Queen reigns as best seller on U.K. top 100 chart
Last Updated: Thursday, November 16, 2006 | 4:59 PM ET
CBC Arts
Queen's Greatest Hits, a 1981 release from the British band fronted by Freddie Mercury, has been named Britain's best-selling album of all time.
A list of the top 100 best-sold albums in Britain released Thursday has two albums by Queen in the top 10. It was compiled by the Official U.K. Charts Co. and music channel VH1.
Brian May of Queen performs during the VH1 Rock Honors concert in Las Vegas on Thursday.
(Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)
Queen's Greatest Hits, with tracks of the ubiquitous Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You, sold 5.4 million albums.
Greatest Hits II is in seventh place with 3.6 million in sales.
The Queen musical We Will Rock You, scheduled to open in Toronto soon, is a long-running hit in London.
The Beatles 1967 release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came second, selling 4.8 million albums.
The list, compiled for the first time by totting up sales figures from the last 50 years, is surprisingly pop-oriented.
Albums by Dire Straits, ABBA, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and Madonna are also in the top 10, but critically acclaimed and long-lasting musicians, including Bob Dylan, Sting and The Rolling Stones, have nothing in the top 100.
Canadian diva Celine Dion has three albums in the top 100, as do Oasis and Michael Jackson.
Jackson's Thriller ranks as the biggest-selling album of all time, according to the Guinness Book of Records, but is eighth on the U.K. chart.
Pink Floyd, left off Time's list of 100 greatest albums released this week, makes a respectable showing among the top sellers with 3.8 million copies of Dark Side of the Moon selling in the U.K.
Relative newcomers such as James Blunt, Eminem and Justin Timberlake make up a substantial chunk of the list. Boy band singer turned soloist Robbie Williams has six albums.
The top 10 best-selling albums in Britain:
- Queen, Greatest Hits.
- Beatles, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory.
- Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms.
- Abba Gold, Greatest Hits.
- Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
- Queen, Greatest Hits II.
- Michael Jackson, Thriller.
- Michael Jackson, Bad.
- Madonna, The Immaculate Collection.
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