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| Bill
Haley & His Comets (1974) |
|
The biggest selling singles in most countries tend to be charity singles. Although
released for a good cause, they don't give away a great deal about what the public
consider to be the best songs.
In 1957, after spending 2 years in the charts, Bill Haley & His Comets became
the first act in UK history to have a million selling single with their hit smash, "Rock
Around The Clock", which went on to sell 1.39 million copies, becoming the
biggest selling single in the country.
In 1963, The Beatles became
the hugest phenomenon of the time. Their biggest hit from their earlier works
was evidently "She Loves You", which topped the UK charts for a total
of 6 weeks, and also is the single than took the longest time to return to No.1
out of all that did. It sold 1.89 million copies, and became the biggest selling
single in the UK.
 |
| Elton John |
|
In 1977, Paul McCartney had formed a small group called Wings. Their single,
Mull of Kintyre topped the UK chart for 9 weeks and sold 2.05 million copies.
This became the first single to sell over 2 million copies in the UK and obviously
became the biggest selling single.
The record was broken again, in 1984, when Band Aid released "Do They Know
It's Christmas?". Obviously, the fact that it was for the Ethiopian famine,
raised sales to a maximum high, and allowed it to sell over 3.5 million copies.
The record was only broken once again, in 1997, Elton
John's new version of "Candle In The Wind", specially written in
memory of Princess Diana of Wales when it went onto sell over 4.8 million copies.
The record is extremely unlikely to be broken again, as single sales are rapidly
dropping every year. |
