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Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 10:24 AM

over the course of the week Radio 2 have been counting down the top 100 best-selling artists, here's the chart so far, to be updated once all of the chart is announced.

1 The Beatles
2 Elvis Presley
3 Michael Jackson
4 Elton John
5 Madonna
6 Led Zeppelin
7 Cliff Richard
8 Rihanna
9 Pink Floyd
10 Mariah Carey

11 Celine Dion
12 AC/DC
13 Whitney Houston
14 Queen
15 ABBA
16 Rolling Stones
17 Taylor Swift
18 Garth Brooks
19 Eminem
20 Eagles

21 U2
22 Billy Joel
23 Phil Collins
24 Aerosmith
25 Frank Sinatra
26 Engelbert Humperdinck
27 Barbra Streisand
28 Status Quo
29 Kanye West
30 Bee Gees

31 Bruce Springsteen
32 Lady Gaga
33 Metallica
34 Katy Perry
35 Adele
36 Bruno Mars
37 Justin Bieber
38 JAY-Z
39 Rod Stewart
40 Bon Jovi

41 Lil Wayne
42 Britney Spears
43 Fleetwood Mac
44 Tom Jones
45 George Strait
46 Guns N' Roses
47 Backstreet Boys
48 Neil Diamond
49 Prince
50 Paul McCartney & Wings

51 Kenny Rogers
52 Janet Jackson
53 Julio Iglesias
54 Chicago
55 Carpenters
56 Bob Dylan
57 Dire Straits
58 Bryan Adams
59 Def Leppard
60 Cher

61 Lionel Richie
62 Genesis
63 James Taylor
64 Olivia Newton-John
65 Stevie Wonder
66 Tina Turner
67 Linda Ronstadt
68 Donna Summer
69 The Beach Boys
70 David Bowie

71 The Who
72 Barry White
73 The Supremes
74 Duran Duran
75 Iron Maiden
76 Depeche Mode
77 Deep Purple
78 The Dave Clark Five
79 Bing Crosby
80 Pet Shop Boys

81 Santana
82 Earth, Wind & Fire
83 Johnny Cash
84 Beyoncé
85 Shania Twain
86 R.E.M.
87 Coldplay
88 Van Halen
89 Spice Girls
90 Foreigner

91 The Doors
92 George Michael
93 Reba McEntire
94 Meat Loaf
95 Barry Manilow
96 Kylie Minogue
97 Tom Petty
98 The Black Eyed Peas
99 Enya
100 Robbie Williams

(list may be somewhat incorrect, as Radio 2 haven't put up #81-100 yet so I've guessed based on what their last.fm says they played. also I've no idea what is meant to be #41)

Posted by: jafetsigfinns 29th December 2016, 10:38 AM

Wait, what? Jay-Z overselling Beyoncé by so much?!

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 11:03 AM

I'm surprised Beyoncé is that low actually, if that is true (like I said I'm not sure about 81-100)

Radio 2 bias really kicking in though playing 'American Boy' to represent Kanye West and cutting nearly half of his rap off, yet playing three Bruce Springsteen songs

Posted by: Steve201 29th December 2016, 11:05 AM

Do they just play a random amount of tracks?

Thought Robbie Williams would have been higher!

Posted by: JCM20 29th December 2016, 11:06 AM

Linda Ronstadt outselling David Bowie? 😵

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 11:07 AM

They seem to be playing on average 2 per artist, or just the one if its an artist that doesn't usually get played on Radio 2.

Posted by: Rob Spears 29th December 2016, 11:20 AM

No Christina Aguilera?

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 11:42 AM

no apparently she's too floppy even for this list

Posted by: JCM20 29th December 2016, 11:55 AM

Kanye West has outsold the Bee Gees?!

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 12:04 PM

Yes.

Here's #21-40

21 U2
22 Billy Joel
23 Phil Collins
24 Aerosmith
25 Frank Sinatra
26 Engelbert Humperdinck
27 Barbra Streisand
28 Status Quo
29 Kanye West
30 Bee Gees

31 Bruce Springsteen
32 Lady Gaga
33 Metallica
34 Katy Perry
35 Adele
36 Bruno Mars
37 Justin Bieber
38 JAY-Z
39 Rod Stewart
40 Bon Jovi

The top 20 will be revealed tomorrow.

Posted by: Drpepper 29th December 2016, 12:38 PM

Is it based on units of albums and singles?

All English language?

Posted by: Steve201 29th December 2016, 12:40 PM

Any guesses for top spot - Michael Jackson or Queen? Beatles should be about there too!

Posted by: sammy01 29th December 2016, 01:26 PM

Was the Spice Girls album at #90 Spice World? Surely Spice sold more than that.

Posted by: Robbie 29th December 2016, 01:44 PM

And Donna Summer, the Beach Boys, The Who, Duran Duran, the Pet Shop Boys and Wham! amongst others. There must surely be an error there as she's only had 2 top 10 hits and neither of them were massive sellers. Wham! probably sold more singles in 1984 alone than Linda has managed throughout the whole of her career in the UK. Most of her singles have failed to chart.

Posted by: RobinJuanPersie 29th December 2016, 01:51 PM

Lil Wayne was 41 by the way but they refused to play him.

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 02:04 PM

It's not an albums list. It's a best selling artists list.

My guess is Linda sold a lot more than those in other places in the world, remember it's not best selling in the UK it's best selling worldwide.

thanks RJP.

hopefully they don't refuse to play Eminem when he comes up, that'd be really annoying.

Posted by: Robbie 29th December 2016, 02:05 PM

^
I've just read the title of the thread again, I never noticed at first it was a list of the world's best selling artists. Linda was very successful in the US in the 1970s.

Posted by: Steve201 29th December 2016, 02:41 PM

Surely Lose Yourself would sound great on any channel?!

Posted by: slowdown73 29th December 2016, 02:45 PM

Bruno Mars seems very high considering he's only on album 3 yet Kylie is 96. I wonder how they have worked out the list.

Posted by: sammy01 29th December 2016, 02:52 PM

Oh seems I was just as confused as everyone else on this list. It would be nice if they said how they worked this out. If it is going purely on certified sales then Rihanna could end up #1 as isn't she the most certified artist in US history.

Posted by: crazy christmas 29th December 2016, 03:19 PM

This was supposed to start Monday and feature 20 artists/groups a day but didn't start until Tuesday so don't think they've played 80-100 as it was mostly George Michael and Wham stuff on Monday. Whether they were interspersed with 80-100 I'm not sure but don't think so.

I'd say top 5 will be Beatles, Jacko, Elvis, Madonna and Led Zeppelin but not necessarily in that order then maybe Pink Floyd, Queen..etc. Abba will be top 10 probably too.

As the US is the biggest music market in the world, those that were huge there will be high up.

They played three Springsteen tracks today "because we can"

Posted by: Dancember 29th December 2016, 03:30 PM

I think Elton John would be top 5 over Led Zeppelin. Although if it is based only on certified sales then Rihanna will be third behind Beatles/Elvis, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Posted by: crazy christmas 29th December 2016, 03:31 PM

My guess is that they'll say they can't play any Eminem. They skipped him once when doing a POTP from 1999 and he was top 3 I think. Plenty of his singles have no swearing and bet they could have found a Lil' Wayne one that didn't.

Posted by: crazy christmas 29th December 2016, 03:36 PM

I'm gobsmacked that country singer George Strait is in there. He's big but surely Dolly Parton sold more than him. Garth Brooks should be high then as he's sold something like 200 million in the US but not much anywhere else.

Posted by: ben08 29th December 2016, 03:46 PM

What Radio 2 said today.

The 2 compilers (who they named) searched hundreds of web sites to calculate an average of certified and estimated sales of albums and singles as well as digital downloads and videos since the early sixties.

Fan sites tend to exaggerate sales.
What weighting factor was used for the various components?
Were streams included?
Videos obviously hurt artists from the 60s and 70s.
Which countries were included?
As Radio 2 admitted the list is more of an art than a science.

You can view the list from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08631t1#play.

Posted by: ben08 29th December 2016, 04:08 PM

Corrected list nos. 100 to 81.
Wham have been excluded and George Michael comes in at no. 92.

81 Santana
82 Earth, Wind & Fire
83 Johnny Cash
84 Beyoncé
85 Shania Twain
86 R.E.M.
87 Coldplay
88 Van Halen
89 Spice Girls

90 Foreigner
91 The Doors
92 George Michael
93 Reba McEntire
94 Meat Loaf
95 Barry Manilow
96 Kylie Minogue
97 Tom Petty
98 The Black Eyed Peas
99 Enya
100 Robbie Williams

Posted by: crazy christmas 29th December 2016, 05:56 PM

Nah Elvis and The Beatles have approaching a billion worldwide sales each and Rihanna has nowhere hear that.

Posted by: Moooo 29th December 2016, 05:58 PM

Its noway accurate, load of crap imo

Posted by: AcerBen 29th December 2016, 10:41 PM

Engelbert Humperdinck being so high shows what a load of horse shit this list is. He likes to claim he's sold 150 million records but when you try to reconcile that with chart positions it's totally ridiculous.

Posted by: crazy christmas 30th December 2016, 08:23 AM

He was very big in South America and Asia though and these are worldwide sales.

Posted by: bluebitchboy 30th December 2016, 09:06 AM

Bruno Mars at 36 and Kylie at 96?

That just doesn't make sense at all.

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 09:20 AM

Kylie wasn't big in the US which probably explains her being so low (same with Robbie Williams)

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 09:35 AM

Eagles #20

Eminem #19 (they're playing 'Lose Yourself' )

Posted by: crazy christmas 30th December 2016, 09:38 AM

Yes, spot on.

Eagles at 20 but surprisingly only Lyin' Eyes, my favourite, played. The album Their Greatest Hits, released in 1976, is the second best-seller of all time in the US behind Thriller on around 25 million. Was ahead of Thriller until Thriller 25 was released and then Jacko died.

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 09:41 AM

Garth Brooks #18. Presumably mostly made up of US sales as he only had a few UK top 40 hits.

Posted by: crazy christmas 30th December 2016, 09:50 AM

Only one track being played. Maybe they'll play 2 or 3 in the Top 10.

Posted by: crazy christmas 30th December 2016, 09:56 AM

Assumed both Abba and The Stones would be Top 10!

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 10:00 AM

Taylor Swift #17

Rolling Stones #16

ABBA #15

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 10:21 AM

Queen #14

Whitney Houston #13

AC/DC #12

Celine Dion #11

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 11:05 AM

Mariah Carey #10

Pink Floyd #9

Rihanna #8

Cliff Richard #7

Led Zeppelin #6

Madonna #5

Posted by: Steve201 30th December 2016, 11:06 AM

WOW at Taylor Swift must be the highest of the current acts - had loads of country albums in the US I assume. And great to see Lose Yourself played on radio 2!!

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 11:07 AM

Rihanna at #8 says hello.

Posted by: fchd 30th December 2016, 11:08 AM

I'm amazed Garth Brooks isn't higher on this list.

Posted by: Steve201 30th December 2016, 01:39 PM

Ah I see!

Posted by: ben08 30th December 2016, 02:08 PM

The top 5.
1 The Beatles
2 Elvis Presley
3 Michael Jackson
4 Elton John
5 Madonna

Compiled by radio producer Philip Swern (you can read about him on Wikipedia).

Posted by: Steve201 30th December 2016, 02:11 PM

No real surprises in the top 5 - Elton John has done well. Thanks for the countdown!

Posted by: JCM20 30th December 2016, 03:00 PM

NO WAY. Taylor Swift has sold more than the Eagles?

Posted by: Dancember 30th December 2016, 03:10 PM

surprised Shakira isn't in the top 100 actually, thought she'd sold loads in Spain/the Americas

Posted by: crazy christmas 30th December 2016, 03:57 PM

Wiki has Elton and Madonna the other way round.

Four Beatles tracks played before 12, one with each Beatle on lead vocal, ending with the classic A Day In The Life.

Posted by: slowdown73 31st December 2016, 10:07 AM

I'm surprised neither Pink or Take That haven't made the top100.

Posted by: crazy christmas 31st December 2016, 10:17 AM

TT weren't big in America.

Posted by: Backwater 1st January 2017, 09:03 PM

Status Quo at no'28. Consistent worldwide sales. They've also played approx 8000 gigs to an estimated audience off 45 million.

Posted by: ben08 1st January 2017, 09:59 PM

U2 are at number 21. The Radio 2 presenter said,
We have added together figures from all over the internet. We've looked at record sales, we've looked at music industry publications, we've used available sales figures issued to all the news organisations, we've used albums, we've used singles, we've done videos since the early sixties and we've done a chart. You can take issue with it - it is an art or a science.

As Eric Morecambe once said - "The artists are all there, but not necessarily in the correct order."