Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Here is a list of the all-time top selling albums (number in perenthesis indicates total U.S. sales in millions):

THE EAGLES - "Eagles/Their Greatest Hits: 1971-75" (29)
MICHAEL JACKSON - "Thriller" (27)
LED ZEPPELIN - "Led Zeppelin IV" (23)
PINK FLOYD - "The Wall" (23)
AC/DC - "Back in Black" (21)
BILLY JOEL - "Greatest Hits Vol. I & II" (21)
GARTH BROOKS - "Double Live" (20)
SHANIA TWAIN - "Come On Over" (20)
THE BEATLES - "The Beatles" (19)
FLEETWOOD MAC - "Rumours" (19)
BOSTON - "Boston" (17)
WHITNEY HOUSTON - "The Bodyguard" (soundtrack) (17)
THE BEATLES - "The Beatles 1967-70" (16)
GARTH BROOKS - "No Fences" (16)
THE EAGLES - "Hotel California" (16)
HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH - "Cracked Rear View" (16)
ELTON JOHN - "Greatest Hits" (16)
LED ZEPPELIN - "Physical Graffiti" (16)
ALANIS MORISSETTE - "Jagged Little Pill" (16)
THE BEATLES - "The Beatles 1962-66" (15)
BEE GEES - "Saturday Night Fever" (soundtrack) (15)
GUNS N' ROSES - "Appetite for Destruction" (15)
PINK FLOYD - "Dark Side of the Moon" (15)
SANTANA - "Supernatural" (15)
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - "Born in the U.S.A." (15)
BACKSTREET BOYS - "Backstreet Boys" (14)
GARTH BROOKS - "Ropin' the Wind" (14)
JOURNEY - "Greatest Hits" (14)
MEAT LOAF - "Bat Out of Hell" (14)
METALLICA - "Metallica" (14)
SIMON & GARFUNKEL - "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits" (14)
BRITNEY SPEARS - "... Baby One More Time" (14)

The 20 top-selling artists in millions of albums/CDs (number in perenthesis indicates total U.S. sales in millions):

01. THE BEATLES (168.5)
02. ELVIS PRESLEY (118.5)
03. GARTH BROOKS (116)
04. LED ZEPPELIN (109.5)
05. EAGLES (91)
06. BILLY JOEL (79.5)
07. PINK FLOYD (73.5)
08. BARBRA STREISAND (71)
09. ELTON JOHN (69)
10. AC/DC (66)
11. THE ROLLING STONES (65.5)
12. AEROSMITH (65.5)
13. MADONNA (63)
14. GEORGE STRAIT (62.5)
15. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (62)
16. MARIAH CAREY (61.5)
17. MICHAEL JACKSON (60.5)
18. METALLICA (57)
19. VAN HALEN (56.5)
20. WHITNEY HOUSTON (54)


Does anyone know where use your illusions should be?  i thought they sold over 30 million combined...

I thought they sold ~10 million copies combined.. Has anyone got a list with albumsales/total albums[by the artist]?

yeah.... worldwide the illusions sold around 30 million copies

and didn`t appetite sell over 18 million in the us alone?? and 35+ worldwide....

Oh, then I apologize.. I guess I should update my GN'R-trivia :P

From what year is the list?

yeah i have the same numbers as you... it seems that this list is not updated

riaa-us sales afd- 15 mil uyi1- 7mil uyi2- 7mil lies- 5mil si- 1mil live era- 500,000 gh- 3mil? ?38.5 mil in US AS OF 7-31-06? ?any worldwide sales figures are EXTREMELY SPECULATIVE.

http://www.riaa.com/gp/bestsellers/topartists.asp

Gnr is the 35th highest selling artist in Us album sales.

When did Rumours drop so far down the list?  :nervous: It used to be up in the top 3 competing against MJ and the Eagles for the top spot.

That list is old, or they stopped issuing certificated for appetite, cause is probably around 19-20 million by now..  It was up at 15 million back in 1991...

Guys, its a list of top selling albums in the states not worldwide.

There's some real pish in that list, right enough.

If its old, why isn't Rumours higher up on the list?

Smoking, the list was updated 7-31-06. AFD was last certified 15 times in 1998. That is the only official number we have now. It will probably change when Chinese comes out and the record company starts promotion-they will pay to have the album certified-it probably has sold 2-4 million since 98...or maybe when the 20th anniversary hits.Right now though, it is 15 million US. Here is the OFFICIAL link
http://www.riaa.com/gp/bestsellers/topalbums.asp

afd is tied for the 20th highest selling album in US.

AFD sold 15 million in the US and 25 million world wide (i think world wide includes the US)

Eastern Europe and China would have boosted sales, although they prefer copies  :hihi:

I read an article last year saying GNR were about to pass the 100 million worldwide album sales mark.

Figures like those above do not add up.

it was pretty hard to buy originals in the eastern europe for a very long time.


guns received the diamond award from the riaa in 1999 (anly steven went to get the award). and it's selling a few hundred thousand every year so i think it's close to 18 million now in the us alone
us sales
appetite - 18 million
uyi1 - 8 million
uyi2 - 8 million
spaghetti - 2 million?
greatest hits - 4-5 million
live era and lies - can't remember

double those sales at least for world wide and it's getting close

Maybe the guy who said Shania Twain should open for GN'R got the order in which they should play wrong. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm kind of curious if the Greatest Hits album helped or hurt Appetite's cause (since a lot of the songs were from that album).

Only 3 out of the 14 tracks are from AFD

Fuck you're right, I actually just picked it up a few months back for a couple bucks (more because I"m a completist than anything), and I just kind of assumed that it was mostly. Appetite. Thanks for pointing that out.

It must be noted that those figures are from the RIAA (people have called them into question), are only American and that they are the number of albums shipped to stores, not actually sold to consumers.

yeah... this doesn't even count europe as far as i know...

hell bon jovi has sold 100 mill and are not there and gn'r has sold way way way more than 50 mill world wide and are not there...

i would be interesting to actually get the official figures tho, if possible...

IT'S US ALBUM SALES/SHIPMENTS ONLY!! CAN YOU PEOPLE READ? :rofl: IT'S as official as you are going to get in America. Soundscan tracks actual sales but has only been around since 90-91. Gnr has roughly sold 38.5 million in the US. Worldwide figures are best estimate around 90 million. Someone could email Merck...maybe he would have a more accurate figure for worldwide sales. Mysteron?????? :beer:

yeah, Guns N' Roses have sold around 85/90 million records worldwide. But not 100 million. No. Maybe they will do it with "Chinese Democracy". It just needs to sell 10/12 million copies in the world. With a good and serious promotion, good singles and videos, it's possible I think. There is a huge sales potencial with the demos. Mass appeal. The sales of ChiDem could be pretty big. We will see that in a couple of years. I don't worry for that. Guns N' Roses will always sell lots of records :smoking:

Thats classic. :hihi:

I agree with you that there will most likely never be a true figure on how many they(or anyone else) actually sold. Its just not an exact science.

Didn't they start using soundscan right before UYI came out? I think that it why Nirvana  knocked Micheal Jackson out of the top spot, because they went by records sold, instead of records shipped

Wow I would have thought Use Your Illusions would have had bigger sales than Appetite... I mean, they're better CD's for starters...

UYI are not better than AFD...are  you mad, I say, Are you MAD : ok:

Some like Welcome To The Jungle and the rest like Estranged & November Rain, guess which I like ;)

way before the greatest hits came out, any gnr article claimed that the band sold "more than 85 million records worldwide".... so i guess it`s safe to say they?re at ca 95 million records sold now. i mean how did the GH`s sell? i think it sold 5.7 million copies in the first year alone worldwide...

It really surprises me that Dark Side Of The Moon is that low  :o

Yeah I agree something is strange with those numbers. It was published for the longest time that Dark Side of the Moon out sold The Wall by far and now its behind in the ranking. Weird, they look like they should be reversed that would make more sense to me. I simply can't beleive that AFD has out sold or sold the same amount of copies as Dark Side of the Moon even worse Jagged Little Pill and Hootie sold more as well.... that's screwed!

... Not only that where the hell is Sgt. Peppers   give me a break smells like bullshit to me

This is American sales, and whilst 'Sgt. Pepper...' is acclaimed (wrongly in my opinion) as the best Beatles album, it doesn't mean it sold the most.

'The Beatles' came out at a time when 'Beatle-Mania' was bonkers and everyone with a pulse and wanted to be cool, bought it.

First off..... I was talking about American sales. I remember when Thriller became number 1 in sales (which tells you I'm getting old haha) on the news it was reported it surpassed the sales of Sgt.Pepper and Rumors by Mac 3rd at that time, it was only much later that the Eagles passed them all (with the help of their comeback tours in the late 90's).

By the way just for the record I consider "Revolver" the best Beatles album

one more point where is "The Joshua Tree" it sold a crap load of copies and is not on the list either

Cheers 

Are you ignorant-seriously? Go to the links I provided on the prior page and scroll down-all your questions will be there.? ::) ;D THE LIST WAS UPDATED TWO WEEKS AGO. This is funny as hell. By the way, double albums/cd's sold together like the Wall, Physical Graffitti, Billy Joel, and The Beatles (White Album) get double credit-in other words, if they shipped 11 million, they are put on the list at 22 million since they technically shipped two records per transaction. GO TO THE RIAA WEBSITE.

Take it easy there madagas!

Just after I posted I went to the RIAA link you provided and stand corrected I was posting of things I thought I remebered I stand corrected. I seriously thought that Sgt.Peppers sold alot more copies. And as you state the dbl albums count I am technically not wrong about Dark Side out selling The Wall.

No, The Beatles came out in 1968, Beatlemania was 1963- early 1966ish.  If it was the buzz of Beatlemania that drove them into the lists then it would be A Hard Day's Night or Help! that got them there.  A case could be put forward for Rubber Soul, which in terms of the songwriting is surely their best album, but I would contend that as it isn't a Beatlemania album as such, its a much more mature effort than that.

App sold 22+ in the US along. UYI1&2 have sold 15+ LIES has sold 10+

If thats true, why is the OFFICIAL list for American sales showing something different.

If you are going to open your piehole, have some evidence behind it

please do tell your source...

Because they haven't been certified lately?

AFD has probably sold around 18 mil in the US, although it only shows 15, because thats when it was last certified (1999)

Other than GH, the last official certification (I think, anyway) was in June 2001 for Live Era.

I found these rather shocking:  From http://sec.edgar-online.com/2006/06/29/0000950123-06-008351/Section1.asp

Best-selling titles (units sold, in millions)


2005                         2004
Artist                                   Units          Artist        Units


Mariah Carey                                  8     Eminem                 9
50 Cent                                       8     U2                     8
Black Eyed Peas                               7     Shania Twain           5
Eminem                                        5     Guns N'Roses           5
Gwen Stefani                                  4     Black Eyed Peas        4
Kanye West                                    4     Nelly (Suit)           4
Jack Johnson                                  4     Ashlee Simpson         4
The Game                                      3     D-12                   3
Nickelback                                    3     Kanye West             3
NOW 20                                        3     Keane                  3
The Killers                                   3     NOW 16                 3
Bon Jovi                                      3     Toby Keith             3
OST "Get Rich Or Die Tryin"                   2     George Strait          3
The Pussycat Dolls                            2     Hoobastank             3
Fallout Boy                                   2     Gwen Stefani           2
% of top 15 of total units sold by UMG       13 %                         13 %

Wow, I didn't realize that Universal's roster was that bad. Unless something is horribly wrong with the world, I think it's fair to expect a new GNR album to outsell an OST.   

Last reliable info I heard was that according to Sound-Scan Greatest Hits sold 100,000 copies in the USA in the first week of January 2007.

But most sources on sales data seem to have stopped counting years ago when AFD hit 15 million sold.

AC/DC has sold 42-plus million copies worldwide of one album: Back in Black.

No one tops that.

Oh, and that list is from two years ago. I distinctly remember AC/DC hitting 21 mil US in an article and it cited Soundscan. It might even be slightly older than that ...

Those who like to speculate about if CD is going to be treated and promoted like a major release, or how much pull Axl has with the record label should look at that RIAA list for the sales of Geffen/Interscope artists. Appetite is by far the biggest release they ever had.

Appetite- as of 1998 15 million
Lies-2.5 million
Use Your Illusions combined-16.7 million
TSI-triple platinum in U.S.-3.5 million
Live Era-?
Greatest Hits-2.3 million
Chinese Democracy?

GNR has sold over 90 million albums worldwide so far!

Makes it a bit easier to read ...

Michael Jackson - Thriller has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, more than Gunners albums combined. Hell, more than Metallica albums combined.

Nope. Thriller has probably sold something like 45 to 50 million albums worldwide.

It's impossible to know, but Michael Jackson has been given more than one award for the claim that thriller sold 104 million copies worldwide. I'm pretty sure no other album even comes close to the possibility of 100 million sold.

http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/news/16112006/jackos_back

Thank you for replying to tell me that I'm wrong with a statement that features the word 'probably', against my argument which features evidence supporting it, as shown in the article featured in the post above mine - I appreciate it.