Current state of top 10 biggest selling albums in the UK:
01 GREATEST HITS – QUEEN (5,863,000)
02 SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND – THE BEATLES (5,044,000)
03 GOLD: GREATEST HITS – ABBA (4,989,000)
04 WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY – OASIS (4,517,000)
05 THRILLER - MICHAEL JACKSON (4,248,000)
06 BROTHERS IN ARMS - DIRE STRAITS (4,152,000)
07 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON - PINK FLOYD (4,114,000)
08 21 – ADELE (4,020,000)
09 BAD - MICHAEL JACKSON (3,959,000)
10 GREATEST HITS II – QUEEN (3,887,000)
source: link
brENsKi wrote:
who the f*ck is buying that Adele album?
she may have a "nice" voice - but the tunes are as dull as a "Wet Wednesday in Withernsea"
I found Rolling In The Deep and Set Fire To The Rain to be pretty strong tracks. The record is very good overall, but top 10 of all time ? Must be a slow news day in the music business.
Russian Headlong wrote:
bit of a skewed comparison, its the only greatest hits album, all the others are proper albums, ie not compilations.
Fair point. But regardless of what type of releases these are, these figures are still a reflection of what music people in the UK like the most.
That said, it has already been established that Queen recently overtook the Beatles on the UK album charts. There are Beatles compilations too, but they clearly haven't sold as well as Queen's. It's quite an achievement for anyone to beat the Beatles in anything.
I'm very impressed. The best selling album in the UK ever and another one closing the Top 10 is impressive, no doubt. Congratulations folks! As for Adele, her appearance among the greatest did surprise me, but I must say Rolling in the Deep is a pretty amazing tune, it's huge. Also, it means the music biz is doing not that bad after all, right?
GratefulFan wrote: "I have six of those. I should have seven but I have an embarrassing lack of The Beatles in my collection. I really need to remedy that soon."
That's a lot better than me. I have *four albums; the fist Queen GH album, Thriller, ABBA & Adele. Of the others, the only one I wouldn't mind getting is The Dark Side Of The Moon (I'm satisfied with my Beatles collection.)
*As I said, I have four albums, however considering that I own all of Queen's studio albums, I basically have their second GH album as well.
If anyone is thinking of getting Beatles stuff, I'd urge you to buy the mono versions because the mixes (especially Pepper) are far superior and a more powerful listening experience. Perversely, most people these days would only know the stereo version, as released on cd in 87, and that's a real shame!
Any Dire Straits fans in QZ? All their albums are masterpieces of songwriting and guitar playing except for the god awful On Every Street. My humble opinion of course.
Is that such a bad thing that Queens greatest hits is there instead of a normal album? I mean, you'd expect to see The Beatles greatest hits also wouldn't you? But it's Queen at number 1 instead. I'm okay with that. Abba's greatest hits is there too by the way.
I got seven out of ten...
Adele's record is nice, but it really does show you how set the music industry is and not daring at all to promote new acts - it's a good album and it looks even better cause of the major quality drop...
seriously how can one not own a copy of Queen's Greatest Hits?
...and just imagine that it includes "Under Pressure" on some international editions!
I've got seven of those albums, although two of them - Brothers in arms, and Bad - I've owned before.
The Adele album is the only one I've not owned or heard as yet. I'm not sure I fancy it either (the album).
Of all the albums on that list, I think Thriller is the most overrated, not that it's terrible - but it's just not THAT good either. And the Gallagher brothers just annoy me because they are twats, despite that they do some alright tunes on occasions.
I know this is about the UK charts... but I do find a lot of things extremely interesting when you look at the US charts as well as other countries. I'm using that Wiki link provided earlier in the tread.
For instance, Richard points out the Queen Greatest Hits has sold (in the UK) 5.8 million copies... but Queen as a band has sold a total of 18.2 million copies (in the UK) of ALL of their albums.
Sgt Peppers is listed here at 5 million copies(UK)... but a total of 7 million copies (in the UK) of all their albums. Is that correct? All their other albums have just sold a total of 2 million copies (UK)??
But in the US, The Beatles have sold 207.6 million records to Queen's 42.8???
...and worldwide (Beatles) 248.8 to (Queen) 90 million???
These numbers do not make sense.
Hi Microwave,
Thank you for your response.
The wiki site is well referenced.
Regarding your questions:
If you look at the notes section it gives a list of dates from which time certified sales started. In the US it was 1958 thus allowing all The Beatles sales to be included. In the UK it is from 1973. So most of their sales will not be included hence the 7 million. It's a similar situation for Elvis and The Rolling Stones. I believe Queen started in 1973 so all their UK sales will be in the certified count.
I caught a documentary, lately, on the telly about Queen in which their former manager talked about how they had 'lost' America (as in the US). Recently, I was reading a book about them where this was repeated. This would account for their relatively low sales in the US.
Regards
Varifocals
Adele has now passed Pink Floyds album
I dont get why so many people like her music, its dull and bland but i guess thats probably just my opinion!! link