A question I am finding rather difficult to answer

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

What was the best-selling album of all time at the time Thriller was released? (November 1982).

So not neccessarily the best selling pre-82 album now, as the CD era has given a lot of things a steadier shelf-life.

Credible candidates mentioned repeatedly by TWITTER include:

- Saturday Night Fever OST
- Back In Black (tho may have been a slow burner)
- Rumours
- Dark Side Of The Moon (picked up a LOT of CD-era sales tho)

And of course you have to throw the Eagles Greatest Hits in there too.

Sound Of Music OST and Bat Out Of Hell also possibles.

I'm interested in "worldwide", though I'm also interested in the possibility that Thriller was the record that made "worldwide sales" the big metric to chase (rather than a "non-US sales are a nice bonus" mentality)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

What you need is a copy of the Guinness Book Of Records 1981.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

YES! Well, or 1982.

Awesome Sound Of Music wikipedia factlet:

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

"The soundtrack album on the RCA Victor label has sold over 11 million copies worldwide, and has never been out of print. The soundtrack album was included in the stockpile of records held in 20 underground radio stations of Great Britain's Wartime Broadcasting Service, designed to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a nuclear attack."

AWESOME (though from that figure, probably not the answer you're looking for)

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

There are copies of both available on t'Ebay for not that much.

What you could do is mail the vendors and cheekily ask them to look up a fact for you. Tell them that it's for the advancement science and they'll have to agree.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

I have a guinness for 1984 (i think): not at home though, so remind me this evening

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Will do.

[koganbot]

I would guess Rumours, with Saturday Night Fever my second choice (Eagles and AC/DC get a lot of their boost post-Thriller), but I don't know.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think you've a point with the last bit. it is, i suppose, possible that pre-'82 the biggest selling album ever WASN'T by an anglo-saxon artiste at all, but those figures i guess would be entirely unquantifiable...

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

Growing up in the '70s, I always remember hearing that it was Tapestry, though I'm pretty sure that was surpassed later in the decade by stuff already mentioned here.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Judging by sales lists Led Zeppelin IV might be worth investigating as well.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i have a weird -- surely world-historically false! -- memory that the robert stigwood "sergeant pepper" soundtrack was in the list at some point

it's possible it's there for "most expensive, least sales" or some such

Re: Awesome Sound Of Music wikipedia factlet:

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

Excellent - I wonder what the others were.

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

Also on the 'maybe' list: first Boston LP.

Still, I'd put money down that it's Sat Night Fever, which, according to Marsh in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983), sold 15 million copies in 1977 and 1978.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I think it's got to be Bat Out Of Hell. It's the third biggest seller of all time, and was released in 1977 so had already clocked up most of its sales before 'Thriller' was released (unlike 'Back In Black', which only came out in 1980). The only other contender I can think of would be The Eagles' Greatest Hits.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Wiki says BOOH got off to a pretty slow start (in relative terms) - I think it picked up a lot of sales when the CD came out, and of course it got a huge boost from the sequel. In absolute sales it's only a few million ahead of SNF and I can see it selling far better through the 80s and early 90s - Fever will have had more of a concentrated late-70s peak.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Queen's Greatest Hits and the Grease OST were big albums around that time.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

bah it's 1988 -- and this does not seem to be info it carries!

[dorsalstop.livejournal.com]

Gut reaction was the red and blue Beatles comps, but again: a lot of CDs, probably.

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

"The soundtrack album [Sat Night Fever] went on to sell more than 25 million copies, making it not just the most successful soundtrack ever released, but the best-selling album of all time, a record that would stand until 1984 [see 571 - 'Beat It']."

From the "Stayin' Alive" entry in the 3rd edition of The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (ed. Fred Bronson).