The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has updated their listing of the best selling albums of all time (in America, at least) to take into account digital downloads and streaming.
So, what would be your guess at the Number 1 album? Michael Jackson's Thriller perhaps? Something by Fleetwood Mac? Or Elvis? The Beatles? Maybe even Drake?
Well, I was a little taken aback by the answer: The Eagles' 1976 Greatest Hits album. Whut? It doesn't even include Hotel California (the eponymous album on which that appears actually came in at Number 3!). So, it seem like including digital sales has had the effect of raising The Eagles above The King of Pop. This is at least partly because the RIAA listing also includes the sales of singles of an album (sales of 10 singles equates to one album in their mind). Interestingly, a double album counts as two in RIAA's algorithm (although not if it fits onto a single CD!), but none of the top albums actually benefitted from that distinction. Noticeably, most of the top albums date from the 1970s and 1980s, not because the music was better then, but just because they have had decades longer in which to sell copies.
The Top 10 is as follows:
The Eagles: Greatest Hits (1976)
- Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982)
- The Eagles: Hotel California (1976)
- Led Zepellin: IV (1971)
- AC/DC: Back in Black (1980)
- Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (1977)
- Guns N Roses: Appetite for Destruction (1987)
- Shania Twain: Come On Over (1992)
- Elton John: Greatest Hits (1976)
- Boston: Boston (1976)
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