Some time this morning (Friday) The Circus by Take That sold its millionth copy in the UK, and became the all-time second fastest album to reach a seven-figure sale.

 

The album was released just 19 days ago. The only album to reach a million more rapidly is fellow Mancunians Oasis’ 1997 album Be Here Now, which reached the target in 11 days.

 

The Circus has sold 991,508 copies up to close of business yesterday (Thursday) and has already been certified quintuple platinum, with Universal shipments exceeding 1.5m copies.

 

Initially available for as little as £5.88 physically (Asda) and £3 as a download (Amazon), The Circus is now hard to find for less than £8 in any format but continues to sell at a very rapid clip.

 

Remarkably for an album to sell so many copies in such a short time, it wasn’t available in the stricken Woolworths chain until this week. The retailer may be winding down but now has plentiful stocks of the album priced at £10.97 – though a blanket 10% reduction on audio products means the till price is £9.87.

 

Four other albums have sold a million copies in less than a month: in third place is Take That’s last album, 2006’s Beautiful World (27 days), Robson & Jerome’s self-titled 1995 debut and The Beatles’ 2000 compilation 1, both took 28 days, and Leona Lewis’ Spirit became a million seller after 29 days last year.

 

Beautiful World is by far Take That’s biggest seller, with to date sales of more than 2.5m. It will overtake former member Robbie Williams’ biggest-selling solo album, I’ve Been Expecting You, within weeks.

 

Take That’s return to prominence after more than a decade apart has been an unqualified success, and in addition to selling more than 3.5m copies of their two new albums since reconvening, they have sold nearly 1.7m copies of their compilation Never Forget – The Ultimate Collection.

 

With catalogue sales of their earlier three studio albums and a compilation, Take That have sold more than 5.5m albums so far this decade.

 

 

The Circus is the third or fourth album to sell a million copies this year, following Duffy’s Rockferry and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.

 

It crossed the barrier almost simultaneous with The Kings Of Leon’s Only By The Night, which had sold 995,147 copies by close of business last night.

 

Meanwhile, fifth season X Factor champion Alexandra Burke’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is on target to secure the highest weekly sale by a single for exactly two years.

 

Available since Sunday as a download, it secured its first trickle of physical sales on Tuesday, and has already sold 382,296 copies. The last single to sell more copies in a week was third season X Factor champion Leona Lewis’s debut single Bleeding Love, which dashed to first week sales of 571,253 in 2006.

 

Lewis’ latest single, Run, has been number one for the last two weeks but has now slipped behind Burke’s single and the late Jeff Buckley’s 1994 recording of Hallelujah. Run has sold 54,408 copies so far this week, Buckley’s Hallelujah 59,676.

 

Buckley’s version first surfaced in the Top 75 here in March, following ITV2’s screening of a cover by American Idol contestant Jason Castro, in the style of Buckley. It returned to the chart a few weeks ago, after being performed in The X Factor by Diana Vickers, who finished fourth in the contest.

 

Assuming Run doesn’t wrestle its way back to number two before the end of the week, Hallelujah will become the first song ever to hold down the number one and two slots in the chart simultaneously.

 

Source: MW

Can you not read properly ?

They didn't beat Oasis.

 

1. Oasis - 'Be Here Now' 11 Days (1997)

2. Take That - 'The Circus' 19 Days (2008)

Edited December 19, 200816 yr by Xmas_Bert

 

Here's the 10 Albums to be the fastest UK Million Sellers

- so far:,

 

1) 'Be Here Now' - Oasis (1997) - 11 Days

2) 'The Circus' - Take That (2008) - 19 Days @

3) 'Beautiful World' - Take That (2006) - 27 Days @

4)='Robson & Jerome' - Robson & Jerome (1995) - 28 Days

4)='1' - The Beatles (2000) - 28 Days

6) 'Spirit' - Leona Lewis (2007) - 29 Days

7) 'But Seriously' - Phil Collins (1989) - 34 Days

8) 'X & Y' - Coldplay (2005) - 36 Days

9) 'The Immaculate Collection' - Madonna (1990) - 48 Days

10) 'Life For Rent' - Dido (2003) - 50 Days ***

 

@ = So 'The Circus' has made Take That the only

Act to have 2 such Albums in this List.

 

*** = Some sources say 49 Days.

 

So, Take That have the 2nd & 3rd fastest UK Million Selling Albums.

 

Can you not read properly ?

They didn't beat Oasis.

 

Sorry I only posted what it said on the website and actually if you read the article it said they were on course to beat them today

Sorry I only posted what it said on the website and actually if you read the article it said they were on course to beat them today

 

Am I missing something in the text ... I can't see it says anywhere that they were on course to beat Oasis (unless they go back in time and sell in less than 11 days there's no way they could). Not sure why you're apologising :)

 

Either way - great news for Take That 2nd and 3rd fastest million-reachers!

 

Norma

Can you not read properly ?

They didn't beat Oasis.

The article didn't say that they beat them :mellow:

huge well done to take that and with todays climate of sales its done brilliant toget their so quick

Yeahhhh What Pavel said :arrr:

The article didn't say that they beat them :mellow:

 

Thank you Pavel! I thought I was the only one who saw that it didn't!

 

How have you been going on with the BJ Quiz? The thread has been closed so we can't compare notes anymore! :(

 

Norma

Am I missing something in the text ... I can't see it says anywhere that they were on course to beat Oasis (unless they go back in time and sell in less than 11 days there's no way they could). Not sure why you're apologising :)

 

Either way - great news for Take That 2nd and 3rd fastest million-reachers!

 

Norma

 

greenday said Take That had passed the million mark in 19 days "beating Oasis" (I'm quoting him) in his original post :) Then his message got edited with the full article ;)

greenday said Take That had passed the million mark in 19 days "beating Oasis" (I'm quoting him) in his original post :) Then his message got edited with the full article ;)

 

Aha! Well a small apology to you from me then! :lol: Along with Season's Felicitations to you young Bertie!

 

Norma

Edited December 19, 200816 yr by Norma_Snockers

Joyeux Noël to you Norma :wub:

I'm Sorry I didn't read the article :blush: . But still they didn't beat Oasis which is one thing I suppose

Ok. Edited :heehee:

 

to Norma: I haven't been doing well for 2 days in BJ quiz :lol: Too much time and i really suck in some sports themes :(

Edited December 19, 200816 yr by Pavel

fantastic, The Circus is a brilliant album and thoroughly deserves it success :D

 

Jeff Buckley pulling massively ahead of Leona then...poor Leona will sell over 70k and only be No.3! Sales are HUGE for singles at the moment!

TT between Oasis and Beatles. What can I ask for more ? :naughty:

 

Ehhh, who are the other on fourth place? Never heard of them! :huh:

 

TT between Oasis and Beatles. What can I ask for more ? :naughty:

 

Ehhh, who are the other on fourth place? Never heard of them! :huh:

 

Iris! Be thankful for that! :lol: Trust me ... you don't want to hear them! :lol: I'd put a youtube link here but even I'm not that cruel!

 

Norma

 

Thats really incredible. Anyway were Robson & Jerome really that huge? I've barely heard of them :blink:

Edited December 19, 200816 yr by Harve

Iris! Be thankful for that! :lol: Trust me ... you don't want to hear them! :lol: I'd put a youtube link here but even I'm not that cruel!

 

Norma

 

Off to youtube to have a good laugh! :naughty:

Thats really incredible. Anyway were Robson & Jerome really that huge? I've barely heard of them :blink:

 

Despite Robson being the height of a Shetland Pony and Jerome having a face like a bag of spanners, thanks to the ITV series Soldier, Soldier ... they were very popular. And had they stuck to acting then even in hindsight, no-one would have denied them their popularity. But in one episode they were called to sing 'Unchained Melody' and then some guy with a hairstyle like a bog-brush with a mullet and incredibly high-waisted trousers thought it would be a good idea to have them sing! And in the process make him heaps, and heaps of money. Then of course he went on to make the X-Factor.

 

Norma