the exceptions being compilation Now 93, plus offerings from Adele and Sia.

A similar surge of activity on the singles chart could see Prince make a late break for the top spot – which would be his first UK number one single in more than two decades since 1994’s The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.

The iTunes download chart saw Prince’s Purple Rain in second place behind last week’s number one, One Dance, by Drake.

Prince has previously achieved five UK number-one albums and a further 14 top 10s.

It is not uncommon for showbiz deaths to trigger a sales spike.

In January, David Bowie’s final record Blackstar rocketed to number one as mourning fans helped the late singer secure a quarter of the spots in the UK Top 40 album chart, days after his death.

The following month, little-known indie band Viola Beach entered the Official Top 40 singles charts as fans paid tribute to the band who were tragically killed along with their manager in a road accident.

The life of an eclectic virtuoso

Purple Rain

Prince’s bestselling album was released in 1984 to accompany the semi-autobiographical film of the same name.

The album spent a total of 24 straight weeks atop the Billboard chart and ranks as one of the top 40 albums of all time in US sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Prince, who wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, won two Grammy Awards for the release.

1999

Released two years before Purple Rain, 1999 was Prince’s breakthrough album.

Also considered deeply influential, 1999 sold more than four million copies in the US with hit singles Little Red Corvette and the title track.

Parade

The final album Prince made with the Revolution served as the soundtrack to the 1986 film Under the Cherry Moon – which Prince directed and acted in – and was hailed by critics as one of the best releases of that year. It featured one of his biggest hits, Kiss.

Awards

Prince won seven Grammy Awards and was nominated 37 times. His wins included best soundtrack album for his 1984 Purple Rain and best R&B vocal performance by a man for the song Future Baby Mama from his 2007 album Planet Earth.

The movie Purple Rain also won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score.