What is the best-selling album from the 1970s?
It’s often the case that best sellers and critical acclaim don’t come together. The third best-selling album of all time is the soundtrack to The Bodyguard featuring Whitney Houston, which is hardly a musical masterpiece. However, when it comes to the 1970s, the golden age of the LP, it’s a different story.
The ’70s throw up many albums with spectacular sales figures, which are at the very least half-decent, if not genuine, masterpieces. There’s Fleetwood Mac’s poptastic magnum opus Rumours and rock behemoth Led Zeppelin IV, which have both sold over 30 million copies. As has Saturday Night Fever, arguably the greatest film soundtrack of all time, featuring The Bee Gees’ defining disco classics.
Those with prog sensibilities will be happy to see Meatloaf’s epic Bat Out of Hell near the top of the list. And Eagles fans get not one but two bona fide best-sellers. Hotel California is outstripped by their compilation album Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), the best-selling album of all time in the United States.
Across the pond, Simon and Garfunkel’s masterful farewell record Bridge over Troubled Water sold more copies in Britain during the 1970s than any other album. However, a world exists outside of the US-UK pop music hegemony, one we so often neglect when it comes to music tastes.
The global bestseller
Around the world, in terms of overall global sales since the record’s release, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon has sold more copies than any other 1970s album. The band’s official website reports that as of this year, the album has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. This figure has been verified by Best Selling Albums.
It’s true that in many countries, album sales figures are based on estimates from limited sales data rather than the exact numbers recorded by Nielsen and other data researchers in the US and UK. However, estimates are still based on calculations that produce fairly precise results, calculations that we also rely on for historical record sales figures in all countries, including Britain and the United States.
Besides, no other album from the 1970s has even come close to breaching the 50 million sales mark. Bat Out of Hell is the closest, with around 43 million copies sold. The Eagles compilation Greatest Hits (1971–1975) has sold relatively poorly outside of the US, and British sales make up almost half the total number for Bridge over Troubled Water.
Fittingly, as well as having sold half a million copies, The Dark Side of the Moon celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The album, which includes the singles ‘Money’ and ‘Us and Them’, marked a huge musical step forward for Pink Floyd, while its lyrics are politically charged and introspective in equal measure. It also marked the band’s first attempt at a fully-fledged concept album.
Perhaps this mix of musical advances, a conceptual framework, class-focused politics, and thoughtful songwriting makes it the perfect encapsulation of ’70s rock music. 50 million fans certainly seem to think so, anyway.
