Best-Selling Albums : From Vinyl Records to Digital Downloads

Thriller, Sgt. Pepper, Dark Side Of The Moon, Rumours, Born In The USA, Up!... these are just some of the epoch-defining albums of the past six decades: albums that have appealed to fans across genres, albums with songs that have imprinted themselves on our collective memory.

Based on recording industry sales figures, Best-Selling Albums is the definitive guide to more than 100 chart-topping records of the past six decades.

From Miles Davies and Nat ‘King’ Cole in the 1950s to Adele today, Best-Selling Albums features the most successful artists in the history of recorded popular music.

Alongside old favourites and recognized classics – including several albums by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Eminem – there are enough surprises here to amaze even the most dedicated music buff.

Would you have guessed that Norah Jones’s bluesy album Come Away With Me would be the top-seller of the 2000s? Or that the biggest soundtrack of the past 20 years is the collection of bluegrass songs from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?Every album is illustrated with a sleeve artwork, front and back, providing a fascinating overview of the evolution of record cover design across the decades.

Each entry is packed full of information, including background on the recording of the album and its place in cultural history, as well as a full track listing and detailed musician and production credits.

In addition, there are listings of the biggest-selling movie soundtracks, the top 100 albums by sales, and much more.