The Top 10 Singles Artists 1959-2009 (UK)

[Mael]

The biggest selling singles act of all time in the UK is Cliff Richard, who has sold 21,328,000 singles since 1958 debut. Elvis Presley follows close of 20,918,000 and the Beatles sit in third place 20,821,000 but both Presley and Richard enjoyed considerable sales prior to September 1959, and the biggest selling singles act of the last 50 years is The Beatles, whose sales all fall within the period.

Richard has sold 20,183,000 singles since 1959, while Presley's tally of 15,824,000 puts him fourth in the table of the top acts in the last 50 years Madonna, who has sold 16,793,000 singles. The rest of the top 10 is as follows

5 Elton John 14,099,000
6 Michael Jackson 13,808,000
7 Queen 11,493,000
8 ABBA 10,812,000
9 Paul McCartney 10,034,000
10 David Bowie 10,012,000

The Beatles formidable total has hardly changed in the last 5 years, increasing during that period by 21,000, as physical stocks of their singles run out, while they remain unavailable as downloads. In the same period Cliff Richard has sold 375,000 singles, and Elvis Presley has sold a whopping 1,600,298, partly due a successful reissue campaign which saw many of his most popular titles re issued on CD and 10 inch and partly from sales of downloads of his extensive catalogue.


Source: Music Week, by Alan Jones

[memphis]

Thanks Martin,

The problem with a retrospective look at the last 50 years is that it gives a skewed picture of the truth. As we all know Elvis had many big hits prior to the Summer of 1959. The UK retrospective is similar to the one recently published by 'Billboard' Magazine which also suffered from the same time frame problem.Whether the figures produced during the relevant 50 year time frame are accurate is anybody's guess. I suspect those produced since the invention of 'Point of Sales' machines which scan the bar codes will be fairly accurate however. The figures in my initial posting came from the following retrospective:

Brian

MUSIC WEEK MARKS ITS 50th ANNIVERSARY in next week’s issue with a free celebratory supplement looking back on the last half century of the music industry.
The special supplement will take a detailed, decade-by-decade look at the key developments and moments since Music Week predecessor Record Retailer launched in the summer of 1959.

There are also exclusive interviews and profiles of many of the industry’s key figures and executives explaining landmark developments in the history of the modern industry.

Among the names featured are Cliff Richard, who with The Shadows was number one with Living Doll when the first issue of Record Retailer was published. Sir Cliff offers a unique artist’s insight into how the industry has grown and developed from the pioneering days of the late Fifties to the digital-shaped industry today.

Within the supplement we will also take a look at the biggest selling singles and albums of the past 50 years, including the top - selling singles and albums of each year and an exclusive countdown courtesy of the Official Charts Company of the 50 biggest-selling albums since 1959. All of this will be accompanied by overviews of the singles and albums markets over the past 50 years by Music Week’s chart expert Alan Jones.

Music Week editor Paul Williams says, “We have been busy over these past few months putting together this supplement to serve both as a souvenir to mark the first 50 years of Music Week and as a fitting tribute to the music industry during this time”.


MUSIC WEEK MARKS ITS 50th ANNIVERSARY in next week’s issue with a free celebratory supplement looking back on the last half century of the music industry.
The special supplement will take a detailed, decade-by-decade look at the key developments and moments since Music Week predecessor Record Retailer launched in the summer of 1959.

There are also exclusive interviews and profiles of many of the industry’s key figures and executives explaining landmark developments in the history of the modern industry.

Among the names featured are Cliff Richard, who with The Shadows was number one with Living Doll when the first issue of Record Retailer was published. Sir Cliff offers a unique artist’s insight into how the industry has grown and developed from the pioneering days of the late Fifties to the digital-shaped industry today.

Within the supplement we will also take a look at the biggest selling singles and albums of the past 50 years, including the top - selling singles and albums of each year and an exclusive countdown courtesy of the Official Charts Company of the 50 biggest-selling albums since 1959. All of this will be accompanied by overviews of the singles and albums markets over the past 50 years by Music Week’s chart expert Alan Jones.

Music Week editor Paul Williams says, “We have been busy over these past few months putting together this supplement to serve both as a souvenir to mark the first 50 years of Music Week and as a fitting tribute to the music industry during this time”.

[nealumphred]

MAEL and MEMPHIS

We are all gonna live long enough to see them make up (literally) irrelevant charts and listings that will gradually push Elvis outta the picture.

Here's another thing to think about: If we took the popular and relevant and necessary economic concept of adjusting figures such as prices from the past (like, a US dollar in the '50s is worth almost $20 in today's money) and applied it to LP sales, think of what it would tell us: one could argue that the 360,000 sales of LPM-1254 is the legitimate THRILLER of the '50s. . .

Rockahula, baby,

NEAL