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UK's million-selling singles: the full list
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the official singles chart, the Official Charts Company has ranked the top UK million-selling singles. See which songs make the list and which have sold the most
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UK million-selling singles list. Click on the image for the full-size graphic
The most authoritative chart ever of the UK's million-selling singles, released on Monday, shows Elton John ranked highest for sales for his double A-side Something About The Way You Look Tonight/ Candle in the Wind.
Released after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, the song is at the top of the UK million-sellers chart with 4.9m copies sold. Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid released in 1984 is in second place with 3.69m singles bought in the UK.
The Official Charts Company has ranked the top UK million-selling singles to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the singles chart, with some interesting results. Caspar Llewellyn Smith writes:
It is a chart in which Don't You Want Me? by the Human League sits just outside the Top 20 but immediately above the Beatles ' Can't Buy Me Love.
Lennon and McCartney's 1964 hit is in turn just ahead of I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, followed by Baddiel and Skinner and the Lightning Seed's Three Lions and then Ken Dodd's Tears. The records are ranked by sales in the first-ever authoritative chart of the UK's million-selling singles.
The list of 123 singles includes million-selling singles from artists such as Queen, The Beatles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Adele . Even the Teletubbies make an appearance with 1.11m copies of Teletubbies Say "Eh-Oh!" sold in the UK.
Appearing six times on the list, The Beatles boast by far the highest amount of singles on the UK million-selling singles chart. Rihanna appears on the list three times – for Only Girl (In The World), Love The Way You Lie (featuring with Eminem ) and another for We Found Love (featuring Calvin Harris ).
Boney M, Celine Dion, Engelbert Humperdinck, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John all appear on the list twice.
The chart above shows the number of million selling-singles in the UK by decade. The 1990s was the best year for single sales it would appear, with 32 singles selling over a million. Explore the Tableau interactive to see the singles and artists by decade also.
The table below shows all 123 of the UK million-selling singles by song title, artist and sales. What can you do with this data?
Data summary