In a conversation on Friday night, that lasted all of 2 minutes, it occured to me that I own and love some multi million selling albums. Sure, I own Hoolahan albums that maybe 200 other people own. But I also own Bridge Over Troubled Water, over 25 million in sales. That’s more people than Australia and New Zealand COMBINED.
Taken from wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide
Here are the highlights:
The Eagles – Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) – 1976 – over 40 million albums
#1 was Thriller. I don’t own Thriller but sometimes I think I should. Both for historical reasons – I won a lot of albums just for library upkeep. I imagine there will be a time where there will be a nuclear apocalypse and I will be forced to live out eternity with only the things I’ve collected. This is the same reasoning I use to justify the purchase the Simpsons on DVD. There may be a time where I am stranded, on a dead planet, and I’ll want to watch the Monorail episode, so lucky I bought it!
But back to the Eagles. I don’t actually own this version of the best of, which is the blue one with the weird skull thing on the cover. I own another, 2-CD best of, that is mostly kept for the above historical purpose, and it’s also quite a pretty double CD/slipcase thing (I didn’t pay for it though). I don’t really listen to it, and I know you’re supposed to hate the Eagles, but I have to hand it to them for a couple of songs. New Kid In Town for instance, I really like. So the best way to own it is on two discs, with great liner notes. I have spent more time reading the notes to this package than listening to the actual music.
What amazes me about this title selling so much is that sales would have trickled to almost a stop by now, surely, by superior collections. This ten track album doesn’t even have Hotel California, or for that matter New Kid In Town. It has Take It Easy. Tequila Sunrise. Take It To the Limit. So what the hell? This this collection, even being quite generous with my estimate, sell over 35 million before 1994? A new, better, one disc best of was put on the market around then, and there’s been box sets and other things since. This is simply AMAZING.
Thriller would surely have sold millions upon millions in the last 12 years. So would have Black In Black, Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zep IV (all 40 million plus). That’s quite an opening lap there.