Posted March 12, 200817 yr The 20 biggest selling albums of the 21st Century Wednesday March 12, 2008 By Alan Jones Another week, another achievement for Amy Winehouse’s blockbusting Back To Black album which now moves into the Top 10 list of best-selling albums of the 21st century. As of close of business last Saturday (8th March), the album had sold 2,467,575 copies, made up of 2,020,063 copies of the original edition of the album (issued in November 2006), and 455,512 of the deluxe edition, which was released just 18 weeks ago. The deluxe edition has become the dominant version of the album recently, helped by discounting, and reached number one on the album chart last week, before slipping to number two behind Duffy’s Rockferry this week. The original version of Back To Black has dived 12-30-37 in the last fortnight. Back To Black’s move into the Top 10 is at the expense of Norah Jones’ 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me. It means that nine of the 10 biggest-selling albums of the 21st century in Britain are by homegrown acts, while the other – The Scissor Sisters’ self-titled debut – is a UK-signed American act who have had very limited success in their homeland. The Top 10 are as follows: 1 BACK TO BEDLAM – JAMES BLUNT Recorded in 2003, released in 2004, and first charting in 2005, former soldier James Blunt’s debut album got off to a slow start, with first week sales of just 482 – not enough to secure a placing in the chart. It remained outside the Top 75 for a further 20 weeks, finally entering the list when You’re Beautiful started to receive airplay. The album arrived at the top of the chart in July of that year, a week before You’re Beautiful topped the singles list. Three further hits were plucked from the album, which continues to sell well, adding nearly 28,000 to its overall sales thus far in 2008, to reach 3,120,833 sales. 2 NO ANGEL – DIDO Dido’s 2000 debut album was kickstarted into action when Eminem sampled one of its tracks, Thank You, for his hit single Stan. Thank You subsequently became one of three Top 10 singles plucked from No ANgel, which spent six weeks at number one, and was in the Top 10 for 32 weeks in a row. It sells very slowly now, adding just 2,015 copies so far in 2008 for a to date total of 3,023,288. 3 WHITE LADDER – DAVID GRAY Mancunian singer/songwriter David Gray’s first three albums all fell short of the Top 75 but his fourth, White Ladder, made its introductory chart appearance at number 69 on sales of 2,056 in May 2000, with demand stoked by the success of introductory single Babylon, which subsequently peaked at number five. The album spawned four further Top 40 hits but it took it well over a year to reach number one. Sales to date of 2,888,025 include 4,593 this year. 4 LIFE FOR RENT – DIDO Following up an album as successful as No Angel was a daunting prospect for Dido but with introductory single White Flag reaching number two, Life For Rent hit the ground running in 2003, with a spectacular first week sale of 400,351. It subsequently stormed past its first million sales in 43 days – and then sped up, reaching the magical 2m. mark on its 85th day in the shops. By year’s end, it had sold 2,168,302. It has slowed down somewhat since then but has so far sold 2,823,569 copies, including 2,180 this year. 5 1 – THE BEATLES Collecting together all 27 of The Beatles’ British and American number one singles more than 30 years after the fact, 1 was a triumph of marketing, and stormed to the top of the chart the week it was released in 2000, on sales of 319,126. It spent its first nine weeks at number one, and had sold nearly 2m. copies by the time it was dethroned in January 2001. The only compilation to make the 21st century Top 10, 1 has sold 2,775,654 copies, including 7,361 this year. 6 SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS After introductory single Laura scraped to a number 54 peak, The Scissor Sisters’ quirky electro cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb raced to number 10 on the UK singles chart providing the impetus for their self-titled debut album to sell 21,395 copies on its first week in the shops, to earn a number 11 debut in February 2006. Proving to be far from one trick ponies, their ultra-commercial hit-laden album also generated Top 20 hits in the form of Take Your Mama, the reissued Laura and Mary before the last single off the set – Filthy/Gorgeous – became the biggest hit of them all, climbing to number five. The album rose to number one on three separate occasions, and has so far sold 2,686,705 copies, including 7,376 this year. 7 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD – COLDPLAY Coldplay’s 2000 debut Parachutes was one of the most impressive ever, spinning off the hits Shiver, Yellow and Trouble, and selling nearly 2.4m copies. The anticipation of follow-up A Rush Of Blood To The Head was intensified by the enormous popularity of first single In My Place, which reached number two. The album duly raced to first week sales of 273,924. With subsequent single The Scientist and Clocks also reaching the Top 10, the album spent more than a year in the Top 40, and has accumulated sales of 2,638,927, including 9,683 this year. 8 HOPES AND FEARS – Keane Keane had already reached #3 with debut single Somewhere Only We Know and #4 with follow-up Everybody’s Changing, when their first album, Hopes And Fears, rocketed straight to #1 in May 2004 with first week sales of 155,373. The first UK rock band to debut atop the album chart since July 2000 when Coldplay - a band with whom they are often compared - did likewise, they took a further two Top 20 singles off the album. Their melodic, piano-based style has made them very popular, and Hopes And Fears has so far sold 2,627,253, including 8,733 this year. 9 X&Y – COLDPLAY Just as In My Place set the pace for A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Speed Of Sound was the first single from Coldplay’s follow-up album, X&Y, and also raced to number two. Although the band’s two previous albums selling 5m copies between them, it was still something of a surprise that X&Y scorched to the second highest first week sales in history to that point, selling a stellar 464,471 copies to debut emphatically at number one in June 2003. Number one for four weeks, it has now sold 2,473,433 copies, 17,511 of them this year. 10 BACK TO BLACK – AMY WINEHOUSE 2,467,575 sales, of which 318,350 have been made in the last 10 weeks. The album will overtake Coldplay’s X&Y later this week to rank ninth for the 21st century, and seems certain to replace the other ‘Back To’ behemoth – James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam – at the top of the 21st century best-sellers list in due course. Nine other albums have sold more than 2m. copies so far in the 21st century, and it would be churlish to deny them a mention. They are: 11 COME AWAY WITH ME NORAH JONES 2,432,712 12 PARACHUTES COLDPLAY 2,385,676 13 BEAUTIFUL WORLD TAKE THAT 2,372,280 14 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP EMINEM 2,245,624 15 SWING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,235,240 16 SING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,187,283 17 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 2,098,620 18 GREATEST HITS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,095,703 19 ESCAPOLOGY ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,047,299 Completing the Top 20, The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ By The Way has sold 1,945,495 copies.
March 12, 200817 yr Wow- she has done amazing! I can see her beating James Blunt and becoming the biggest seller
March 12, 200817 yr I wonder how much steam Amy's album has still got to beat James Blunt. Thanks for posting, must have missed this
March 12, 200817 yr With the albums combined she should easily beat Blunty. What does AJ have in his blog on a normal week ? Edited March 12, 200817 yr by Dave B
March 12, 200817 yr nice post - mixed bag of acts for the 00's of the 20 i have these (good or bad....) underlined the albums have played in full during the last...3 months 2 NO ANGEL – DIDO 4 LIFE FOR RENT – DIDO 5 1 – THE BEATLES 6 SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS 7 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD – COLDPLAY 8 HOPES AND FEARS – Keane 9 X&Y – COLDPLAY 12 PARACHUTES COLDPLAY 2,385,676 14 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP EMINEM 2,245,624 15 SWING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,235,240 16 SING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,187,283 17 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 2,098,620 18 GREATEST HITS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,095,703 19 ESCAPOLOGY ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,047,299
March 12, 200817 yr Thanks for posting, very interesting. I own the following, 1 BACK TO BEDLAM – JAMES BLUNT 2 NO ANGEL – DIDO 3 WHITE LADDER – DAVID GRAY 4 LIFE FOR RENT – DIDO 6 SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS 7 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD – COLDPLAY 8 HOPES AND FEARS – Keane 9 X&Y – COLDPLAY 10 BACK TO BLACK – AMY WINEHOUSE 11 COME AWAY WITH ME NORAH JONES 2,432,712 12 PARACHUTES COLDPLAY 2,385,676 13 BEAUTIFUL WORLD TAKE THAT 2,372,280 16 SING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,187,283 17 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 2,098,620 18 GREATEST HITS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,095,703 19 ESCAPOLOGY ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,047,299 20 Red Hot Chili Peppers’ By The Way has sold 1,945,495 copies.
March 13, 200817 yr I own 19 of them, just don't have the Eminem one. In contrast, I only have three - the two Dido albums, and Norah Jones.
March 13, 200817 yr 6 SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS 10 BACK TO BLACK – AMY WINEHOUSE 14 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP EMINEM 2,245,624 15 SWING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,235,240 16 SING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,187,283 17 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 2,098,620 18 GREATEST HITS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,095,703 19 ESCAPOLOGY ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2,047,299 What I own. Although looking at the top 10, it just shows what a miserable bunch of old boring farts we are.
March 13, 200817 yr I think she will only get upto david gray Me too, don't think she'll quite catch Blunty.
March 13, 200817 yr Of those I've only got - 5) 1 – THE BEATLES 6) SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS 10) BACK TO BLACK – AMY WINEHOUSE 13) BEAUTIFUL WORLD TAKE THAT 2,372,280 I think! Norma
March 13, 200817 yr I own: 1 BACK TO BEDLAM – JAMES BLUNT 2 NO ANGEL – DIDO 6 SCISSOR SISTERS – SCISSOR SISTERS 7 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD – COLDPLAY 8 HOPES AND FEARS – Keane 9 X&Y – COLDPLAY 10 BACK TO BLACK – AMY WINEHOUSE 12 PARACHUTES COLDPLAY 14 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP EMINEM 17 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 18 GREATEST HITS ROBBIE WILLIAMS I think Amy should easily overtake Blunty but the question really is how far can she go from there? :o Anyone know of any updated best selling albums of all time in the UK? :unsure:
March 13, 200817 yr I own all 20! :o I think Amy will stall aound David Gray's level of sales, and fall short of 3 million.
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