ABBA: SE UNE AL CLUB DE LOS 5 MILLONES / Joins 5 million club

Abba se une a los Beatles y a Queen en ser los tres únicos grupos que han vendido 5 millones de copias de un sólo disco y sólo en el Reino Unido. Abba lo hace con "GOLD", que ha consguido este récord esta semana. Incluimos la información en inglés de officialcharts.com.

Abba joins the Beatles and Queen to be the only three groups which have sold 5 million copies of one album and only in the UK. Abba did it with "GOLD", which has broken the record this past week. We include the information from officialcharts.com

Swedish superstars ABBA have further underlined their position as musical legends, with their Gold album becoming only the third 5-million-seller in UK chart history. According to latest Official Charts Company sales data, the quartet’s Gold - Greatest Hits has passed the 5 million mark in the past week.

The achievement puts the album alongside Queen’s Greatest Hits and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as one of only three albums to reach such an elevated sales level.

ABBA founder / songwriter /musician / legend Bjorn Ulvaeus told OfficialCharts.com: "I can’t think of a club I’d rather join!”

Gold - Greatest Hits marks 20 years since its initial release this October, having racked up eight weeks at Number 1 since it was first released in 1992. ABBA are one of the all-time great singles artists, having racked up nine Number 1s and another 10 Top 10s in the UK’s Official Singles Chart, since their debut hit Waterloo in 1974.

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot added, “This is another incredible record in a career of extraordinary achievements for ABBA, who are unquestionably one of British music fans’ all-time favourite acts. Over the past 20 years, one in every five households has bought a copy of Gold, which is a truly remarkable statistic.

“ABBA are true chart superstars here in the UK – and this latest record adds to their legendary status.”

ABBA’s landmark has been reached after Adele’s 21 broke into the all-time UK Official Albums Chart Top 5 for the first time last month, behind Oasis’s What’s The Story Morning Glory. The two albums are among a list of five other albums to have sold more than 4m copies in the UK, the others being Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

ABBA Gold is just 46,000 copies behind The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's.

The UK’s Official Biggest Selling Albums of all-time Top 10
01 GREATEST HITS (1981) - QUEEN
02 SGT PEPPER’S LONELY HEART’S CLUB BAND (1967) - THE BEATLES
03 GOLD - GREATEST HITS (1992) - ABBA
04 WHAT’S THE STORY MORNING GLORY (1995) - OASIS
05 21 (2011) – ADELE
06 THRILLER (1982) - MICHAEL JACKSON
07 BROTHERS IN ARMS (1985) - DIRE STRAITS
08 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973) - PINK FLOYD
09 BAD (1987) - MICHAEL JACKSON
10 GREATEST HITS II (1991) - QUEEN

icethsite.com:

ABBA’s Gold: Greatest Hits has become the third album to sell upwards of five million copies. Climbing 112-110, the album sold 1,009 copies last week, raising its career tally to a staggering 5,002,685.

UK ‘GOLD – Greatest Hits UK Chart Facts

• This 1992 Album has now become only the 3rd Album to reach 5 Million Sales, in the UK.
• Only ‘Greatest Hits’, by Queen, (1981), & ‘Sgt Pepper….’, by The Beatles, have sold more UK copies.
• Top 75: ’Gold’ has also spent more time in the Top 75 than any other album – 449 Weeks.
• Top 100: And more weeks in the Top 100 than any other album – 648 Weeks.
• Top 10 – It has spent more weeks in the Top 10 than any other ABBA album – 58 Weeks.
• No.1 years: - ’Gold’ has had 5 runs at No.1, for a total of 8 Weeks. Whilst that is not a UK chart record, the fact that it had 3 of those runs, several years apart and in separate runs, is. It first went to No.1 in October 1992, then again in April 1999 – 6 years & 6 months later. (As well as returning to No.1 – twice – in May 1999), then in August 2008 – 9 Years & 3 Months later.
• 13 years in the annual UK Top 100 best selling albums in 1992 – 12th, 1993 – 36th, 1994 – 63rd, 1995 – 80th, 1996 – 87th, 1997 – 100th, 1998 – 55th, 1999 – 4th, 2000 – 41st, 2004 – 47th, 2008 – 19th, 2009 – 54th, 2010 – 90th

September 2012 – 20th Anniversary of ‘Gold’

September of this Year is the 20th Anniversary of ‘Gold’ being released in the UK. (It was released on Monday 21 September 1992. Entered, (at No.1), in the Chart of 3 October 1992).

ABBA Trivia

• 2012 is the 40th Anniversary of ABBA forming – 1972
• And the 30th Anniversary of them splitting up – 1982
  (Although they did not tell the Fans until about 1985! Until then, they were on a ‘Break‘)
• ABBA are the biggest Non-UK/Non-USA Act, in UK Chart History.
• They have spent more Weeks at No.1, in the UK Singles & Albums Chart combined – 88 Weeks – than all but 2 Acts – The Beatles – 243 Weeks, & Elvis Presley – 143 Weeks.
• Their 114 Top 10 UK Singles Chart Weeks and 224 Top 10 UK Albums Chart Weeks, are the most by any group, since The Beatles split up, in 1970.
• ABBA & Led Zeppelin hold the UK Chart Record, for the ‘Most Consecutive No.1 Albums. Both Acts had 8 No.1 Albums in a row. Led Zeppelin from 1970 to 1979, & ABBA from 1976 to 1982. Ironically, the 8th No.1 album by Led Zeppelin, (‘In Through The Out Door’), was recorded at ABBA’s Polar Studios, in Sweden – 1978.

This week:

‘Gold’ rose from No.112 to No.110, in the latest UK Album Chart. It is ’18 Hits’ that climbed the most – as regards ABBA. It rose from No.82 to No.53. It is its 30th Week in the Top 75. It has sold well over 300,000 copies in the UK – with no promotion.

Thanks to Colin for the statistics.