19 July 2022
The Queen group achieved a historic achievement in the charts in Britain, becoming the first group to sell seven million copies of a single album.
Britain’s official track record label said one in four households in the country owns a copy of Queen’s 1981 album “The Greatest Songs”.
The album, which features hits such as We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody, has been a best-selling record for years.
The album recently spent its 1,000th week among the UK’s best-selling albums charts.
Queen’s guitarist Brian May called the latest achievement “exciting news”.
“No album has ever achieved such a feat in history,” he said in a statement.
“Thank you, we appreciate that,” he added.
“British audiences and their great taste have made this the best-selling album in history,” added drummer Roger Taylor.
He added, “Thank you very much. We are honored by your praise. We salute you!”
Queen’s “Greatest Songs” album topped the charts with nearly one million copies in total, surpassing “Gold”, which includes the best ABBA songs. ABBAIt was published in 1992.
picture released, Record company
Martin Talbot, chief executive of UK charts, said: ‘When it was first released in 1981, albums containing the top songs of musicians of their careers, such as Queen’s Greatest Songs, were relatively rare, and were limited to only the biggest hits. stars”.
“There is no doubt that the tremendous success of Queen’s album played a prominent role in the spread of ‘Greatest Songs’ albums as we see now,” he added.
Queen’s second greatest hits album, released in October 1991, a month before the death of the band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, is the 10th best-selling album in Britain, with sales of nearly four million.
In 2014, Queen’s Greatest Song became the first album to sell more than six million copies in Britain.
At the time, listings included only “pure” sales, ie vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and downloads.
A year later, online streaming of songs was consolidated into sales charts, with 1,000 live streams counted as a single “sale.”
The listings company said that the song with the most streams online on the album was Bohemian Rhapsody.
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According to calculations provided by the band’s company, Queen Productions Limited, direct sales and listening to their songs amounted to £39m of intellectual property in the past financial year.
But veteran singer-songwriter Elton John has warned that the continued presence of albums of the greatest hits of famous bands and singers limits the chances of new businesses succeeding.
“The sales lists are full of names like ABBA and Quinn,” Elton John said.
“It’s sad – there are so many good albums that deserve to be bestselling albums, like Juanita Yucca, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen,” John said. What I want to know is why are they not among the best sellers? Because of people like me!”
Britain’s best-selling albums of all time:
- Queen – Greatest Songs
- oppa – gold
- The Beatles – Sargent Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Adele – 21
- Oasis – What’s the Story
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
- Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
- Dire Streets – Brothers in Arms
- Michael Jackson – Bad
- Queen – Greatest Songs 2
