top selling albums
Posted by badartdog on 28 October 2008 - 8:36am.
An article in yesterday's Guardian which said that AC/DC's Back in Black was the second best selling album of all time led me to this list of best sellers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide and I was surprised by a lot of them. Maybe you already know, but if not, just try and guess the biggies before looking.
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No wonder...
...Nick Lowe looks so relaxed. The Bodyguard OST at number 3, featuring Curtis Stigers' version of 'What's So Funny'. Bon chance, Mr Basher!
And not just Basher
Lisa Stansfield no longer had to worry about paying for the mock-Tudor in Rochdale after getting a one-third credit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bodyguard_Soundtrack
NB No post-2002 albums make the cut. Why? Illegal downloading? More choice? No Backstreet Boys albums since then? Discuss.
And Bill Withers!
Good to see the great man has a one sixth credit on one song - good for a loft conversion, I'd have thought...
Good to see the punchline...
... for one of my favourite gags getting credit - at least some good can come from an awful film.
Fascinating but spurious
There's no way a list like this can be accurate. How can you possibly count up all the copies of an album sold in the world? In many areas of the world music is sold through dodgy tapes on street stalls and I'm sure there are many places where even legitimate sales are not counted properly. Apparently if the charts were accurate they would be almost entirely dominated by soundtracks to Bollywood films.
To be fair...
The Wikipedia entry does make that point.
Wow
Backstreet Boys have done well for a bunch of no accounts, Linkin Park and Iron Butterfly are a bit of a surprise.
Oh Dear,
If this is accurate, I'm really depressed. But I don't buy a lot of it, so it's more of a talking point rather than the last word. I was under the impression that getting accurate sales figures out of record companies was virtually impossible.
Thriller has shifted more than 100 million? A few years ago the standard figure for that one was around 40 million (still impressive); I can't accept for a second that since about 1999 Mr. Jackson has sold an additional 60 million units. 60,000, perhaps. Given that the sources seem to be articles that are quoting press releases (am I the only one that actually looks up some of Wikipedia's references for fun?) we can safely dismiss that one as a pile of steaming wombat shit.
Two Celine Dion albums in the 30-39m range, along with Mariah Carey and Shania Twain in the same bracket, would seem to confirm that we are actually living in one of the circles of hell. When people occasionally defend a piece of crap with the words, "but it's sold heaps" I usually take a moment to point out that one of the biggest selling singles of the 90s was "The Macarena". Tends to settle the argument quickly, although I might start directing such misguided folk to this web page, the 20-25 million list in particular.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
25 million!! Really??
World sales
My guess is that if all the dodgy tapes and CD's in developing countries were taken into account, "Thriller" would extend its lead (at least to realise the upper end of its sales estimates), even accounting for Bollywood soundtracks.
Maybe Bob Marley's "Legend" compilation would have a chance of entering the chart.
On the Backstage podcast with the Eagles fella
Heppers sez 2 out of the top 10 selling albums of all time are by the Eagles. Not according to this list. If he reads this - where'd ya get yr info?