But his point was about performance in 2004?

Gezza, thanks for this countdown, it's extremely interesting however I'm still a bit confused by a couple of things within it. For certain years, some acts with lower sales than other acts in that year have ended up higher than acts with higher sales for that year. For example, Anastacia has ended up higher than the Scissor Sisters, Keane and Maroon 5 for 2004 despite having lower overall sales for 2004 than the other acts.

 

 

But his point was about performance in 2004?

Sorry I didn't read your post properly. Yes when talking about a particular year then it depends on the breakdown between singles and albums and the respective percentages involved in the two fields, so if someone sells more singles in a smaller market than a large number in a big album market then they come out better. :D

98 (135) USHER (1,800,000) 2004 2.0007

 

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Galleries/Celebrities/S_Z/Uq_Uz/Usher/1/usher15.jpg

 

No act has ever dominated the US charts like Usher did in 2004 spending 28 weeks at the No 1 spot with four singles, he wasn’t quite so dominant over here scoring just two No 1 hits “Yeah” and “Burn” but he still registered 1.8 sales. That’s an impressive total for 2004 (he was actually only beaten by Band Aid 20 in terms of singles sales in the year) though of course it was supplemented by 1.1 million sales of the album “Confessions” .

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2010

 

97 (50) BEYONCE (2,688,000) 2009 2.0038

 

 

Pretty much encompassing all of the “I Am.... Sasha Fierce” period, 2009 opened with two Beyonce tracks in the 10 simultaneously (“If I Were A Boy” and “Single Ladies”) and ended with three of the top 40 best selling singles of the year in addition to the 800,000 selling parent album. Odd to think she’s never quite been this big since but then she has had other priorities.

 

96 (37) JESSIE J (2,909,000) 2011 2.0092

 

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2011/1/7/1294394577533/Jessie-J-007.jpg

 

Graduating from the BRIT school with Adele and Leona Lewis it took a little longer for Jessie J to hit the charts though as a writer she did co-pen “Party In The USA” for Miley Cyrus in 2009. Debut single “Do It Like A Dude” was written for Rihanna but Jessie was convinced to keep it and it became a No 2 hit in early 2011 along with her victory in the BBC “sound of” for 2011. The million seller “Price Tag” followed (though it crossed that mark in 2012) plus a further four hits which all helped to promote the album “Who You are” to sell over 800,000 before the year was done.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2012

 

I want to cry seeing Jessie J higher than some of these acts.

I want to cry seeing Jessie J higher than some of these acts.

Disturbingly on a straightforward sales list she'd be top 40 :o

Tbh I actually like Jessie J. Aside from it's my party (obvs), I like her :o

Long time purveyors of dance music the Prodigy had gone from novelty rave to serious dance act since their debut back in 1992

 

Hmm, debut was in 1991 and first hit the same year...and I'd put their early stuff up there as far more credible even now than what they've been putting out since 'Jilted'.

95 (157) NIK KERSHAW (1,674,000) 1984 2.0204

 

http://it.kershaw.net/img/history/hr/21.jpg

 

Now of course he’s equally famous for writing Chesney Hawkes’ “The One and Only” in 1991 but he was as we can see a much bigger popstar himself back in 1984. His first two albums contribute to sales here along with his most remembered hits “Wouldn’t It Be Good” “The Riddle” and “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” marking a clear high point in his career.

 

94 (84) SIMPLY RED (2,225,000) 1992 BIGGEST ACT 2.0226

 

 

1992 is, famously, a very poor year for singles sales, indeed Mick Hucknell and his band only sold slightly over 300,000 singles but that was offset by the million selling “Stars” which spent the first 47 weeks of its chart career in the top 10 and was the best selling album of both 1991 and 1992. Indeed the album sold almost 2 million in 1992 alone and marked a continuing trend of improving sales for the group who had sold 500,000+, 800,000+, and 1.4M+ of their last three albums by that point.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 1989,1991,1995,1996

 

93 (56) GEORGE MICHAEL (2,524,000) 1996 2.061

 

http://991.com/newGallery/George-Michael-Jesus-To-A-Child-161867.jpg

 

In 1996 the return of George Michael was something of an event, he had been in the courts and in dispute with Sony ever since 1991 regarding control of hi music, releasing only charity records (of which two made No 1 so not entirely unsuccessfully). He was freed from the Sony contract in the Summer of 1995 and in January 1996 “Jesus To A Child” was his first non charity release in 5 years and duly a No 1. It was the first of 6 singles to be released from the “Older” album all of which went top 3 which again remains a record unequalled.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 1998

 

Funny to the think that Beyoncé is now on the highest level as an artist but her best selling years are already 5-6 years behind.

92 (151) ABC (1,722,000) 1982 2.0712

 

 

Their debut album “Lexicon Of Love” is often cited as one of the best albums of the 80s and it was also one of the best selling ones of 1982 producing three top 10 singles during the year including 80s classics “Look Of Love” and “Poison Arrow”. They faded as quickly as they arrived in terms of top 10 singles never hitting the upper reaches again.

 

91 (164) UB40 (1,660,000) 1983 2.0939

 

http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2011/10/ub40-resized.jpg

 

After a great start to their chart career consisting of five straight top 20 hits UB40’s fortunes waned when their next four singles all missed the top 20. An urgent rethink was required and they came up with an idea of a cover album of relatively unknown songs (in the UK anyway) which they would give a reggae treatment, it proved gold. Their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” gave them their first No 1 single and the accompanying album “Labour Of Love” remains their biggest seller.

 

90 (35) JAMES BLUNT (2,937,000) 2005 BIGGEST ACT 2.0960

 

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/arts/2005/06/23/JamesBluntAAAA.jpg

 

Debut releases “High” and “Wiseman” failed to impress initially and the album “Back To Bedlam” sold a mere 482 copies in its first week, all of which didn’t bode well for Blunt. Then “You’re Beautiful” was released and everything changed, the track spent 5 weeks at the No 1 spot whilst “Back to Bedlam” topped the charts for 9 weeks during that summer on its way to 2.3 million sales by the end of 2005. He suffered from the ubiquity of “You’re Beautiful” but has seemingly weathered the backlash even if he hasn’t returned to this sales level.

 

89 (99) DIRE STRAITS (2,095,000) 1985 2.1079

 

http://www.multinet.no/~jonarne/Hjemmesia/Favorittartister/dire_straits/dire_straits_5.jpg

 

The “Brothers In Arms” period is understandably the biggest of Dire Straits’ career, theirs was the first album to be available widely in CD format to capitalise on the dawning of the “digital age” , was the first to outsell its vinyl counterpart, the first to sell a million on CD, and was practically the only CD available to play on new Hi-Fi’s in shops (at the time). It even got so bad that other labels complained that they could not get their product to be available on CD as the whole of the production in the UK was producing copies of the album. Anyway it was the best selling album of 1985 and the 1980s in total and “Money For Nothing” was also the first song played on MTV Europe.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 1986

 

88 (116) CHER (1,929,000) 1998 2.1107

 

http://www.photofeatures.com/cher/images/prevs/c02003a.jpg

 

She sold around 400,000 albums during 1998 but there is no doubt that the massive selling “Believe” is responsible for Cher’s position on this list. It enabled her to become the only female act in the 90s to score a hat-trick of No 1’s and it also helped to establish the writing and production reputation of Brian Higgins who went on to form Xenomania in 2001 with Miranda Cooper, formerly a backing singer with Gina G. “Believe” also returned Cher to No 1 in the US for the first time in 24 years.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 1991

 

87 (167) BILLY JOEL (1,653,000) 1983 2.1122

 

http://www.the80sman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/billy_joel_leave_a_tender_moment_alone_1983_the80sman.jpg

 

“Uptown Girl” is often assumed to be about Christine Brinkley (whom Joel married in 1985) but it was actually written about his then girlfriend Elle McPherson (clearly he only dating supermodels in the 80s). Regardless it went to No 1 for 5 weeks and a re-issued “Tell Her about It” went top 10 for Christmas coupled with his first top 5 album “An Innocent Men” meant that 1983 was a great year for Joel- in fact his best!

 

I'm starting to think the 80s and 90s will dominate the rest of the countdown.