Artist News

Adele’s 21 outsells Jackson’s Thriller

By | Published on Friday 4 May 2012

Adele

So, Adele’s ’21’ has now outsold Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to become the fifth biggest selling album of all-time in the UK, and she did it without a death-induced burst of nostalgia-buying. Imagine what she could achieve if she died in suspicious circumstances.

Confirming ’21’ had now outsold ‘Thriller’ by over 500 units, Official Charts Company top man boss chief Martin Talbot told CMU: “To add to her many landmark records, Adele’s achievement in overtaking ‘Thriller’ in the all-time sales list is truly remarkable. ‘Thriller’ has long been recognised as one of the most iconic albums of all time – there is now no doubt that ’21’ can be spoken of in the same breath”.

You know, whenever the sales/ratings for new things are compared to the sales/ratings of old things, I do wonder just how accurate the stats were back in the day before bar code scanning and generally-pretty-damn-accurate download-store report sheets were the norm. Though presumably labels new how many records were returned from the record shops, even when not everyone chart returned.

Anyway, well done Adele, what a lot of numbers you’ve achieved. And here, as of yesterday, are the five best selling albums of all time in the UK, according to the good old OCC:

1. Queen – Greatest Hits (1981)
2. The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (1967)
3. Abba Gold – Greatest Hits (1992)
4. Oasis – What’s The Story Morning Glory (1995)
5. Adele – 21 (2011)



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