I am in the middle of Mick Fleetwood‘s lovefest autobiography at the moment. Specifically, I’m at the part where he and his Fleetwood Mac bandmates are recording Rumours in 1976. The album went on to become the 11th best-selling record of all time in the U.K. and the U.S. It is also the ninth best-selling album of all time in the world. Just a monster hit. It went No. 1 all over the world, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Greece, Denmark, New Zealand and South Africa.
But looking at the worldwide charts, I was struck by something weird — it didn’t even crack the Top 100 in France. The highest chart placement Rumours had in France, at any time between 1977 and 2023, was No. 116. So I decided to examine the best-selling albums of all time and find out what countries bucked the trend, and didn’t embrace it the way so many others did.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, of course. The 1983 blockbuster topped charts at least once in 13 countries since its release. Among the countries with comparable charts from 1983 to 2024, Thriller‘s worst performance was in Poland, where the Prince Of Pop only did one live show, 13 years after Thriller was released. The highest chart placement it ever received was No. 29.
The Poles weren’t as keen as everyone else on AC/DC’s 1980 album Back In Black either. The album went gold there (10,000 copies), but the highest it ever got on the charts was No. 39. The band played the country three times over the years — in 1991, 2010 and 2015. That first time was as part of the Monsters Of Rock tour with Queensrÿche and Metallica.
Pink Floyd’s seminal 1973 masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. It is universally loved. In 1973, of the 11 major national charts, it charted No. 1 for at least a week in four of them, as high as No. 2 in four more, and got to No. 3 in Finland, Germany, and Spain. Famously, the album only lasted a single week at No. 1 in the U.S. despite its popularity. It holds the record for longest consecutive run on the Billboard charts — 741 weeks, ending in July 1988. It’s been on and off the charts in the 36 years since. If you add up all the weeks it has been on the Billboard charts since March 17, 1973, it’s a grand total of 990 — just shy of 19 years.
Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell surprises me. The 1977 theatrical rock album written by Jim Steinman is the fifth best-selling record of all time. But as we know from Dark Side Of The Moon, sales don’t necessarily correspond with charts. Still, I was shocked to discover it only went No. 1 in Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. Both Meat and Steinman were American, but the album charted better in Canada and the U.K. than it did in their own country. In fact, of the eight countries tracking its chart placement, the U.S. Billboard is where Bat Out Of Hell had the lowest ranking, only reaching as high as No. 14 in the five years after its initial release.
Eagles have TWO goddamned albums in the Top 10 when it comes to all-time sales. Their first compilation, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), and the iconic, loathsome 1976 studio album Hotel California. The latter hit the shelves on Dec. 8 so that it would be a hot Christmas gift, but basically you can track its chart success more in 1977 than in 1976. The only place it went No. 1 in 1977 was in the Netherlands. Among the countries where it charted, Hotel California charted poorest in Austria, reaching No. 12. It took Italy a little longer to get into the album, charting there by 1978, but also only getting to No. 12.
Timmins’ Shania Twain actually had more worldwide chart success with her 1997 album Come On Over. It found its way on to 30 different charts in 24 different countries. Of all those places, the country where it rose the least was Greece, reaching No. 57 sometime between 1997 and 2022. She’s never played Greece, despite the fact that it’s got groove and it’s got meaning.
The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack — predominantly a Bee Gees album — is a freak of nature. In every country where it charted, it managed to get to No. 1. It topped 15 charts in 15 different countries.
I started off talking about Fleetwood Mac, and I’ll go there again. The band was formed in the U.K. by British blues musicians. As their music became less and less bluesy, their U.K. fanbase diminished and their American fan base grew — to the point where they eventually moved there in the mid-’70s. Everything changed in 1975 when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band for their hit-filled eponymous album. The band’s first three albums hadn’t cracked the Top 100 in the States. The next six did, and the seventh — that so-called “White Album” — hit No. 1. In the U.K., the band’s first three albums were all Top 10 hits. Their next was in the Top 40 hit, and then they had a run of five albums which didn’t chart at all in the U.K. Fleetwood Mac nearly made the Top 20, but Rumours went No. 1 in both the U.K. and U.S. — the first and last time this would happen.
Similarly, The Zombies’ hit single Time Of The Season went No. 1 in the U.S. but didn’t make the Top 40 in their native U.K. American duo Sparks, who aren’t known for hit singles, had one in the U.K. with 1974’s This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us. It didn’t chart at all in the States. And New York City’s Television had a hit in the U.K. with their debut album Marquee Moon, but it didn’t even crack the Top 100 in America. British charts had it at No. 28, while it got up to No. 23 in Sweden.
Deep Purple released their cover of Joe South’s Hush as a single from their 1968 debut album Shades Of Deep Purple. It got to No. 4 in the U.S. and No. 2 in Canada, but failed to chart in their native Britain. Perhaps stranger still, Smoke On The Water didn’t chart in the U.K. but had the same showing as Hush in North America — No. 4 in the States and No. 2 in Canada. Finally, I would never have guessed that Deep Purple have released nearly 60 singles.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
