Queen :: Charts & Sales History

UK Albums

Key
Year of release
Year of last BPI certification
Title
BPI shipment


Original Studio Albums
1973 1976 Queen - 100,000
1974 1975 Queen II - 100,000
1974 1982 Sheer Heart Attack - 300,000
1975 1976 A Night At the Opera - 300,000
1976 1976 A Day At the Races - 100,000
1977 1977 News of the World - 100,000
1978 1978 Jazz - 100,000
1980 1980 The Game - 100,000
1982 1982 Hot Space - 100,000
1984 1984 The Works - 300,000
1986 1986 A Kind Of Magic - 600,000
1989 1989 The Miracle - 300,000
1991 1991 Innuendo - 300,000
1995 1997 Made In Heaven - 1,200,000

Soundtrack
1980 1981 Flash Gordon - 100,000

Major Compilations
1981 1992 Greatest Hits - 3,300,000
1991 2000 Greatest Hits II - 2,400,000
1999 1999 Greatest Hits III - 300,000
2000 2003 The Platinum Collection - 900,000

Other Compilations
1994 none Greatest Hits I & II
1997 1998 Queen Rocks - 300,000

Live Albums
1989 none Live at the Beeb
1979 1979 Live Killers - 100,000
1986 1987 Live Magic - 300,000
1992 1992 Live at Wembley 1986 - 100,000
2004 2005 Live at the Bowl - 100,000
2005 2005 Return of the Champions - 60,000


It is abvious that most of their albums were certified within a few months of release and never updated. Seems their label just cannot be arsed.

UK Videos

1981 Greatest Flix
1984 We Will Rock You
1984 The Works EP
1985 Live in Rio
1987 Live in Budapest
1988 The Magic Years Vol 1
1988 The Magic Years Vol 2
1988 The Magic Years Vol 3
1989 Rare Live
1989 The Miracle EP
1990 Live at Wembley '86 (DVD 2003) - 4xPlatinum
1991 Greatest Flix II
1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (DVD 2002)
1995 Champions of the World
1996 Made in Heaven - The Films
1999 Greatest Flix III
2002 Greatest Video Hits One
2003 Greatest Video Hits Two - 2xPlatinum
2004 On Fire At the Bowl - 3xPlatinum
2005 Return of the Champions - Platinum
2006 A Night At the Opera CR Edition

What other bands could boast such a UK video catalogue (there were 2 video singles as well).

In 1981 commercially available rock videos were quite new when Greatest Flix was released.

The BPI have taken scant interest in video certifications so we have virtually no sales information. But the combined sale of all these videos must be considerable.

UK sales 1984-2005.

Musicweek end of year charts provide the following "shop" sales that file chart returns. It doesn't include all shops (90%??). When I was retailing albums in the early 90's nobody ever asked for our sales figures. Record club sales are also excluded.

1984 - sold 1,010,000
1985 - sold 460,000
1986 - sold 1,463,000
1987 - sold 758,000
1988 - sold 313,000
1989 - sold 861,000

in the following 10 years:-

1990 to 1999 - sold 7,282,000 - average 728,200 per year.

2000 - sold 438,000
2001 a missing year, will have sold less than 390,000. Greatest Hits sold 102,000.

2002 - sold 930,000
2003 - sold 471,000
2004 another missing year, will have sold less than 430,000. The Platinum Collection sold 218,000.

2005 - sold 620,000.

so sales 1984 to 2005 were 14,926,000. Up to 500,000 sales are "missing". Therefore the actual total is somewhere between

14,926,000 and 15,426,000.

I need some help from Queen Fans here.

How correct is the following?

1981 Greatest Hits released in the USA had a different track listing to the UK release.

1991 Greatest Hits released in the USA had a different track listing again. Was it the same as the 1981 UK version?

2004 We Will Rock You-Greatest Hits had one track different to the 1991 USA version.

1994 Greatest Hits 1&11 double set released in the USA had the same track listings as the UK versions of these albums released in 1981 and 1991.

2000 USA Platinum Collection is the same as the UK version.

The UK Greatest Hits II was never released in the US.

The UK Greatest Hits III was never released in the US.

The UK Rocks(1997) was never released in the US, but the track listing is similar to the new US release Stone Cold Classics.

Europe

1981 Greatest hits. US version includes Under pressure and keep yourself alive, but not Save me.

1992 Classic queen had a different track listing han Greatest hits two:includes pre-1982 songs like bohemian rhapsody,stone cold crazy,tie your mother down and keep yourself alive.

Yes they are video certifications.

Hello Basil, very good topic, this what I was waiting for.


Well, about compilations I can say the following:

- The original version from 1981 was released in UK and USA with almost the same tracklisting. But in 1984 it was re-released in CD (first time for a Queen album) in UK, and in the rest of Europe after that, but it wasn´t released in USA, mostly due to Queen lost their popularity there. Well, the first relese (from 1981) had a diffrent tracklist with only 14 songs (between them "Keep yourself alive" and "Tie your mother down") and the second is as we all know, with those 17 songs.

- Hollywood records´s compilation was in 1992, and it was a re-release there. It also contained 17 songs, but it included "Body language" and "I want tobreak free", but not "Bohemian rhapsody" and "Flash" (which appeard on UK version from 1984).

- The box set with Greatest hits 1 and Greatest hits 2 was released in 1995 in USA, and it the same of UK and Europe. And also Platinium collection in USA was the same that was released in UK.

- Greatest hits 3 and Queen rocks were released in USA, but they didn´t chart. Even for Queen rocks was released "I can´t live with you" as a single.

Well, looking at sales figures of Queen since 1984, I have my guess about sales fron their albums in that time:

"The works": 1 M

"A kind of magic": 1 M

"Live magic": 0,6 M

"The miracle": 0,6 M

"Innuendo": 0,5-0,6 M

Greatest hits 2: 2,4-2,8 M

Live at wembley: 0,4-0,5 M

"Made in heaven": 1,3 M

"Queen rocks": 0,3 M

Greatest hits 3: 0,6 M

Platinium colection: 1,36 M

Queen on fire: 0,1 M

The return of the champions: 0,06 M

Re: Queen Sales Thread

I would say yes. On the other hand, the spread between RIAA shipment and Soundscan sales would be too high. What's more the 91 edition wasn't certified a 2nd time gold or platinum but directly 7X Platinum.

It's also clear that this album is undercertified !

by the end of the year, A Night At The Opera should be able to make Dane's list

It looks like it's time for A Kind Of Magic to be recertified platinum since it's done nearly 600k units in the past 15 years.

It's neat to see how that cd has really become a cult classic for Queen (mostly due to Highlander) considering when the album was originally released, it was their poorest selling album after 1974 and failed to make the top 40, yet now only Opera and News Of The World sell more for the studio albums.

The US 1992 GH is a bit different than the 1981 one. "Classic Queen" was released in early 1992, focusing mostly on 1984-1991 tracks on the UK GHV2 cd, but containing a few older tracks, however, sales exploded thanks to both the Concert For Life special and the usage of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Wayne's World. Later that year, Hollywood Records released "Greatest Hits", which contained the big 70's and early 80's hits (it went up to 1984's I Want To Break Free) that weren't on Classic Queen, however, the "big guns" from Classic Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure, Tie Your Mother Down...) were not on Greatest Hits. But as a whole, even with the glaring omission of Bohemian Rhapsody, Greatest Hits became the bigger selling and longer lasting collection of the two considering it contained the bulk of the songs Americans associate with the band.

Now.... the GH1 and GH2 from the UK were released in the US in the mid/late 90's in a 2-disc "Gold Collection" package, and then again in 2001/2002 with GH3 as a "Platinum Collection", but GH1 was eventually rereleased on it's own in 2004 as the "We Will Rock You Edition"

It's kind of a messy situation, but hopefully that clears it up.

Well, I leave some tracklisting:

UK Greatest hits 1 (cd)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury)
Another One Bites The Dust (Deacon)
Killer Queen (Mercury)
Fat Bottomed Girls (May) - single version
Bicycle Race (Mercury)
You're My Best Friend (Deacon)
Don't Stop Me Now (Mercury)
Save Me (May)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury)
Somebody to Love (Mercury)
Now I'm Here (May)
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (Mercury)
Play The Game (Mercury)
Flash (May) - single version
The Seven Seas Of Rhye (Mercury)
We Will Rock You (May)
We Are The Champions (Mercury)


USA- Greatest hits 1
Another One Bites The Dust
Bohemian Rhapsody
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Killer Queen
Fat Bottomed Girls
Bicycle Race
Under Pressure
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
Flash
Somebody To Love
You're My Best Friend
Keep Yourself Alive
Play The Game


USA- Greatest hits (1992)
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
Another One Bites The Dust
Killer Queen
Somebody To Love
Fat Bottomed Girls
Bicycle Race
You're My Best Friend
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Now I'm Here
Play The Game
The Seven Seas Of Rhye
Body Language
Save Me
Don't Stop Me Now
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
I Want To Break Free


UK- Box set Greatest hits 1 and Greatest hits 2 (1994)
Greatest his 1

Greatest hits 2


USA- Gold collection (1995)
Greatest hits 1

Greatest hits 2


USA- Greatest hits- We will rock you (2004)

Same tracklistist of UK realise

I'm In Love With My Car (UK Single Version)
Under Pressure (Live at Milton Keynes, 1982)
Tie Your Mother Down (Live At Milton Keynes, 1982)

UK- Greatest hits 2 (1991)
"A Kind of Magic" (Roger Taylor)
"Under Pressure" (John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Taylor, David Bowie)
"Radio Ga Ga" (Taylor)
"I Want It All" (Queen) - single version
"I Want To Break Free" (Deacon) - single version
"Innuendo" (Queen)
"It's a Hard Life" (Mercury)
"Breakthru" (Queen)
"Who Wants To Live Forever" (May)
"Headlong" (Queen)
"The Miracle" (Queen)
"I'm Going Slightly Mad" (Queen)
"The Invisible Man" (Queen)
"Hammer to Fall" (May) - single version
"Friends Will Be Friends" (Deacon, Mercury)
"The Show Must Go On" (Queen)
"One Vision" (Queen) - single version


USA- Classic queen (1992)
A Kind of Magic (Roger Taylor)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury)
Under Pressure (Queen, David Bowie)
Hammer to Fall (Brian May)
Stone Cold Crazy (John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor)
One Year of Love (John Deacon)
Radio Ga Ga (Roger Taylor)
I'm Going Slightly Mad (Queen)
I Want It All (Queen)
Tie Your Mother Down (Brian May)
The Miracle (Queen)
These Are the Days of Our Lives (Queen)
One Vision (Queen)
Keep Yourself Alive (Brian May)
Headlong (Queen)
Who Wants To Live Forever (Brian May)
The Show Must Go On (Queen)

UK and USA- Greatest hits 3 (1999)

The Show Must Go On (Live w/ Elton John) (4:35)
Under Pressure (w/ David Bowie) (4:08)
Barcelona (Freddie Mercury w/ Montserrat Caballé) (4:25)
Too Much Love Will Kill You (4:18)
Somebody to Love (Live w/ George Michael (5:07)
You Don't Fool Me (5:22)
Heaven for Everyone (4:37)
Las Palabras de Amor (4:29)
Driven by You (4:09)
Living on My Own (3:37)
Let Me Live (4:45)
The Great Pretender (3:26)
Princes of the Universe (3:31)
Another One Bites the Dust (Remix w/ Wyclef Jean) (4:20)
No-One But You (4:11)
These Are the Days of Our Lives (4:22)
Thank God It's Christmas (4:19)

UK and USA- Platinium collection (2000)
Greatest hits 1

Greatest hits 2

Gretaest hits 3

USA- Stones cold classic (2006)
01. Stone Cold Crazy
02. Tie Your Mother Down
03. Fat Bottomed Girls
04. Another One Bites the Dust
05. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
06. We Will Rock You
07. We Are the Champions
08. Radio Ga Ga
09. Bohemian Rhapsody
10. The Show Must Go On
11. These Are the Days of Our Lives
12. I Want It All
13. All Right Now performed by Queen + Paul Rodgers
14. Feel Like Makin' Love performed by Queen + Paul Rodgers

UK and USA- Queen rocks (1997)


We Will Rock You
Tie Your Mother Down (single version)
I Want It All (hybrid album/single version)
Seven Seas Of Rhye
I Can't Live With You (1997 Rocks retake)
Hammer To Fall (album version)
Stone Cold Crazy
Now I'm Here
Fat Bottomed Girls (album version)
Keep Yourself Alive
Tear It Up
One Vision (album version)
Sheer Heart Attack
I'm In Love With My Car (hybrid album/single version)
Put Out The Fire
Headlong
It's Late
No-One But You

Yes, I got my eyes on "Opeara"

I was also surprised to see "A kind of magic" outselling the likes of "The Game", "Live killers" and "A day at the races".
I was a big hit in Europe, but flopped stateside.
Even "Miracle" (the follow-up) charted higher and longer.
It would seem the Americans have changed their minds as "Magic" has outscanned "Miracle" by 10-1!!!

I would say RIAA have combined shipments of the old and new "Greatest hits". On the bestselling list Queen is listed with 31.5 million certified units. If I'm any good at math that would mean the 7m is a combined number.

The LP version I have of Queen "Greatest hits" has 18 songs on it! "Under pressure" is added as the last song on side 1. The album also has 'under pressure' printed on the cover (printed - not a sticker!)

I found a fan site with detailed discography w/tracklisting here:



Believe it or not there are 108 entries listed for "Greatest hits"!!!

Apparantly my version is German (the label just say 'made in the EEC') catalog number is EMI 064 7 94111 1

Thanks to NothingFails, HUR and Dane for sorting out the track listings.

To summarise

GH 1981 USA - shadowed the UK version but only 14 tracks instead of 17 and Under Pressure included.

GH 1991 USA - similar to the UK version but includes 2 later tracks - Body Language + I Want to Break Free.

Classic 1992 USA - vaguely similar to UK GH 2, but has 2 earlier tracks - Bohemian Rhapsody + Tie Your Mother Down.

GH We Will Rock You 2004 - same as UK GH, plus 3 extra tracks.

Let the riaa sort that out when certifying them!

Neat trick Dane, I think that sorts it out. john2000 also make a point about the sequence of the album's certification that further supports this.

Looking at the track listings of the various Greatest Hits in the UK.....

Greatest Hits Vol 1 - 17 tracks - all UK and/or US hits.

Greatest Hits Vol 2 - 17 tracks - all UK and/or US hits.

This leaves exactly 17 tracks which were UK/US hits. How neat is that?

So why on earth didn't Greatest Hits Vol 3 comprise these 17 hits??

If it had, Greatest Hits Vol 3 would have comprised

1 - Tie Your Mother Down
2 - Spread Your Wings
3 - It's Late
4 - Love Of My Life
5 - Need Your Loving Tonight
6 - Body Language
7 - Las Palabras De Amor
8 - Calling All Girls
9 - Backchat
10 - Thank God It's Christmas
11 - Scandal
12 - These Are The Days Of Our Lives
13 - Heaven For Everyone
14 - A Winter's Tale
15 - Too Much Love Will Kill You
16 - Let Me Live
17 - You Don't Fool Me

OK, not as strong as Vol 1 and Vol 2, but they were all hits (by Queen on their own and with Freddie singing).

If you didn't want the Christmas song, you could have substituted (just for example):-

No-One But You
Princes of the Universe
Stone Cold Crazy
Keep Yourself Alive

Instead we got the Turkey called Greatest Hits Vol 3 that was actually released. Who the hell compiled this? Compared to Vols 1 & 2 it's sales were abysmal - quelle surprise. An unfortunate blip on the Queen catalogue.

Some years back, a friend gave some numbers about Queen´s sales in Spain and Netherlands. They were taken from EMI´s pages of those countries. However, when I wanted to find that information, I couldn´t. But a few weeks ago I found those same numbers in a Queen site: caal.net.

Spain (cd´s only until 2004)

Greatest hits 2: 606.606

Gretaets hits 1: 182.700

"A kind of magic": 207.695

"Live magic": 109.418

"The miracle": 164.969

"Innuendo": 137.861

"Live at wembley": 202.278

"Made in heaven": 281.785

Queen rocks: 74.203

Greatest hits 3: 85.633

Platinium collection: 197.571

Total: 2.250.819





Netherlands (cd´s only between 1994 and 2003)

Greatest hits 2: 174.580

Greatest hits 1: 155.481

"A night at the opera": 27.458

"A day at the races": 13.037

"A kind of magic": 16.567

"Live magic": 19.445

"Innuendo": 23.221

"Live at wembley": 17.587

"Made in heaven": 243.033

Queen rocks: 28.487

Greatest hits 3: 66.791

Platinium collection: 138.379

Total: 906.479


I don´t know if they are confirmed, but look right.

Hello, Hur, do you have the similar figures for other artists?