If songs like You're My Best Friend at 1.57 million or Somebody to Love at 2.71 million sold so well, we can wonder how many units the band's truly biggest hits sold. We get the answer with Bohemian Rhapsody which is now over 9 million copies. No need to say this is the biggest selling 70s single on this format.
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.
The song was Queen's first No. 1 single in the United States. Queen frontman Freddy Mercury wrote the song as a tribute to Elvis Presley, and although Mercury typically composed music on the piano, he wrote "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar — and he did it in about five to 10 minutes.
Since the 1970s, Queen has sold 300 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling artists in history. Billboard ranked them as the 87th Greatest Artist of All Time.
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. Second is Garth Brooks with over 157 million units sales, followed by Elvis Presley with 139 million units.
The best-selling album in the United Kingdom is Greatest Hits, a compilation album by the British rock band Queen that was first released in 1981. As of July 2022, it has sold more than 7 million copies, of which approximately 124,000 have been from downloads.
Madonna is believed to have sold the most records among any female music artists in history, with 300 million records sold worldwide.
“Face It Alone” was recorded in 1989 during studio sessions for their 13th album, The Miracle.
By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. "Another One Bites the Dust" from The Game (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified nine times platinum in the US.
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.
Half a century after their breakup, The Beatles are still the biggest rock band of 2020, shifting 1.094 million album-equivalent units through the first six months of the year, 326,000 units ahead of the genre's second-place finisher, Queen.
The song became the 1975 UK Christmas number one, holding the top position for nine weeks. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first song ever to get to number one in the UK twice with the same version, and is also the only single to have been Christmas number one twice with the same version.
"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets was the first single to sell 1 million copies in the UK.
The fastest selling single in chart history is "Candle in the Wind 1997" by Elton John which sold 1.55 million copies in its first week (it sold 658,000 on the first day of release, 13 September 1997).
'Bohemian Rhapsody' spent a total of 14 weeks at the top of the UK charts, firstly in 1975 for nine weeks then in 1991 after Freddie tragically passed away. A legendary song fit for a legendary band.
Based on longevity, Elton was bigger, but neither was truly better, just different and yet the same…
Gold and silver discs issued by EMI in 1982 for Greatest Hits (1981). With more than 25 million copies sold it is Queen's best selling album.
The Beatles
Their story and their music is legendary, and you just can't look past them as the greatest British rock band of all time.
Over the course of Elvis' life, he achieved some of the highest accolades in music and film. It is estimated that more than one billion Elvis records have been sold worldwide, more than anyone in record industry history.
Abel Tesfaye, more commonly known as The Weeknd, is statistically the most popular musician on the planet, and no one else even comes close. The 33-year-old Canadian singer's success has seen him set two new Guinness World Records titles: Most monthly listeners on Spotify – 111.4 million (as of 20 March 2023)