UK Singles Chart Records and Statistics - Biggest Selling Single

Biggest Selling Single

The biggest selling singles in most countries tend to be charity singles. A lot of novelty singles clock up high sales and many one-hit wonders manage to sell many copies with their sole hit. Since sales also increase during the Christmas season, a Christmas number one single is sometimes able to sell in excess of a million copies, due more to the timing of the single's release than to any considerations of quality. The biggest selling single in the world is "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John.

Rock and roll became a massive craze in the mid-1950s and the first massive hit and most certainly the first number one to come from this genre in both the UK and the US was the second single released by Bill Haley & His Comets, "Rock Around The Clock". The single received massive airplay all around the world and was well-received across the globe. Breaking many records in various countries, it became the biggest selling single of all time in the UK after topping the charts for a total of five weeks in late 1955 and early 1956 and returning to the charts several times until 1957, when it clocked up its millionth sale. Spending 36 weeks in the charts, it sold 1.39 million copies and remained the biggest selling single of the 1950s. The record took the greatest phenomenon in the UK to be broken.

The Beatles's first single only reached #17 in the UK charts in 1962, but by 1969, they had scored that many UK #1s, they'd become a global phenomenon and clocked up 7 million-selling singles in the UK. "She Loves You" was the band's second UK #1 and a huge worldwide success. Selling 1.89 million copies after spending 29 weeks in the UK chart, it was the track which catapulted them to superstardom. It became not only the biggest selling single of the year and the decade, but also of all time; a record which remained for another 14 years. The Beatles' other million-selling singles were "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "I Feel Fine", and the double A side We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper.

In 1971, Paul McCartney formed a group called Wings, which also included his wife Linda McCartney. They enjoyed great success over the decade and in 1977 scored a massive hit with their single "Mull Of Kintyre". It topped the charts for nine weeks, enjoying the longest stay at the top of the charts all decade (joint with "Bohemian Rhapsody") and sold in excess of 2.05 million copies, becoming the first single to break the 2 million mark. It remained so for another 7 years, even amid a period of greatly increased singles sales in general, as shown by the huge success of the singles from the soundtracks to films such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease. The success of relatively new calypso group Boney M also clocked up high sales.

When Bob Geldof (former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats) saw images of the effects of devastating famine on the Ethiopian people, it inspired him to form the most successful charity act ever in UK history, Band Aid. Comprising a number of very successful artists at the time (1984), the single "Do They Know It's Christmas", written by him and Midge Ure, entered the charts at #1 and remained at the top for 5 weeks, selling over 3.55 million copies during its chart run. This made it the biggest selling single in the UK, but this was not all that came from Band Aid. The famous Live Aid concert of 1985 clocked up huge sales and saw many successful and popular artists perform in the UK and the US to millions of fans either there in person or watching on TV. The USA also made their own charity record, "We Are The World", which topped the charts in the UK, but was a much bigger success in the US selling over 4 million copies.

The 1997 release of Elton John's "Something About The Way You Look Tonight / Candle In The Wind 1997" became the biggest ever selling single in the world and also became the biggest selling single in Britain with 4.86 million copies sold. "Candle In The Wind", originally about Marilyn Monroe, was re-written and re-released to commemorate the then recently deceased Diana, Princess of Wales. It topped the UK charts for five weeks and topped the US charts for 14 weeks, where it sold 11 million copies. It is highly unlikely, due to rapidly declining numbers in single sales, that this record will be broken anytime soon, with the biggest selling single since then being Will Young's debut single "Evergreen" selling only 1.78 million copies by comparison.

The biggest-selling single released by a female artist in the UK history is Cher's "Believe". It reached the top spot of the UK Singles Chart at the end of the 1998 and stayed there for 7 consecutive weeks. So far, it has amassed in excess of 1.7 million units and became one of the biggest-selling singles in the UK.