Ah, Valentine's Day – bunches of flowers, boxes of chocolates, a glass of champagne and a romantic dinner, but let's not forget the music to set the mood, right?

 

The Brits are a soppy lot, and many of our best-selling singles of all time are love songs. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we count down the UK's favourite love ballads – the Official Top 20 best sellers, based on download and physical sales.

 

RANK - TRACK - ARTIST - YEAR - SALES

1 - LOVE IS ALL AROUND - WET WET WET - 1994 - 1.91m

2 - UNCHAINED MELODY/THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER - ROBSON GREEN & JEROME FLYNN - 1995 - 1.89m

3 - (EVERYTHING I DO) I DO IT FOR YOU - BRYAN ADAMS - 1991 - 1.87m

4 - ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE/EVERGREEN - WILL YOUNG - 2002 - 1.80m

5 - I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU - WHITNEY HOUSTON - 1992 - 1.66m

6 - MY HEART WILL GO ON - CELINE DION - 1998 - 1.60m

7 - THE POWER OF LOVE - JENNIFER RUSH - 1985 - 1.47m

8 - THINK TWICE - CELINE DION - 1994 - 1.39m

9 - JUST THE WAY YOU ARE (AMAZING) - BRUNO MARS - 2010 -

10 - UNCHAINED MELODY - GARETH GATES - 2002 - 1.35m

11 - ALL OF ME - JOHN LEGEND - 2014 - 1.31m

12 - THINKING OUT LOUD - ED SHEERAN - 2014 -

13 - ANGELS - ROBBIE WILLIAMS - 1997 -

14 - I DON'T WANT TO MISS A THING - AEROSMITH - 1998 -

15 - CHASING CARS - SNOW PATROL - 2006 -

16 - DON'T GIVE UP ON US - DAVID SOUL - 1976 -

17 - NO MATTER WHAT - BOYZONE - 1998 -

18 - 2 BECOME 1 - SPICE GIRLS - 1996 - 1.15m

19 - BACK FOR GOOD - TAKE THAT - 1995 -

20 - BLEEDING LOVE - LEONA LEWIS - 2007 -

21 - THAT’S MY GOAL - SHAYNE WARD - 2005 -

22 - UNCHAINED MELODY - RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - 1965 -

23 - RULE THE WORLD - TAKE THAT - 2007 -

24 - HERO - ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - 2002 -

25 - JAR OF HEARTS - CHRISTINA PERRI - 2011 -

26 - WHOLE AGAIN - ATOMIC KITTEN - 2001 -

I guess Something About the Way You Look Tonight isn’t counted 😂

This Top 20 appears to be a Top 26! I assume it's been extrapolated based on what we know to have been at least million-selling singles in its literal sense up to a year ago when the OCC last published a consolidated list? But even by then Adele's 'Make You Feel My Love' had registered 1.021m and counting - is that not a clear-cut love song? If we agree it is, then shouldn't this list be extended further beyond 'Whole Again', if it's meant to rank seven-figure paid-for sales in this genre?

Edited February 12, 20214 yr by Gambo

what tracks have performed the best from downloads ?

This Top 20 appears to be a Top 26!

Yes it was a Top 20 - as listed here.

 

But the OCC added,

"And just outside our Top 20, we have a few more million-selling ballads worthy of a mention: Shayne Ward's That's My Goal lands at 21, while Unchained Melody makes yet another appearance, this time from original hitmakers the Righteous Brothers – thanks to its inclusion on '90s movie Ghost (22). Take That make another showing at 23 with Rule The World, from the film Stardust. Also bubbling under are Enrique Iglesias's Hero (24), Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts (25) and Atomic Kitten's Whole Again (26). Play those to us and, yes, we will marry you."

 

So I thought I would include these 6 tracks as well. :rolleyes:

 

anyone got an up to date pure sales top 20/50/100 ???..from figures given from all the official sources?

Shallow?

Jar Of Hearts is an interesting choice for this collection.

 

Any chance they could include streams next time they update this list, what's the worst that could happen...

Anyone has the total sales of Bleeding Love？ :D

Shallow?

It's only based on pure sales and downloads, so I imagine 'Shallow' falls short for this list.