Both the Beatles and Queen are considered to be among the most influential and successful bands in the history of music. Queen's popularity is unquestioned as is their talent. Their fans are as devoted as they are loyal, but no group or individual was as big, or will ever be as big as, The Beatles.
Queen have been a global presence in popular culture for more than half a century. Estimates of their record sales range from 250 million to 300 million, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists.
No one can ever take away The Beatles' place in the history books, but a few pages do need updating. Here are some of the biggest records set by The Beatles - that have since been smashed by other artists... Beach Boys: The Beach Boys finally managed to beat the Beatles - fifty years into their career.
As a recording group, The Monkees sold more than 65 million albums worldwide and claim to have outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones between 1967-1968.
In a decade that produced countless hits for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard and many more, Ken Dodd's track outsold them all – except for two songs by The Beatles: She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand, both released in 1963.
Top-selling artists worldwide as of 2022
Perhaps unsurprisingly, British rock band The Beatles are top of the list for best-selling artists worldwide, with 183 million units certified sales.
The English rock band the Beatles are commonly regarded as the foremost and most influential band in popular music history.
The British band Queen adopted the look of glam and took it one step further with their exaggerated style of progressive rock and heavy metal. Drawing much of their musical influence from prototypical metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Queen emerged as one of the most unique and influential hard rock bands of the 1970s.
"Bigger Than The Beatles" is a song written by Jeb Stuart Anderson and Steve Dukes, and recorded by American country music artist Joe Diffie. It was released in November 1995 as the lead single from the album, Life's So Funny.
Queen Elizabeth II has bee revealed as a big fan of The Beatles who expressed deep concern at the attack on George Harrison in his own home in 1999, a German ex-MEP who knew the legendary band himself from their days in Hamburg has revealed.
The Beatles sold over 600 million albums worldwide, whereas Michael Jackson sold over 400 million albums worldwide.
“I would say that Led Zeppelin are the greatest, and as a rock band they deserved the kind of success they got,” said Mercury. “Robert Plant is one of the most original vocalists of our time. He was always my favourite singer.
But analysis of over 24,000 radio stations in 150 countries around the world proved that rock was the second-biggest genre in the medium with 79.7 million plays, compared with 141 million plays for pop. Queen came fourth in the list of most-played artists, after Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and the Weeknd.
Queen's iconic 1975 song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was voted the greatest song of all time by Gold listeners, ahead of 'Hotel California' by the Eagles at two. John Lennon's 'Imagine' came third, ahead of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' at four and Elvis Presley's 'Always on My Mind' at five.
#1 The Beatles
Taking first prize on this list is The Beatles for the lasting and undeniable influence they had on music. From 1960 to 1970, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison produced 12 albums, a pace unheard of by modern standards.
The Beatles: The Band That Changed the World.
Reinventing themselves with every album, sometimes just in the span of a few months, John, Paul, George, and Ringo transformed popular music into an irrefutable art form in their own right. Just about every pop and rock artist who came after has relied on them as a chief influence.
According to Guinness World Records, Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (1942) as performed by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single worldwide, with estimated sales of over 50 million copies.
Madonna is recognized by Guinness World Records as the "Best-selling female recording artist of all time".
Madonna. The Queen of Pop, Madonna, is the bestselling female artist of all time. She's released 14 studio albums, three soundtracks, five live albums and six compilations, plus 63 UK Top 10 singles. Since 1983, she's sold an estimated 335 million albums and singles worldwide.
Today, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' remains The Beatles' highest-selling physical single of all time, with no less than 12 million copies sold worldwide.
As to be expected, due to his far greater number of total chart entries, Elvis has the advantage over The Beatles in most performance categories. Presley placed 102 titles in Billboard's top 40, while The Beatles had 50 entries that made it that far up the chart.
As teenagers, The Beatles, especially John Lennon, were strongly influenced by Elvis Presley. They started wearing their hair slicked back like Elvis. They admired his rebelliousness and his appeal to women, not to mention his musical talent. “Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis,” John Lennon said.
With a study friendship spanning 15 years, fellow singer Peter Straker was Mercury's best buddy. The West End star had bonded over the 1970s and survived it all. As Mercury's star soared, their friendship never faltered. Straker scored leading roles in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show, Tommy and Hair.