While the top ten best selling albums might not change much the top 10 best selling singles is something that does change quite a lot as more and more forms of media are counted as sales. Why not hit play on some of these videos and listen to songs that changed the world…
10 – Artist: The Ink Spots – Song Title: If I Didn’t Care – Total Certified Copies Sold: 19 Million
Wiki Info: In the 1950s both The Hilltoppers and Connie Francis charted with the song, and in 1974 a version was recorded by David Cassidy. Another notable cover came from The Platters. In 1970, the soul group The Moments (later known as Ray, Goodman & Brown) had a hit with the tune that reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI
9 – Artist: USA for Africa – Song Title: We Are the World – Total Certified Copies Sold: 20 Million
Wiki Info: The song was released on March 7, 1985, as the only single from the album. A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history. The first ever single to be certified multi-platinum, “We Are the World” received a Quadruple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.
8 – Artist: Elvis Presley – Song Title: It’s Now or Never – Total Certified Copies Sold: 20 Million
Wiki Info: In 1960, “It’s Now or Never” was a number-one record in the U.S., spending five weeks at number one and the UK, where it spent eight weeks at the top in 1960 and an additional week at number one in 2005 as a re-issue, and numerous other countries, selling in excess of 25 million copies worldwide, Elvis Presley’s biggest international single ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_utP1mGoutQ
7 – Artist: Dolly Parton – Song Title: I Will Always Love You – Total Certified Copies Sold: 20 Million
Wiki Info: The song, “I Will Always Love You” was originally written and recorded in 1973 by American singer-songwriter, Dolly Parton. Her country version of the track was released in 1974 as a single and was written as a farewell to her one-time partner and mentor of seven years, Porter Wagoner, following Parton’s decision to pursue a solo career.
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6 – Artist: Domenico Modugno – Song Title: Nel blu dipinto di blu – Total Certified Copies Sold: 22 Million
Wiki Info: Winning the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, the song was chosen as the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, where it won third place out of ten songs in total. The combined sales of all the versions of the song exceed 22 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular Eurovision songs of all time and the most successful Sanremo Music Festival song ever.
5 – Artist: Bill Haley & His Comets – Song Title: Rock Around the Clock – Total Certified Copies Sold: 25 Million
Wiki Info: The original full title of the song was “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock Tonight!”. This was later shortened to “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock”, though this form is generally only used on releases of the 1954 Bill Haley Decca Records recording; most other recordings of this song by Haley and others (including Sonny Dae) shorten this title further to “Rock Around the Clock”.
4 – Artist: Mungo Jerry – Song Title: In the Summertime – Total Certified Copies Sold: 30 Million
Wiki Info: Dorset has said that the song only took ten minutes to write, which he did using a second-hand Fender Stratocaster while he was taking time off work from his regular job, working in a lab for Timex.
3 – Artist: Bing Crosby – Song Title: Silent Night – Total Certified Copies Sold: 30 Million
Wiki Info: The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a co-adjutor.
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2 – Artist: Elton John – Song Title: Candle in the Wind – Total Certified Copies Sold: 33 Million
Wiki Info: The 1997 version won John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards ceremony in 1998. At the 1998 Brit Awards the song was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Single. The lyrics of the earlier version of “Candle in the Wind”, also written by Taupin, were a tribute to Marilyn Monroe.
1 – Artist: Bing Crosby – Song Title: White Christmas – Total Certified Copies Sold: 50 Million
Wiki Info: Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favoured by writer-director-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there.
