Bohemian Rhapsody As well as being Queen's best seller, it's also one of the UK's biggest singles of all time, with 2.6 million pure sales.
Bohemian Rhapsody
“Bohemian Rhapsody” was first made for Queen's 1975 album, A Night at the Opera. Written by Freddie Mercury, the song is Queen's greatest hit to date.
Greatest Hits is the band's best-selling album to date, with total sales of over 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Their 1975 single, "Bohemian Rhapsody", was No. 1 in the UK charts for nine weeks (and a further five weeks in 1991 after Mercury's death) and is the third-biggest-selling single of all time in the UK. In the US, "Bohemian Rhapsody" hit the Billboard Top 40 charts in three different decades, reaching No.
Due to spending Christmas and New Year in the top spot, Bohemian Rhapsody has the unique distinction of having been Number 1 across four years, 1975/76 and 1991/92. Queen released a version of the song recorded with The Muppets.
According to Guinness, "White Christmas" sold over 50 million copies. The single is known as the "best-selling single of all time". It was released before music charts were created.
Madonna currently holds the record for the most number-one songs in the 43-year history of the chart, with 50. The only other artists to have achieved more than 20 chart toppers are Rihanna (33) and Beyonce (22).
4. Freddie Mercury – US$50 million. A cultural icon and the most famous face of all the members of Queen past and present, Mercury amassed a considerable fortune, thought to be worth US$50 million by the time of his death, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Below we look at ten of the Queen's favourite songs. Among them is “Sing”, which was co-written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed by Barlow and the Commonwealth Band featuring the Military Wives. There are also two hymns on the list: “The Lord is My Shepherd” and “Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven”.
Cliff Richard, ABBA and Dame Vera Lynn... we revisit Queen Elizabeth II's favourite artists.
"Mother Love" was the final song co-written by Mercury and May, and was also Mercury's last vocal performance. Mercury's vocals were recorded between 13–16 May 1991 after the Innuendo sessions.
On Spotify at least, Queen are the literally the biggest band in the world – everyone above them is a solo artist, vocal group, rapper or DJ. They dwarf The Rolling Stones (21 million). They even smash The Beatles (24 million).
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.
1. Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin is often credited as one of the greatest female vocalists of all time. Her ability to transcend genres and styles, such as rock, gospel, soul and jazz, has earned her the title of “Queen of Soul” and the number one spot on this list.
With over 3 billion views, the most popular song on YouTube is "Despacito." Released by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee in 2017, this Latin pop sensation took the world by storm and became a viral hit.
It was never a hit single and got almost no play on Top 40 radio. There's even a dispute over the exact title. Yet “It's a Small World,” also known as “It's a Small, Small World” and “It's a Small World (After All),” is very likely the most played song in music history — nearly 50 million times.
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.