The Official Charts Company, the organization that tracks music sales in Great Britain, has updated their list of the biggest selling albums of all-time in the U.K.
The organization is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary of publishing the first album chart on July 22, 1956 by listing the sixty biggest from over that time. At the top of the list is Queen’s Greatest Hits which has, to date, sold over six million copies and has been in the Top 100 for 729 weeks.
In second is ABBA Gold with 5.2 million followed by the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at 5.1 million. Adele’s 21 and Oasis’ What’s the Story Morning Glory fill out the top five. Adele’s 25, released late last year, is already at number 27.
Robbie Williams has the most albums in the top 60 with four (two solo and two with Take That). Take That, as a group, have three (two with Williams and one without) as do Coldplay. Amazingly, artists like the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Queen only have two each, although both of Queen’s and Jackson’s are in the top ten.
Over the sixty years of the official Albums chart, there have been almost 1,100 different number one albums so it could be easily assumed that all of the entries in the top 60 would have been chart toppers. In reality, five of the sixty never made number 1 including the album at number 7, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which only hit number 2. Even more interestingly, number 19, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, peaked at number 9 but it has been a consistent seller over the last thirty-nine years. The other three are the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing (#22) which went to number 4, Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds (#37) which peaked at 5, and Take That’s Never Forget: The Ultimate Collection (#59), which topped out at 2.
Here are the top 25:
1. Greatest Hits – Queen
2. Gold: Greatest Hits – ABBA
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Beatles
4. 21 – Adele
5. What’s the Story Morning Glory – Oasis
6. Thriller – Michael Jackson
7. The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
8. Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits
9. Bad – Michael Jackson
10. Greatest Hits II – Queen
11. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
12. The Immaculate Collection – Madonna
13. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
14. Stars – Simply Red
15. Come On Over – Shania Twain
16. Legend – Bob Marley & the Wailers
17. Back to Bedlam – James Blunt
18. Urban Hymn – Verve
19. Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf
20. 1 – Beatles
21. Bridge Over Trouble Water – Simon & Garfunkel
22. Dirty Dancing – Original Soundtrack, Various Artists
23. Spirit – Leona Lewis
24. Crazy Love – Michael Buble
25. No Angel – Dido
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