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THE MILLION SELLERS - The UK’s Greatest Hits

04/11/2012

To celebrate the book’s launch, the Official Charts Company reveals below the 123 biggest selling singles of all time

The Million Sellers book cover November 2012 celebrates 60 glittering years of the British institution that is the Official Singles Chart.

The current UK singles market is booming with 2012 set to be the biggest year in history for singles, however, despite this, it still takes something special for a record to join the hallowed ‘Million Sellers Club’. An elite musical community of just over 120 songs, which, in their own unique way, crossed the border into legendary chart status on UK shores.

The Official Charts Company, the providers of the UK's only official music charts announces the publication of The Million Sellers. Available to pre-order now, this hardback book is the definitive collection of essays and artist Q&As on the123 million-selling singles, starting with the emergent white rock ’n’ roll of 1956 and running through to the contemporary big hits of artists like Adele and Rihanna.

From shellac 78s to digital downloads, for a single to sell a million copies usually means catching the public’s imagination fast. It reflects an unstoppable popular urge to buy into this artist or that craze… or signifies simply a song so good that you want to own it the first time you hear it.

Most importantly, in what other record collection in the world can Teletubbies and Bob The Builder sit so rightfully alongside The Beatles and Michael Jackson? Oh yes.

The new era of the super hit!

Martin Talbot, Managing Director of the Official Charts Company, says “It is apt that, as we prepare to celebrate 60 Years of the Official Singles Chart in the UK, we do so at a time of unprecedented demand for the single, with this year set to be the biggest year on record for sales of the format. This demand is also translating into the largest number of million- sellers we have seen - this truly is the era of the super hit.”

When the Official Singles Chart celebrated its 50th birthday back in 2002, only 76 singles had registered on the million-selling record books. Today, that number is 123. That’s a disproportionately huge 62% increase in just one decade. It is clear from the book that the ‘70s was an era of the monster single producing 27 million-sellers – until the ‘90s, when 32 tracks reached the million mark.

Right now, however, the current decade is on course to surpass both the ‘70s and ‘90s , with 10¬¬ more singles passing that significant landmark in less than three years. Artists such as the unstoppable Rihanna having racked up 3 million-sellers to her name by the age of 24, plus the mighty Adele, Jessie J, and Gotye – all of whom between them are creating a new era of the super-hit.

To celebrate the launch of The Million Sellers, the Official Charts Company unveils here the definitive list of those 123 singles, from Elvis to Lady Gaga, and yes, Whigfield, that made a million or more of us rush to make them members of the Million Sellers club.

Spokesperson available

Please note, the Official Charts Company has Managing Director, Martin Talbot available for interview on this story. Get in touch below.