Who First and How Big? Record Music Records

Whether its conscious choice or internal curiosity, people are fascinated by the concept of measurable hugeness. How tall is the tallest mountain? How deep is the greatest depth of the ocean? How many square miles is the biggest country?  But beyond that, we’re also intrigued by measurable achievement, as when a person does something for the first time, or does it bigger than anybody else. In terms of the music industry, an all-time great achievement occurred 65 years ago this week. That led us to ask: what are America’s song sales superlatives?*

First Gold Record

“Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como (Uploaded to YouTube by Perry Como)

The first record awards were issues to artists by their own record labels, which is why you might see references to acts like, say, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra having earned a “gold disc.” But the official issuance of certifications based on sales didn’t occur until the Recording Industry Association of America began the practice in 1958. On March 14, 1958, Perry Como was awarded the first Gold record (single) for “Catch A Falling Star.” At that time, the RIAA was using Silver to denote 500,000 in sales, and Gold for one million. Over the years, the RIAA would introduce Platinum for one million in singles and two million in albums, but that complicated system would eventually be reset. Today, it’s 500K for Gold, on million for Platinum, and ten million for Diamond.

As for Como’s single, it would also earn him the 1959 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male. The distinctive background singers heard on the track were the Ray Charles Singers. Not that one; the other Ray Charles was a musician and conductor who lead Como’s back-ups for over 35 years on record and television. He also sang that male vocal on “Come and Knock on Our Door,” the theme from Three’s Company.

First Gold Album

“The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” (Uploaded to YouTube by Rodgers & Hammerstein)

The first Gold album also found a home in 1958, a home in . . . Oklahoma? That’s right; the first Gold album was awarded to the film soundtrack for Oklahoma! It was an auspicious arrival for Shirley Jones, who’d made her screen debut in the film. The album’s also a testament to the incredible range of Rod Steiger, who played Jud Fry, but it perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning performance as police chief Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night.

Most Gold Albums

Elvis’s Best-Selling Song, “It’s Now or Never” (Uploaded to YouTube by Elvis Presley)

The answer to who has the most Gold albums is perhaps not much of a surprise. That would be the King himself, Elvis Presley, with a startling 101. For female artists, that’s Barbra Streisand, who has notched 51. On the band side, The Beatles lead the pack with 48. If you’re curious about the American band with the most, that means “You wanted the best? You’ve got the best!” Yes, Kiss lays claim to 30, possibly singed, Gold albums.

First Platinum and Diamond

“Desperado” (Uploaded to YouTube by Eagles)

Since we clarified the difference between Gold and the other precious metals, we should also see who the RIAA acknowledged with the first Platinum and Diamond certifications. The 1,000,000 mark redefinition of Platinum happened in 1976, and the first award was conferred upon Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by Eagles (more on that later). Before the year was out, 50 more albums would receive the new or updated certification. In 1999, the RIAA introduced the Diamond award for 10 million copies sold. The first album with certified sales of 10 million copies was actually Can’t Slow Down by Lionel Richie, but that was in 1985 before the institution of the award; by various quirks of accounting, Michael Jackson’s Thriller (more later) didn’t receive its full certification until 2001. The artist with the most Diamond certifications are: Garth Brooks (9); The Beatles (6); Led Zeppelin (5); and Eminem, Shania Twain, and Whitney Houston (3 each). The first artist to get a Diamond for a single song was Elton John for his “Something About the Way You Look Tonight/Candle in the Wind;” oddly enough, the RIAA gave that award in 1997, two years before they officially codified that status.

Fastest Selling

“Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” (Uploaded to YouTube by Adele)

In 1991, American retailers adopted SoundScan, an electronic point-of-sale system that tracked sales with a much greater degree of accuracy. Originally, retailers had reported sales on their own, which occasionally led to distorted, or even wholly wrong, numbers. Once SoundScan came in, the charts almost immediately reflected the massive popularity of Country, Hip-Hop, and Alternative Rock. SoundScan also made tracking the speed of sales easier. And since 1991, the fastest-selling record was Adele’s 2015 release 25. Buoyed by lead single “Hello,” 25 blew past 3,378,000 records sold in one week. That’s SIX Golds and/or THREE Platinums.

Best-Selling Albums

“Thriller” (Uploaded to YouTube by Michael Jackson)

We open this category with a quick-nod to SoundScan. The best-selling album to debut since SoundScan was 1991’s self-titled Metallica. The so-called “Black Album” has chalked up over 17 million units on the strength of arena-shakers like “Enter Sandman.”

When you dig into the Best-Selling Album of All Time, that’s when the math gets a little fuzzy. The RIAA uses a curious practice whereby double-albums (that is, a single artistic package to with two records or CDs) are counted as two records, even though it’s technically one item. Therefore, a double-album like the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is counted twice for ever record sold; weirdly, since that particular CD has all the songs on one disc, that only counts once. It’s important to note this technicality because, as it might imagine, it means that there’s controversy at the very top for another accounting method.

When streaming was added to album and track sales in 2016, that boost Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by Eagles so that it sits at number one with 38 million certified copies, while the entry of Thriller by Michael Jackson holds down the official number two at 34 million. It’s a surprise, given the streaming popularity of Michael Jackson, but since that’s not how the RIAA counts it, Eagles have to be acknowledged at the top of the perch. The next best-selling albums are the Eagles own Hotel California (26 million), AC/DC’s Back in Black, Led Zeppelin IV, and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

Best-Selling Soundtrack

“I Will Always Love You” (Uploaded to YouTube by Whitney Houston)

The top five, from five to one are: Grease (28 million); Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture (30 million); Dirty Dancing (32 million); Saturday Night Fever (40 million); The Bodyguard (45 million). In two cases (Titanic and The Bodyguard), their success was driven by one monster ballad (respectively, Celine Dion’s ”My Heart Will Go On” and Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”). The other three produced a number of hits. In particular, the Fever album pulled off chart feats so amazing that they should have their own article; one example was that in March of 1978, two Bee Gees songs from the album, “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive,” occupied #1 and #2 on the Hot 100 singles chart.

Best Selling Debut Album

“Sweet Child o’ Mine” (Uploaded to YouTube by Guns N’ Roses)

The number one debut album of all time happens to fall just out of the top five. The sixth best-selling album of all time and the biggest debut belongs to Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses with 18 million copies sold in the States. Released in 1987, the hard rock/heavy metal album had a slow build until “Sweet Child o’ Mine” exploded on the radio and MTV in 1988. “Child,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” and “Paradise City” would all hit the Top 10, with “Child” making it all the way to #1.

Rounding out the rest of the top five debut albums of all time: Boston by Boston (17 million); Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette (15.5 million); Cracked Rear View by Hootie & the Blowfish (14.58 million); and a 14 million copy tie between Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut and Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.

Best-Selling Foreign Language Album

Tú Sólo Tú (You Only You) (Uploaded to YouTube by Linda Ronstadt)

The Post recently took a look at the biggest foreign language hit songs in U.S. history. Based on chart performance, the title handily went to “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, as it spent 16 weeks at #1. The biggest selling foreign language album in the U.S. is a little more surprising, for two reasons: one, the performer is an American English-speaker, and two, even without this album, she’d remain one of the best-selling female artists of all time. The 1987 album in question is called Canciones de Mi Padre (Spanish for “Songs of My Father”) and it’s by the incomparable Linda Ronstadt.

Ronstadt’s whole career is chock-full of superlatives. She’s sold 30 million albums in the States and 100 million worldwide while notching 38 Top 40 hits and three #1 albums. Her inspiration for recording Canciones was her father, who was of mostly Mexican (and partially German) descent. Her aunt, Luisa Espinel, had herself been a singer and actress in the 1920s. Ronstadt’s album includes liner notes with details on the history of each song, the significance of each tune to her family, and the lyrics in English. Canciones sold two million copies in America, another eight worldwide, won a Grammy for Best Mexican/Mexican-American album, and was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2022.

*(All numbers from RIAA sources unless otherwise indicated)