Queen's Greatest Hits reaches another chart milestone
It's already the best-selling album ever in the UK
Last updated 16th Jul 2020
Already the best-selling album of all time in the UK, Queen’s blockbuster 1981 compilation album ‘Greatest Hits’ has achieved another momentous chart milestone this week.
The album has now spent more than 900 weeks inside the Official Albums Chart Top 100 and is only the third album in history to do so. Currently standing at 901 weeks, that equates to over 17 years on the chart.
‘Greatest Hits’ appropriately achieved the chart milestone 50 years after Queen’s first gig (still known as Smile at the time) at the City Hall in Truro, Cornwall.
Bob Marley & The Wailers' 1984 hits album ‘Legend’ has spent 933 weeks on the chart, while ABBA’s 1992 best-of, ‘Gold: Greatest Hits’, is the currently the longest runner at 944 weeks.
Featuring songs including ‘Killer Queen’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Are The Champions’ and ‘We Will Rock You’, Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’ initially peaked at no.2 on the UK album chart before rising to no.1 where it remained for four weeks.
Since its release October 1981, Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’ has sold more than 6.3 million copies in the UK and an estimated 25 million units worldwide, including 8 million in the US.
It’s the best-selling album ever in the UK ahead of ABBA’s ‘Greatest Hits’ and The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.’
Sales of the record have been boosted in recent years thanks to the all-conquering success of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released in October 2018.
Last month, the Royal Mail announced it was celebrating the 50th anniversary of Queen by launching a very special series of 13 Queen stamps in their honour.
Released a week ago on 9th July, the stamps feature eight Queen albums – including ‘Greatest Hits’ – four live shots of each Queen member, and an iconic studio photograph of the band.
Brian May said: "It’s hard to put into words what I feel when looking at these beautiful stamps."