Queen Crowned Top 60

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Official Albums Chart has revealed the UK’s top 60 biggest selling albums of all time.

The list is a mix of the predictable, the sublime and the outright strange, with Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’ taking the No. 1 spot with 6.1m sales. ABBA’s ‘Gold Greatest Hits’ is at Number two, followed by The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and while Adele’s ‘21’, now the fourth biggest selling album of all time with 4.9 million sales.

The rest of the top ten is comprised of Oasis, Michael Jackson, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and more Queen. No alarms and no surprises please.

However, lurking further down the list are the likes of Dido, The Corrs and no less than four albums that Robbie Williams sings on- two solo efforts and two Take That efforts. The newest album on the list is Adele’s ‘25’, released seven months ago but already the 27th best selling album in the UK. Another notable new entry to the list is Ed Sheeran, whose second studio album ‘X’ scraped into the top 50 at number 49.

Official Charts Chief Executive Martin Talbot said: “In celebration of 60 years of the UK’s Official Album Chart, it is fantastic that we can crown Queen as the kings of the Anniversary Top 60. With seven albums by British acts in the all-time Top 10, and Adele’s 21 now challenging The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper to be the biggest selling studio album of all time, it is a great list for homegrown talent. And the fact that Adele’s latest album 25 is riding into the overall Top 30, along with Ed Sheeran’s X, underlines the power of the Official Albums Chart in championing great British talent, young and old”.

Talbot didn’t add “But mainly old if we’re being honest”. The entire list can be perused and argued over here, though The Gen stopped reading beyond the revelation that Keane’s debut album, at number 35 has sold more than Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’ and that ‘Jagged Little Pill’ byAlanis Morissette, in at 41, proved more popular than Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ at 51. Well done everyone.