Moving onto the 100 biggest selling albums in the UK:
There’ll be surprises…
and there’ll be more foregone conclusions!
As ever: here’s the Top 10 – with approximate sales – before we get down to business:
Back To Black – 4.2 m
Amy Winehouse
Brothers In Arms – 4.35m
Dire Straits
Dark Side Of The Moon – 4.5m
Pink Floyd
Rumours – 4.5m
Fleetwood Mac
Thriller – 4.5m
Michael Jackson
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – 4.94m
Oasis
21 – 5.17m
Adele
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 5.4m
The Beatles
Gold: Greatest Hits – 6m
ABBA
Greatest Hits I – 6.9m
Queen
The selection comes courtesy of Best Selling Albums.
I can’t say its definitive and 100% accurate, but from cross referencing with other sources it appears as close as possible.
19 of these acts appeared in the UK singles 100.
But we’re also seeing some more big hitters appear. It’s 20 if we allow for Art Garfunkel appearing solo on the singles list with “Bright Eyes,” and here in partnership with Paul Simon.
Beatles watch; it’s not a question of if, it’s how many?
Three is the answer, with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which for many years was the biggest seller but is now down to #3, along with “Abbey Road” (#76) and “1” (#19).
No post-Beatles appearances though; flashes in the pan, the lot of them.
What may surprise you are the acts that outdo the Fab Four for weight of entries, given that their Billboard histories are limited.
The ego has landed and may well be justified, as Robbie Williams heads us up with six albums and his former bandmates Take That following with four. It gets even better for Robbie as he appears on two of Take That’s entries; “Ultimate Collection” (#66) and studio album “Progress” (#64) for which Robbie rejoined as a one-off, having buried the hatchet from his acrimonious mid 90s departure.
Robbie’s debut album; “I’ve Been Expecting You” is his biggest seller (#33) but he remained remarkably consistent. Including those two appearances with Take That he places at 64, 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70.
His biggest US album “Escapology” rounds things off at #98.
There are 16 acts with multiple entries accounting for 44 of the 100. Albums proving a more reliable marker of ongoing popularity than the ephemeral nature of the singles market. That goes up to 17 acts allowing for Paul Simon’s presence solo with “Graceland” (#74) and with Art on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (#24).
Queen, Adele, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay join The Beatles with three entries.
While Robbie’s debut album presaged some hugely impressive ongoing sales figures it doesn’t always work out. 22 of the 100 are debut albums – but only six of those acts follow up their huge debut with a further all timer:
Joining Robbie are: Oasis, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Dido and Coldplay.
At the other end of the scale is Emeli Sande who went from 8X Platinum with “Our Version Of Events” (#61) to Gold certification with follow up “Long Live The Angels,” shedding 2m sales in the process.
Duffy is the closest to a one album wonder as 2008 debut “Rockferry”(#81) was certified 7 X Platinum and followed in 2010 by her only other album “Endlessly” which also sold 2 million copies less, charting in at #9.
In terms of the top performing decade there’s a contrast, in that the 00s are by far the best represented – but feature only twice in the top 20:
Amy Winehouse; “Back To Black” (#10)
And The Beatles; “1” (#19).
It also contrasts with the singles list where the 00s was the 5th ranked decade:
- 1960s = 3
- 1970s = 9
- 1980s = 16
- 1990s = 25
- 2000s = 36
- 2010s = 11
The most recent releases come later than the singles list, 2017 for “The Greatest Showman – Soundtrack” (#63) and Ed Sheeran, “÷” (#16). – the dearth of new entrants emphasising the impact of the streaming revolution. While Adele and Ed’s three entries each are an admirable effort to hold back the tide of progress the drop off in sales for their subsequent releases which come nowhere near this list shows they aren’t immune to progress.
The top 10 is pleasingly diverse with every decade from the 60s to the 10s represented. That’s despite the 60s and 70s appearing underrepresented overall. The classics are there, with Sgt. Pepper joined by “Dark Side Of The Moon,” “Rumours”, “Bat Out Of Hell” and the “Grease -Soundtrack.” But in general, the extra decades allowed for sales hasn’t translated to getting into the top 100.
2004 takes the honours for a single year, its seven entries led by James Blunt; “Back To Bedlam” (#22).
The earliest entry comes from a staple that we saw on the singles list: soundtracks:
“The Sound Of Music” from 1965 comes in at #60, one of six present. Top performer at 36 is “Dirty Dancing” with “The Greatest Showman” (#63), “Grease” (#75), “Saturday Night Fever” (#82) and “The Bodyguard” (#84) rounding us off.
“Grease” and “The Bodyguard” being led by top 100 singles while Bee Gees make up for missing out on the UK singles 100 by placing SNF.
There are, of course, a plethora of “Greatest Hits.”
Otherwise known as:
… Best of, The Very Best Of, The Hits, The Ultimate / Immaculate / Platinum Collection…
…or if you’re really showing off; Legend and 1. Call them what you like: there are 18 of them.
Queen take it to extremes topping the whole list with “Greatest Hits I”, having “Greatest Hits II” at #12.
And somehow managing to find another 2.1m to buy the same songs all over again on “The Platinum Collection” (#93) which is a box set containing the three volumes of their Greatest Hits.
Just like the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the death of Freddie Mercury provided a strong and prolonged sales push. “Greatest Hits I” has spent 1,050 weeks on the album chart, 718 of them posthumously.
Another to put right missing out on the singles list are ABBA, also pushing two versions of their hits; 1992s “Gold” at #2 building on 1975s “Greatest Hits” at #54.
A brief interlude into really irrelevant trivia:
There are five self titled albums:
- Kylie
- Whitney
- Scissor Sisters
- Tracy Chapman
- Robson & Jerome
Arguably there are six, with “The Marshall Mathers LP” (#56) but I’m discounting it on the basis of not matching his recording name.
There are even more self titled albums in the US equivalent to get you thinking ahead of the final chapter.
Demographics, then:
To no surprise at all there’s a preponderance of white men. There are 44 groups in the 100 who have a combined total of 14 female members – and five of them are Spice Girls (#34). The Corrs with three, Fleetwood Mac and ABBA with two each and Eurythmics and Scissor Sisters with one each.
Solo acts outweigh the bands with an almost even 25 male against 23 female and one non binary; Sam Smith (#49).
The lack of diversity in the album list compared to singles is emphasised in the seemingly implausible fact that only 11 of the artists featured are black or contain a black member. Whereas the singles list does contain representation from rap / hip hop, Rn’B, dance and soul there’s little of that on show here.
Confirming that parochialism rules, British acts dominate and reconfirming that the US, as a centre for modern music…
You guys are runners up. Maintaining the diminished diversity trend the number of nations represented is well down on the singles list, only eight nationalities:
- UK 58
- USA 26
- Canada 5
- Sweden 2
- Ireland 2
- Jamaica 1
- Australia 1
- Barbados 1
The top 10 is even more Anglo-centric with eight UK acts, two US, and ABBA joining the party.
Those with a basic working knowledge of addition will notice that totals 11:
All thanks to Fleetwood Mac – for straddling the Atlantic.
Rooting for the home team doesn’t preclude them from being household names around the world.
Whereas 15 singles appeared on both the UK and US lists, there are 23 albums.
36 of these were US #1s and 62 charted in the US top 10. Only 18 either charted outside the US 100 or not at all (the aforementioned Robbie and Take That doing the heavy lifting here) or weren’t even deemed worthy of a US release – hello again to singles alumni Robson & Jerome (#77). Trust me, you really didn’t miss anything where they’re concerned.
But they hit a real sweet spot of scoring with people of a certain age that hitherto showed little interest in music, e.g. my mum…
,,,but who recognised the duo from that TV show they were in.
Whereas TV singing shows were a great vehicle for propelling debut singles to million+ sales the same isn’t true here.
Only Leona Lewis (#25) and the anomaly that is Susan Boyle (#87) managed it. SuBo going for the same mature demographic as Robson & Jerome.
Speaking of maturity, Susan also takes the honours for oldest artist with a studio album; 48 when “I Dreamed A Dream” was released. At the other end of the scale Rihanna and Adele at 19 are the only two teenagers.
Christmas singles are the gift that keeps giving. But we’re not so keen on a whole album.
Whereas the singles list has 8 of them, the only representative here is the “Now That’s What I Call Christmas” compilation (#86). 71 tracks across three discs: thereby rendering all other Christmas albums redundant.
The “Now” series also supplies the one other compilation to feature.
Though what was so special about “Now 44″ (#94) to get it on the list, I have no idea. Its sales dwarf the releases either side of it in the series.
These are the only two compilations in the 100 and due to a technicality, the only albums not to feature on the standard UK chart. From 1988 compilations were ineligible for the main chart and given their own compilation chart to fight it out in.
They’re two of 11 not to top the album chart.
“Dark Side Of The Moon” may be 8th on the all time list, spending 560 weeks on the chart but it never reached #1.
It debuted at #2, held off the top by the giant that was K-Tel’s “20 Flash Back Greats Of The Sixties.” Creation of the compilation chart came 15 years too late for this classic.
The lowest charting album is “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of ‘The War Of The Worlds'” – to give it its full title. Never charted higher than #5. Also claims the niche honour of biggest selling musical adaptation of a classic sci-fi novel.
Back to those big names missing from the singles equivalent:
U2 gain entry with “The Joshua Tree” (#40,) though the surprise is that “The Corrs” (#37) beat them to highest placed Irish act.
Madonna makes two appearances with “The Immaculate Collection” (#15) and “True Blue” (#97).
Still no Bruce Springsteen (12 UK album chart toppers) Rolling Stones (11) or David Bowie (11). Elvis is holder of most #1 albums not to make the list with 13, though he did place on the 100 singles.
Come back next time, when I’ll be rounding things off with a look at the 100 Biggest Selling Albums in the US.
Who will take the coveted top spot?
Eagles, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac or LMFAO?
(Spoiler alert; it’s not LMFAO.)
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I actually have a copy of that Now 44. I remember getting it during the holiday season of ‘99 at a Virgin Records megastore in New York while on vacation. The big appeal was the inclusion of the Lou Bega and Eiffel 65 songs, which were unavailable as retail singles in the U.S.
Thats one sale accounted for, another 2,099,999 to go.
Two songs that had a surprisingly long afterlife. Mambo No.5 was the theme tune to Channel 4s cricket coverage from 1999 to 2005. It might be thanks to the cricket that it became a hit as it only reached #31 here initially but a few weeks later once it started to accompany the cricket it re-entered the charts at #1. Lou Bega reckoned that England beating Australia in 2005, for the first time since 1987, was 50% down to him. Perhaps overstating his role a little.
While Eiffel 65 have been all over the radio for the past year thanks to the David Guetta / Bebe Rexha reworking of Blue (Da Ba Dee) as I’m Good (Blue)
“Including those two appearances with Take That [Robbie Williams] places at 64, 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70.”
This would seems to indicate it’s exactly the same million or so superfans buying his albums… and no one else.
Pretty impressive nonetheless to keep those same fans happy over that long a stretch. Everyone of those albums is recorded as having sales of 2.4 million, which to do over here usually means you’re appealing to a wide range of people outside your usual fanbase. Or in Robbie’s case it appears that he perfected the art of giving them what they wanted.
I had that Corrs album and didn’t have the U2 album, so I can confirm people who prefer the Corrs exist.
Not that it matters when listening to the music but the Corrs were certainly a lot easier on the eye than U2 – three quarters of them anway. And from a straight male perspective.
Came as a surprise to me that for all their fame, longevity and hit singles and albums to find that U2 didn’t sell such huge quantities (here at least) after all.
Me too!!
Nice analysis! I’m really surprised the 70s have so few entries. It was the album age. I was also surprised that “Sgt. Pepper” and “Dark Side Of The Moon” sold only 4.5 million each. Then I remembered this is just for the UK only. It’s a small country.
Any idea how much different the results would be if greatest hits, soundtracks, and other compilations weren’t included? “Sgt. Pepper” would be #1, which is as it should be, but I’m curious which acts would make the top 100 who aren’t there now.
A platinum album in the UK means 300,000 sales so getting to a million is an achievement. Based on the list I used there are 103 albums to have sold 2m. At 101 was another best of but 102 and 103 are Justin Timberlake – Justified and Christina Aguilera – Stripped.
Taking out Soundtracks and compilations makes space for 26 studio albums.
Queen would drop off the list completely. Their only studio album to sell a million is the posthumous one nobody would pick as their favourite; Made In Heaven. The Freddie Mercury death cult strikes again.
Joining Justin and Christina in the top 100 studio albums are;
Bruno Mars – Doo Wop and Hooligans
Moby – Play
Craig David – Born To Do It
Nirvana – Nevermind
Katie Melua – Call Off The Search
Stereophonics – Just Enough Education To Perform
Terence Trent D’Arby – The Hardline…
Pink – M!ssundaztood
Avril Lavigne – Let Go
Blondie – Parallel Lines
George Michael – Older
Jason Donovan – Ten Good Reasons
Madonna – Ray of Light & Music
Westlife – Coast To Coast
Carreras, Domingo & Pavarotti – Three Tenors In Concert
Abba – Arrival
Will Young – Friday’s Child
Texas – White On Blonde
Daniel Beddingfield – Gotta Get Thru This
Eva Cassidy – Songbird
Robbie Williams (again!) – Intensive Care
KT Tunstall – Eye To The Telescope
Lighthouse Family – Ocean Drive
Other than Madonna adding another 2 entries plenty of new names but almost all from the 90s and 00s. Not too much added diversity but we do we get a classical album thanks to the Three Tenors cashing in on their Italia 90 World Cup performances – though I guess that one is a bit of an Operatic Greatest hits
Wow, good work! I’d gladly lose the compilations for adding Blondie, Eva Cassidy, and Nirvana.
Hype is fun. How can you not be intrigued by an album whose artist makes the promise that “it’s the best album since Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
The Hardline According to…wasn’t. But what if it was? You had to find out.
Terrence Trent D’Arby doesn’t want people to know he exists. His new name is Sananda Meitreya. Nothing wrong with that. But some of his fans thought he retired.
Texas never found an audience in America. Too bad. Their body of work is pretty consistent. I like them almost as much as Deacon Blue.
Parallel Lines rules.
Took Texas a while to find an audience here. First album did OK, second and third passed by without anyone noticing. Probably came as a surprise to the band, the label and the public that they were still going when album four went huge.
Terrence / Sananda is prolific. If far out. The Rise of the Zugebrian Timelords suggests he’s on some personal journey to a galaxy far far away.
Looking at Texas discography and had completely forgotten the unlikely Wu-Tang collaboration. Differs from the norm of having a rapper phone in a verse to lend some credibility, there’s more Method Man than Sharleen.
https://youtu.be/lKVhXbrsbOQ
If you had a Venn diagram of Wu-Tang Clan fans and Texas fans, how much overlap would there be? Sometimes it works, though. I like ASAP Rocky’s guest rap on Jesse Ware’s “Wildest Moments”.
Ah, album sales. A more resilient measure of popularity than track streaming. As such, this list is far more reasonable than the Top 100 singles. Less surprising, I guess, but it’s good not feeling like I live in cloud cuckoo land.
I just wrote about Queen Greatest Hits being one of my favorite compilation albums, although the US and UK have different versions I think. For one, we didn’t have numbered volumes; we had Greatest Hits, followed by Classic Queen.
Greatest Hits was by far the superior entry, yet its lack of Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure, and Stone Cold Crazy made for some false advertisement.
Classic Queen had those three giants…and some enjoyably okay 80s stuff. Not even “Princes of the Universe,” from Highlander!
…but I digress!
Just looking at Classic Queen and that track listing is all over the place. Includes Headlong but no Flash. Hammer To Fall but not I Want To Break Free. A very random selection.
Queen’s Greatest Hits: The cassette was on sale at Tower Records for $5.99. Anything that wasn’t on The Game(with the exception of “We Will Rock You”/”We Are the Champions”) was new to me. That was a good day.
My favorite deep track after The Works is “Rain Will Fall”.
“Hammer to Fall” sounds like a hit song.
It’s always interesting to see the deviation of charts like this between ‘two countries separated by a common language.’ Obviously, rooting for the home team comes heavily into play. I wonder who or what group from the US considered unsuccessful at home had the greatest success in the UK, and vice versa. Sorry for the convoluted grammar.
Just so happens that I can partially answer that with one that I prepared earlier;
https://www.tnocs.com/tepid-in-toledo-but-lauded-in-liverpooleight-us-acts-that-were-more-popular-in-the-uk/
In terms of acts on the 100 biggest albums. Tracy Chapman is at 48 on the UK list but doesn’t come close to the US 100. She did still sell 6m copies of her debut though so it’s not like she was unsuccessful. These things are relative.
Going the other way there are two English bands that will feature multiple times on the US 100 next week but are nowhere to be seen on the UK 100. One in particular is a very big name. Again, it’s not a case that they weren’t successful at home, just that they were even bigger in the US.
One other British band that don’t feature on any of these lists but were better known in the 90s for being bigger in the US was Bush. They had moderate success here but sold a lot more albums in the US.
So you say it’s LMFAO at the top over here, huh? Now I gotta know… was it for their debut Party Rock or their sophomore release Sorry for Party Rocking?
Don’t wanna ruin the surprise. Come back next week…..
Keep these coming, baby! Loving this series.
That is quite interesting how Anglo-centric that list is. If y’all are gonna sit down and have an entire album to play, it better be an act that knows the last letter of the alphabet is zed, dangnabbit.
Thanks for the continued research into trying to unravel the mess on each of the pond shores, jj!
But on occasion when we do want to musically venture away from our island we might indulge in a bit of Zed Zed Top. 😁