Bigger Than The Beatles?
Thursday November 16, 2006
A company with the lofty name of Official UK Charts Company spent six months poring over album sales for the past 50 years in the UK. The result? Queen have sold more albums than The Beatles. More than Pink Floyd. Even more than (sharp intake of breath) Madonna.
Queen's Greatest Hits has sold a little over half a million more copies than The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and almost two million more than Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The results are based strictly on sales figures, not fan voting or expert analysis.
This begs the question that if, as John Lennon once suggested, The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," what does that make Queen?
Album cover image courtesy Hollywood Records
Comments
Queen have sold because they’d deserved. Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the moon” was creative everyone knows it , but Queens’ songs were more artistic. They still have some feelings on me.
I wounder how much of the charts we see are boggus and bassed of “fan voting or expert analysis”. Many bands you never see in the top 10 on the album or singles charts but they seem to be top sellers at the stores. How do they compile this information? Take Rush, 28 consecitive Gold and Plats 4 of them are multi plat, that puts them up there with the Beatles, Stones, Kiss and now Queen. But you don’t see theme listed on the charts or anything newer than 81’s Moving Pictures release played on the radio.
It’s all just another peice of cheeze and we’re the rats.
Queen Rules!!! Quite simply the most brilliant, intelligent and creative foursome to ever record popular music. No one sounds like them; no one can match a vocalist and guitarist like Freddie Mercury and Brian May. I’ve studied and listend to popular music for 35 years and without doubt, they simply are (not the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin) the greastest rock group of all-time!
That sucks. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin are all infinitlely better than Queen. Apart from Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen is pretty middle-of-the-road.
Well, Wade, apparently middle-of-the-road sells … in the UK anyway {;>)
well,the beatles are the worlds greatest rock band of all time,no question abiout it fellas!!1not queen
QUEEN ARE THE BEST EVER NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT!!! NO ONE WILL TOP THEM!!! BEST BAND EVER IN THE UNIVERSE!!! love u queen, welldone, u keep selling tones of albums 4 centuries.
KISS sold more than them all!
Queen was amazing and great no question about it. But they are not even in the top 5 of all time greatest. Zep, Eagles, Doors, Three Dog, Stones, Elton, Floyd, all are more significant. I love Queen but they dont even come close to the Beatles. Beatles stand alone at the top.
I don’t even have a Queen dvd, cd or album but I like them.
In my opinion Beatles, Floyd, Zep.
It’s a matter of influence not sales.
I agree that Bohemian Rhapsody is a great video in the 70’s and now.
It’s like my cup is Starbucks but the content is 7/11 coffee. TREND just TREND.
queen bigger than the beatles?? hahaha nice try!
I don’t understand what the problem here is. Queen’s Greatest Hits HAS sold more copies than any other album in the UK. It just has. There’s no room for debate. The number is bigger. As far as the Beatles being “bigger” than Queen, there’s no argument there either. The Beatles were bigger than Queen. More people know who they are. They’ve had more exposure. But better? Depends on what you mean by better. I would dare say that Brian May has more talent for the guitar in his little toe than the four Beatles put together. It’s my opinion that Queen were far more creative. They wrote more complex songs. Their simpler songs were catchier. Freddie Mercury’s voice cannot be bested. Their songs are everywhere, even today. At sporting events. On the radio. In Karaoke bars. On television and commercials. I doubt you could find anyone who hasn’t heard almost every song on their greatest hits album. That’s why it sells better.
Actually, Queen’s Greatest Hits may have outsold the beatles greatest hits..just.. at least in the UK but make no mistake, the beatles studio albums sold out Queen’ many times over in the UK (and world-wide) and on a global scale, more Beatles albums have been sold than any other act ever! Why would every Beatles fan buy the hit’s collections when they have all the proper records? Queen have a lot more casual fans than the beatles, in other words many ten’s of millions have every album the beatles recorded, while many think Queen are “ok-ish” so they’ll buy their greatest hits”. As for Brian May being a decent guitar player, i’ll admit to that, but he is certianly not one of the top 10 ever. George Harrison was much finer than May, even though he too would not make the top 10. Freddie Mercury wasn’t that great a singer (he was decent), Paul McCartney has a much better voice.
well this is a stupid comparison, because that is a greatest hits album being compared to normal studio albums. The beatles definitely had more “greatest hits” albums than queen, so if you added up the sales for all the beatles compilation albums, it’d most likely be higher than the queen compilation albums… and of course the beatles sold way more albums overall. Queen is great, but they don’t compare to the beatles, and in my opinion, they never had an album as good as pink floyd’s darkside of the moon.
Further more… freddie is a great singer, i would agree that he’s better than any of the beatles… and i would agree that brain may is a more skilled guitarist than any of the beatles… but the reason that the beatles were so great, and better than queen, is because of their song writing ability. yes queen has some very good songs, more complex than the beatles… but the beatles had so many good songs, and they range a great deal in their sound… i think most people would agree that queen really does not contest the beatles crown
This sort of discussion will always have fans champion their act. Queen have the best selling album in uk chart history,simple. But worldwide the beatles have sold more. Total sales for them both are massive. The infuence of both acts is everywhere (lady gaga no mistake where the name comes from). As far as other acts like zep and pink floyd go its the same story. Darkside of the moon is the biggest selling album globaly by a uk group. All of them have made the uk music scene a success. But as for kiss I know they have done well but not in the same league as queen or the beatles.
Well, someone said that McCartney’s voice is better than Freddies? Your jsut being silly there, Freddie’s voice is obviously better, whether you’re a fan of the Beatles or not, you cant escape that fact. And yes, maybe the Beatles sold more albums, but what competition did they have to contend with? There was the beatles, the first real boy group, of course they were going to sell masses of albums. Queen had The Who, Zep, Pink Floyd, ACDC and loads more artists to contend with, of course they were never gonna sell as much as the beatles.
The Jonas Brothers outsold Frank Zappa. The Bee Gees outsold Steely Dan. Since when did the tastes of the masses equal greatness?
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin reign superior over Queen in terms of complexity and technical skills. Queen is however among the greatest rockbands of all time, much better than overly hyped bands such as The Beatles, Stones or Nirvana. The Beatles are probably among the most overrated bands in music history. Every apprentice equipped with some musical skills can master 90 % of their songs (the instrumental parts) within a week or so. This does not apply for most of the songs by Queen. Not a single member of The Beatles even remotely possesses or possessed the musicals skills of people like David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Jimmy Page or Brian May.