The Official Top 20 biggest selling groups of all time revealed! (original) (raw)

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Official Singles Chart, we reveal The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Groups Of All Time!

In just over a week we’ll be blowing out the candles on a very big birthday cake to celebrate 60th glittering years of the Official Singles Chart. To whet your appetites for the big day, we’ve already revealed the Official Top 10 biggest selling male artists and biggest selling female singles artists of all time, and to today we reveal The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Groups Of All Time!

The Beatles top the chart with a combined singles sales total of 22.1 million singles. This makes John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr not only the biggest selling group in the history of the Official Singles Chart, but with a 400,000 lead over Elvis Presley, it also the biggest selling act of all time, too.

To date The Beatles have enjoyed 31 Top 40 hits (including 17 Official Number 1 singles). Their first hit was Love Me Do which peaked at Number 17 in 1962 (it would eventually climb up to Number 4 in 1982 after being re-issued to celebrate its 20th anniversary). The Beatles' biggest selling track, however, is their fifth single, She Loves You, which peaked at Number 1 in 1963.

The UK’s second biggest selling singles group of all time is Queen. The quartet have a combined sales total of 12.8 million singles, and their biggest selling track is of course Bohemian Rhapsody.

Taken from the band’s fourth album, 1975’s A Night At The Opera, Bohemian Rhapsody reached the top of the Official Singles Chart on November 2 of that year giving the band their first ever Number 1 single. It would occupy the top spot for nine weeks and sold over a million copies. Following the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in November 1991, Bohemian Rhapsody would return to the top of the Official Singles Chart. In its five week stand, it sold nearly a million copies again, making it the only single to become an Official Christmas Number 1 on two separate occasions and claim the top spot in four different calendar years (1975, 1976, 1991 and 1992). The band’s Greatest Hits album is the UK’s biggest selling album of all time.

ABBA are at Number 3 with a combined sales total of 11.3 million copies. The Swedish group, who disbanded in 1982, enjoyed 25 Top 40 hits (including nine Number 1s). Their biggest selling track is 1976’s Dancing Queen.

The Top 5 is completed by The Rolling Stones (Number 4) who have a combined sales total of 10.1 million singles, and Oasis (9.079 million combined single sales) who have leapfrogged Take That (9.078 million) to take fifth place.

The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Groups Of All Time are as follows:

| | ARTIST | --------- | 1 | BEATLES | 2 | QUEEN | 3 | ABBA | 4 | ROLLING STONES | 5 | OASIS | 6 | TAKE THAT | 7 | SPICE GIRLS | 8 | BEE GEES | 9 | U2 | 10 | STATUS QUO | 11 | BOYZONE | 12 | BLONDIE | 13 | BLACK EYED PEAS | 14 | BONEY M | 15 | SLADE | 16 | WESTLIFE | 17 | UB40 | 18 | MADNESS | 19 | POLICE | 20 | WHAM! | COMBINED SALES TOTAL | BIGGEST SELLING SINGLE | | | -------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | | 22.1 MILLION | SHE LOVES YOU | | 12.8 MILLION | BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY | | 11.3 MILLION | DANCING QUEEN | | 10.1 MILLION | (I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION | | 9.079 MILLION | WONDERWALL | | 9.078 MILLION | BACK FOR GOOD | | 8.0 MILLION | WANNABE | | 7.6 MILLION | HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE | | 7.5 MILLION | WITH OR WITHOUT YOU | | 7.2 MILLION | ROCKIN' ALL OVER THE WORLD | | 7.1 MILLION | NO MATTER WHAT | | 7.037 MILLION | HEART OF GLASS | | 7.034 MILLION | I GOTTA FEELING | | 6.859 MILLION | RIVERS OF BABYLON / BROWN GIRL IN THE RING | | 6.856 MILLION | MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY | | 6.830 MILLION | UPTOWN GIRL | | 6.6 MILLION | RED RED WINE | | 6.15 MILLION | BAGGY TROUSERS | | 6.1 MILLION | DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME | | 5.9 MILLION | LAST CHRISTMAS / EVERYTHING SHE WANTS |