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Source Album Charts

The "Chart Entries" listing for each album documents which charts it appeared in. So for example an entry of "UK 1 - Jun 1967, US CashBox 5 of 1967, Global 19 - 24 M claimed, Internet 9 - 32 M claimed 1967, US Gold (cerified by RIAA in Oct 1978), Rolling Stone 1" would indicate that the album:

  • Was number one in the UK album charts, entering the chart in Jun 1967
  • Was number 5 for the year 1967 in the Cashbox charts
  • Is number 19 on the "Global" album list which claims sales of 24 million
  • Is 9th on the internet album list
  • Was cerified by the RIAA to have reached Gold status
  • Was in the top slot of "Rolling Stone" magazine's 2004 list

A complete set of the strings used (and which charts generated them) can be found at the end of this page.

The way that a total score for each album is derived from the chart entries is the same as that described for songs. This set of results was generated 17 Jan 2024 16:59 GMT and is version 2.8.0053. The 93 album source charts that contributed were:


Name Period Covered Max Pos Num Entries Region Type Description
UK 1956 - 2011 100 14945 UK position each week The complete UK album charts
US 1970s 1970 - 1979 10 485 USA position each month Billboard Top 10 each month of the 1970s
Sweden 1975 - 2009 40 8312 Sweden position each week Top 40 charts from //swedishcharts.com/archiv.asp
Austria 1973 - 2009 40 5157 Austria position each month Top 40 charts from //austriancharts.at/archiv.asp
Norway 1967 - 2009 40 7190 Norway position each week Top 40 charts from //norwegiancharts.com/archiv.asp
Switzerland 1983 - 2009 40 6301 Switzerland position each week Top 40 charts from //swisscharts.com/archiv.asp
Dutch Albums 1969 - 1972 50 374 Holland position each week Top 50 charts from //dutchcharts.nl/
US Year 1956 - 2023 10 1200 USA position in year Top 5 of the Billboard year end album chart
Billboard 2000s 200 2000 - 2009 200 200 USA position in decade Billboard 200 albums of the 2000s
US Number 1 1945 - 2017 1 1029 USA number 1 records Top albums in the US Billboard 200 album chart (from Wikipedia)
Germany ODK 1978 - 2015 100 16802 Germany position each week Top 100 German albums of each week
Germany Number 1 1963 - 2008 1 544 Germany number 1 records List of number 1 albums in Germany
Germany 1978 - 2012 15 3920 Germany position each week Weekly top 15 in Germany
Europe Number 1 1987 - 2007 1 267 Europe number 1 records Number 1 albums in Europe
Japan Oricon Number 1s 1970 - 2006 1 915 Japan number 1 records Number 1 albums in the Oricon weekly chart
US Billoard Hot 200 1963 - 2016 200 34718 USA position each week Top 200 albums of each week
US Cashbox 1957 - 1995 100 3145 USA position in year Top 100 of each year in 'Cashbox Magazine' chart
UK Albums 2019 - 2023 100 315 UK position in year Top 100 of each year in UK
Italy 1965 - 2008 100 3877 Italy position in year Top 100 of each year from //www.hitparadeitalia.it/
Holland Free40 1974 - 2016 100 2707 Holland critic's pick Top albums from //www.free40.nl/free40jaarlinks.htm
Australia Number 1 1965 - 2017 1 834 Australia number 1 records Number 1 records in Australia
New Zealand Number 1 1975 - 2017 1 1028 New Zealand number 1 records Number 1 records in New Zealand
New Zealand all time - - 2013 14 20 New Zealand position in all time Highest selling albums in New Zealand
Canada Number 1 1968 - 2017 1 939 Canada number 1 records Number 1 albums in Canada
Australia GoSet 1970 - 1974 20 444 Australia position each week From the Australian magazine GoSet (source //www.poparchives.com.au/)
Melody Maker 1978 - 2000 50 710 USA position in year Top annual album list published in 'Melody Maker'
France Best 1984 - 1990 19 115 France position in year Best magazine's picks as listed on //disques.de.l.annee.free.fr/
France InfoDisc 1968 - 2008 100 3708 France position in year Chart data from //www.infodisc.fr/
US BB Year End 1955 - 2016 5 305 USA position in year Billboard year end charts for albums
US Longest Runs up to 2010 106 106 USA position in all time Albums with longest runs in Billboard
Library of Congress up to 2017 1 187 USA critic's pick US Library of Congress artifact
PopVortex up to 2010 100 100 USA position in all time PopVortex top albums of all time
Australia Annual 1965 - 1987 25 576 Australia position in year A listing of the top albums from the Kent Music Report
Australia ARIA 1988 - 2017 100 2750 Australia position in year A listing of the top albums from ARIA
Taiwan 1990 - 1999 10 10 Taiwan position in all time Best selling albums of the 1990s in Taiwan
Taipei Times 1975 - 2005 20 40 Taiwan position in all time List of the 20 top albums in the Taipei Times
US RIAA Certificate 1958 - 2007 - 8832 USA album sales RIAA certified album sales levels from //www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php
US Certificate (since 2008) 2008 - 2011 - 431 USA album sales RIAA certified sales levels for albums from //www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php
UK BPI Certificate 1966 - 2008 - 7154 UK album sales BPI certified album sales levels
France Certificate 1963 - 2008 - 2023 France album sales Album sales certified by SNEP from //www.disqueenfrance.com/
Germany Certificate 1974 - 2009 - 2389 Germany album sales Album sales certified by Bundesverband Musikindustrie e.V.
Canada Certificate 2001 - 2009 - 1364 Canada album sales Sales certified by the CRIA since 2001
Canada Diamond up to 2008 2000 87 Canada album sales Listing of "Diamond" level albums in Canada, from //www.angelfire.com/music/diamondawards/ criadiamond.html
Europe Certificate 1996 - 2009 - 757 Europe album sales Platinum Europe Awards from the IFPI
Hong Kong Certificate 1977 - 1998 - 438 Hong Kong album sales Awards from the Hong Kong branch of the IFPI
Argentina Certificate - - 2010 - 55 Argentina album sales Awards from CAPIF
Brazil All Time - - 2014 - 33 Brazil position in all time All time International Albums
Philippines Certificate - - 2011 - 35 Philippines album sales Awards from PARI
Belgium All Time up to 2006 100 100 Belgium position in all time The top 100 albums in Belgium
Finland All Time up to 2008 100 100 Finland position in all time The top 100 albums in Finland
Vatican All Time up to 2010 10 10 Vatican position in all time The Vatican paper's top 10
US Sales up to 2005 409 409 USA album sales Album sales numbers from RIAA
UK EP 1959 - 1969 40 385 UK position each week During the 1960s there was a special chart for EPs
UK album sales up to 2006 63 63 UK album sales An estimate of the best selling albums in the UK, from someone called Hanboo. Quoted on //www.everyhit.com/recordalb.html
UK all time albums up to 2014 50 50 UK album sales The best selling albums of all time in the UK
Rolling Stone up to 2004 500 500 USA critic's pick Top 500 albums listed in 'Rolling Stone'
Billboard 200 up to 2015 200 200 USA critic's pick Top 200 albums of all time in Billboard (to 2015)
Grammy 1958 - 2017 - 305 USA voted for Winner of the Grammy for best album
Grammy Hall of Fame 1935 - 1992 - 300 USA voted for Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Latin Grammy Hall of Fame 1948 - 1969 - 6 USA voted for Inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame
Mercury 1992 - 2017 - 301 UK voted for Winners of the Mercury Prize for best album
Brits 1977 - 2023 - 41 UK voted for Winners of the Brit award for best album
Juno Award 1975 - 2017 - 213 Canada voted for Winner of the Juno Award
Guinness up to 1994 100 100 UK voted for Top 100 from 'Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums'
RYM up to 2011 200 11765 internet social network Albums with the highest rating on rateyourmusic.com (Feb 2007)
Fox101 up to 2004 100 100 USA voted for 101 The Fox Classic Rock & Roll Radio
Radio2 up to 2006 100 100 UK voted for BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums
Virgin up to 2000 100 100 UK voted for Virgin Radio in UK
Radio Caroline up to 2008 300 300 UK voted for Top 300 Albums as voted by Radio Caroline listeners
RS Readers up to 2002 100 100 USA voted for Rolling Stone Reader's 100 greatest albums list
RS100 up to 1987 100 100 USA critic's pick Rolling Stone magazines 100 greatest albums list
German RS100 up to 1997 100 100 Germany critic's pick The German edition of Rolling Stone selected 100 greatest albums
WTMD up to 2007 897 897 USA voted for Top 100 albums voted for by listeners of WTMD Baltimore
WXPN up to 2004 885 885 internet social network Listener's favourite albums from WXPN
BEA 1950 - 2017 10 652 internet social network The top 10 albums of each year on the "Best Ever Albums" site
DMDB 100 up to 2010 100 100 internet social network The top 100 albums according to Dave's Music Database
NARM up to 2007 100 100 USA voted for National Association of Recording Merchandisers
Channel 4 up to 2004 100 100 UK voted for Top 100 albums voted for by Channel 4 viewers (from very limited list)
Global up to 2000? 177 177 world album sales Claims to be total album sales for whole world
Internet up to 2003 119 119 internet album sales Claimed worldwide album sales (focus is really US)
Acclaimed up to 2006 3000 3000 USA critic's pick Top 3000 albums selected on a web site source //www.acclaimedmusic.net/
Acclaim Year 2007 - 2017 100 1001 USA critic's pick The annual lists for new years from //www.acclaimedmusic.net/
Definitive 200 up to 2006 200 200 internet critic's pick The definitive 200 sourced from //www.definitive200.com/200_list.php
World Sales up to 2009 97 97 internet critic's pick Claimed global sales
D Marsh 1963 - 1980 40 720 internet critic's pick From the Book Of Rock Lists by Dave Marsh
Vinyl Surrender up to 2010 100 100 internet critic's pick The top 100 albums of all time on Vinyl Surrender
NME 2000s 2000 - 2009 100 100 UK voted for Top albums of the period 2000 - 2009 according to NME
Japan All Time up to 2009 10 10 Japan position in all time The best selling international albums in Japan
AVRev up to 2008 100 100 internet voted for Top rock albums according to AVRev
KEXP up to 2008 903 903 USA voted for KEXP Seattle's Top 903 Albums
WFUV up to 2006 90 90 USA voted for WFUV new York's Top 90 Albums
Christgau Rating 1970 - 1989 - 6163 USA critic's pick Village Voice Critic's ratings
the MusicID revenue site 2000 - 2023 100 2300 internet album sales Annual Album Charts from the MusicID revenue site

Album Entries Chart

The chart above shows how the 178,414 items in the album charts varies with the declared year. The profiles of each of the 93 album charts is shown below.

Entries from Acclaim Year

Acclaim Year

The site //www.acclaimedmusic.net/ has continued to collect lists of "Acclaimed Music" since we scanned it for albums in 2006. During that time the site has been extended to provide a good listing of the music that critics like and where it gets its information from. This chart adds the albums that have been highest on the site since 2006. The data available from this site has been steadily improving in quality since 2003 and now their spreadsheets are one of the best sources this type of data on the web.

Entries from Acclaimed

Acclaimed

Top 3000 albums selected on a web site source //www.acclaimedmusic.net/. The site now documents the source lists, however it is still a collection of music that reflects what critics think should be rated as good rather than what people spend money and time on.

Entries from Argentina Certificate

Argentina Certificate

This list of albums certified by CAPIF in Argentina is from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_Argentina. With the associated diamond certified albums added.

Entries from Australia Annual

Australia Annual

The "Kent Music Report" lists the top 25 albums of each year from 1965 to 1987. This data comes from pages like //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_25_a lbums_for_1965_in_Australia.

Entries from Australia ARIA

Australia ARIA

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) lists the top albums of each year from 1988 to the present on their comprehensive web site at //www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-end- of-year-charts.htm.

Entries from Australia GoSet

Australia GoSet

Australian weekly charts as published in the Melbourne based magazine GoSet reported on the site //www.poparchives.com.au/. The magazine started printing album charts only a few years before it closed down.

Entries from Australia Number 1

Australia Number 1

The list of number 1 albums in Australia as described on Wikipedia (on pages like //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-o ne_albums_in_Australia_during_the_1960s and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one _albums_of_2017_%28Australia%29) Those pages claims that the lists are from //www.austchartbook.com.au/ and //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARIA_Charts.

Entries from Austria

Austria

Top 40 charts from //austriancharts.at/archiv.asp

Entries from AVRev

AVRev

The Top 100 Rock Albums of all time as listed on the AVRev site at //www.avrev.com/avrev.coms-top-100-rock- albums-of-all-time/top-100-rock-albums/ index.php. The position on this list does not affect the overall score of the album.

Entries from BEA

BEA

The site //www.besteveralbums.com/ combines critics lists with member selections to work out the most highly rated albums of each year, decade and all time. This selection of the top 10 albums of each year was taken in Jul 2010.

The site has the inevitable issues of certain acts being boosted by strategic voting, however their requirement that users are explicit about their picks seems to have resulted in a list that avoids the worst excesses. At least as long as only the top 10 of each year are used.

Entries from Belgium All Time

Belgium All Time

This list of the all time top 100 albums in Belgium was voted for in 2008 by Studio Brussel listeners. The list comes from //www.timepieces.nl/Top100%27s/2008Studi oBrussel.html.

Entries from Billboard 200

Billboard 200

In 2015 Billboard published a list of the top 200 albums of all time this is available from //www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-bill board-200-albums.

Entries from Billboard 2000s 200

Billboard 2000s 200

Billboard publish a list of the top 200 US selling albums of the period 2000-2009. This was calculated using sales figures from Neilson and is to be found at //www.billboard.com/#/charts-decade-end/ billboard-200-albums?year=2009.

Entries from Brazil All Time

Brazil All Time

This list of best selling International albums in Brazil is from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_Brazil.

Entries from Brits

Brits

Winners of the annual "Brit" award for best album held each year since 1982. The one-off 1977 awards (held for the Silver Jubilee) awarded the best album of the previous 25 years.

Entries from Canada Certificate

Canada Certificate

The CRIA in Canada have been certifying sales since the early 1980s. There web site (at //www.cria.ca/goldplat.php) lists all the certifications since 2001.

Entries from Canada Diamond

Canada Diamond

The "Canadian Recording Industry Association" (CRIA) site (at //www.cria.ca/goldplat.php) lists all the sales certifications since 2001. This list of the albums that reached "Diamond" or "Double Diamond" level before 2001. The data comes from //www.angelfire.com/music/diamondawards/ criadiamond.html.

Entries from Canada Number 1

Canada Number 1

The list of the number one albums in Canada from 1977 to 2017 from Wikipedia (for example //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-o ne_albums_of_2017_%28Canada%29). The list has been extended to 1968

Entries from Channel 4

Channel 4

Top 100 albums voted for by Channel 4 viewers. Not only was the list that viewers could pick from quite limited but the votes appear to have been distorted by organised block voting.

Entries from the MusicID revenue site

the MusicID revenue site

The site revenue site combines charts from the countries with the six biggest music markets. It lists the top albums and songs for every day, month, year and decade from January 2000 to last month. The chart used here is the top 100 albums from every year from 2000 to last year.

The site is created by the same people as the MusicID impact site. The difference is that while the MusicID impact site.info covers the period from 1900 to 2023, the approach we take here requires a large number of input charts. After about 2010 the results become increasingly dubious (because there are fewer source charts). the MusicID revenue site in contrast takes a differnt route, there are weekly charts for every week starting in 2000, these are factored by the revenue from music in each country giving a chart of the top songs and albums for every day. This approach works well for periods where reliable charts are available. Since version 2.7.001 we've emphasised the the MusicID revenue site charts for years after 2010.

Entries from Christgau Rating

Christgau Rating

Robert Christgau, a music critic for "The Village Voice", wrote a number of books that rated various albums. Two of his books focus on the 1970s and 1980s, these are the ratings listed here, after 1989 the rating system was changed. The ratings don't affect the album's score, they're just here for information.

The listings, together with more details of each album, are available at pages like //www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k =A&bk=70.

Entries from D Marsh

D Marsh

The "Book Of Rock Lists" by Dave Marsh & Kevin Stein was published in 1981. It provides a variety of lists, these entries are from "The Best Of The Album Chartmakers By Year" as made available at //www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/dmarshsi.html.

Entries from Definitive 200

Definitive 200

A list of the "definitive 200" albums sourced from //www.definitive200.com/200_list.php. This list has a pretty good correlation with the rest of the world's charts so the web site has done a pretty good job of gathering its chart.

Entries from DMDB 100

DMDB 100

A guy called Dave Whitaker has collected various lists of albums and songs and used the information to create the site //www.davesmusicdatabase.com/. For each major album Dave provides all sorts of interesting information, the site is well worth checking out. This is his calculated list of the 100 top albums of all time.

Entries from Dutch Albums

Dutch Albums

The web site //dutchcharts.nl/ claims to have listings of the Dutch charts starting in 1969, however the album listing has a gap from the end of 1972 until the 1990s and the song chart doesn't add much to the data we already have. To make it worse the site doesn't say what its source is.

However the album chart from 1969 to 1972 is new data, so we have used just that.

Entries from Europe Certificate

Europe Certificate

Platinum Europe Awards recognise sales of one million or more copies of an album in Europe. The Awards were launched in 1996 and are certified by IFPI. Souce is //www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/plat inum_intro.html.

Like all "Gold Record" type awards it should be kept in mind that record companies have to fund the IFPI to audit the sales, this list will only include groups that someone has paid to promote in Europe.

Entries from Europe Number 1

Europe Number 1

There are a number of groups that have been listing the top hits in Europe since the 1970s. In the 1980s these lists were extended to include albums. The Euro 200 chart is a list of the number one records in these charts and was reported originally at //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-o ne_hits_in_Europe. However that page has now been hijacked by the "Eurochart Hot 100" a chart from the US based Billboard group whose contents are not easily available.

Entries from Finland All Time

Finland All Time

This list of the all time top 100 best selling albums in Finland, it is claimed that the sales numbers are from the Finnish branch of the IFPI (at //www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/myydyimmat.html) but our understanding of Finnish is not good enough to verify that. The list comes from //rateyourmusic.com/list/Cthulhu/the_100 _most_sold_albums_in_finland/

Of all the album charts here this one is most different from the rest.

Entries from Fox101

Fox101

List from 101 The Fox Classic Rock & Roll Radio

Entries from France Best

France Best

Best magazine has been publishing since 1968. During the 80s they listed the best albums of each year. Actually they produced two lists, one selected by the critics and one by the readers, we have merged them (biasing towards the readers views). The original lists came from //disques.de.l.annee.free.fr/

Entries from France Certificate

France Certificate

Since 1994 SNEP in France have been certifying sales of albums. This list is from //www.disqueenfrance.com/. The data at this location contains many repeat certificates and alternate spellings of artist and album names.

This is one of the elements included in our estimates of global album sales

Entries from France InfoDisc

France InfoDisc

We were told that the //infodisc.fr/ site had the most notable French charts in 2007. At that time there was very little data there that could be accessed without payment. Now the site now has added some summary information that is freely available so we have used here.

This is from their annual lists at pages like //www.infodisc.fr/B-CD_1970.php.

Entries from German RS100

German RS100

In the December 1997 issue of the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine there was a list of the 100 greatest albums of all time. This list is from //www.rocklist.net/rstone.html.

Entries from Germany

Germany

A summary of weekly the historic album charts listed at //www.charts.de/.

Entries from Germany Certificate

Germany Certificate

Since 1974 Bundesverband Musikindustrie e.V. has been certifying sales of albums. This list is from //www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_date nbank.html, unfortunately the really bad site design means that we don't know if we have all the entries from 2003-2008.

This is one of the elements included in our estimates of global album sales

Entries from Germany Number 1

Germany Number 1

From mid 1962 until 1992 the official charts in West Germany (and for later years the unified country) listed the number one selling album of each week. After that a top 100 is available (but for this list we have continued to list just the number one album). This data comes from //www.charts-surfer.de/.

Entries from Germany ODK

Germany ODK

The "Offiziellen Deutschen Charts" are licenced by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie e.V. and provide weekly listings of album popularity based on purchases, downloads and streams. Their listing starts in 1978 and can be found at //www.offiziellecharts.de/charts/album/.

Entries from Global

Global

Claims to be total album sales for whole world. Like all these types of lists there are obvious omisions and exaggerations. These numbers should be treated with caution and, for example, not quoted in Wikipedia. We have a page that discusses a set of album sales estimates that are about as trustworthy as we can make them.

Entries from Grammy

Grammy

Winners and nominees of the Grammy for best album each year as listed in Wikipedia. The year listed is the year for which the album won, not the year when the award was presented. (source //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for _Album_of_the_Year)

Entries from Grammy Hall of Fame

Grammy Hall of Fame

The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance". A complete list of recordings awarded this title appear at //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Hall_of_F ame_Award. The year noted in each entry is the year on which the song won the award. The chart here shows the years when the albums were released.

One of the users pointed out that some entries listed on the Grammy website are missing from the Wikipedia page. This data has been extended with the information from //www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Award s/Hall_Of_Fame/

Entries from Guinness

Guinness

The top 100 albums from the book 'Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums' published in 1994

Entries from Holland Free40

Holland Free40

Since 1975 "Free 40" has provided an alternative weekly album chart for Holland. This is the year end charts for albums which once came from //www.free40.nl/free40jaarlinks.htm. Unfortunately that old listing mixed some singles into the list. The more recent listing at www.free40.nl/charts/free100.php seems to have removed those issues.

Entries from Hong Kong Certificate

Hong Kong Certificate

The Hong Kong branch of the IFPI started awarding Gold and Platinum records in 1977. Their listing at //www.ifpihk.org/www_1/go2e.php only includes entries up to 1998 and has no way to distinguish Multi-Platinum awards. This is just the International records as we can't cope with the Chinese characters in the names of the local recordings.

Entries from Internet

Internet

These figures claim to be worldwide album sales, in fact they are skewed towards US based acts and the list is probably related to the widely quoted (and often misquoted) RIAA claimed sales list (but it is different).

As with all worldwide sales figures these are clearly inaccurate and should not be treated as definitive. We have a page that discusses a set of album sales estimates that are about as trustworthy as we can make them.

Entries from Italy

Italy

The annual top 100 album list from 1965-2008 (source //www.hitparadeitalia.it/)

Entries from Japan All Time

Japan All Time

A short list of the best selling international albums in Japan. This list does not include Japanese language albums. The source was //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_Japan.

Entries from Japan Oricon Number 1s

Japan Oricon Number 1s

The Oricon chart is the most widely recognised one in Japan. This list of number one albums from 1970 to 2005 was found at //www007.upp.so-net.ne.jp/k-makoto/datas tation/datastation.htm and translated using Bablefish. Albums with an artists or title that were not translated have had to be removed.

The combination of an unofficial source and a not very good translation lowers the quality of the result. If this was for anywhere other than the second largest music market in the world we would not have incorporated it. If anyone has a reliable set of Japanese charts we would like to hear from you.

Entries from Juno Award

Juno Award

This Canadian music award has been active since 1975. It has been known as the Best Album, Best Selling Album and Album of the Year. This list comes from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Award_for_A lbum_of_the_Year.

Entries from KEXP

KEXP

KEXP 90.3 Seattle held a vote in 2008 for the greatest albums of all time. The list is included for completeness it does not contribute to an album's overall score. The list is to be found at //www.kexp.org/top2008/.

Entries from Latin Grammy Hall of Fame

Latin Grammy Hall of Fame

The Latin Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established to honor Latin recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance". The list at //www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Award s/Latin_Hall_Of_Fame/ only lists the awards for 2001.

Entries from Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The US Library of Congress maintain a "National Recording Registry" of important audio. This includes key speeches, music and other audio. The complete set consists of the 432 (as at early 2015) most important items. This is a list of the 145 albums on the list. The complete list can be found at //www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nr pb-masterlist.html.

This list has been completely reprocessed following some comments (and suggested fixes) from Chet. The original recordings are not classified into albums and songs, and while it might be easy to identify a single song choosing what will be classified as an album is more difficult (after all anything can later be released as a CD). This reflects our attempt to classify all the items.

Entries from Melody Maker

Melody Maker

Top annual album list published in the magazine 'Melody Maker'

Entries from Mercury

Mercury

The Mercury Prize is presented every year to the best album of the year. Originally intended to contrast with the Brits (which are dominated by the major labels) the prize has managed to avoid the albums that later prove most widely successful and the acts awarded the prize have almost all failed to go on to later popularity. This is the list of winners and nominees from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Prize

Entries from NARM

NARM

National Association of Recording Merchandisers a US based organisation of music retailers. This is one of the charts that best correlates with the others.

Entries from New Zealand all time

New Zealand all time

This list of the best selling albums of all time in New Zealand came from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_New_Zealand.

Entries from New Zealand Number 1

New Zealand Number 1

The list of number 1 albums in New Zealand as described on Wikipedia (on pages like //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-o ne_albums_in_2001_%28New_Zealand%29).

Entries from NME 2000s

NME 2000s

The Top 100 albums released during Jan 2000 - Dec 2009, as voted for by NME staff plus a selection of musicians and industry figures. This version came from //www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmes_100_best_ albums.htm.

Entries from Norway

Norway

Historical Top 40 charts from //norwegiancharts.com/archiv.asp. A mistake in processing meant that these charts had to be regenerated in version 1.9.012.

Entries from Philippines Certificate

Philippines Certificate

This list of albums certified by PARI is from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_the_Philippines.

Entries from PopVortex

PopVortex

This is a listing of the 100 top albums of all time according to PopVortex. The list consolidates inputs from a number of sources. The source was //www.popvortex.com/music/100-greatest-a lbums/.

Entries from Radio2

Radio2

BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums

Entries from Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline

In 2008 Radio Caroline held a poll for all its listners this list is the top 300 albums. Source was //www.timepieces.nl/Top100%27s/2008Radio Caroline.html.

Entries from Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

The top 500 albums listed in 'Rolling Stone' in 2004. Notice the profile that suggests most readers prefer music from before 1980. (source //www.rollingstone.com/news/story/593817 4/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_tim e)

Entries from RS100

RS100

The Rolling Stone top 100 albums of the last 20 years published September & October 1987 as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the magazine. Source was //www.rocklist.net/rstone.html.

Of all the album charts listed here this is the one that best correlates with all the others.

Entries from RS Readers

RS Readers

Rolling Stone issue 907 (October 2002) included a list of the top 100 albums of all time as voted for by readers of the magazine. The list comes from //www.rocklist.net/rstone.html.

Entries from RYM

RYM

The site //rateyourmusic.com/ gives users the chance to rate different songs and albums. The ratings are not objective (and, of course, they shouldn't be) but the large volume of contributors makes this worthwhile (at least for modern music). These charts were extracted during Feb 2007.

It is obvious that particular groups of fans have conbined to pump up certain artists. Where it is obvious that some acts are unexpectedly highly placed they have been scaled back. In particular if any act has more than one third of their total scrore from this one source they will have the less highly rated entries taken out.

Entries from Sweden

Sweden

Top 40 charts from //swedishcharts.com/archiv.asp

Entries from Switzerland

Switzerland

Top 40 charts from //swisscharts.com/archiv.asp

Entries from Taipei Times

Taipei Times

A list of the 20 top Taiwanese albums from 1975 - 1992 and from 1993 - 2005 published in the Taipei Times. The source data was from //www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives /2009/04/06/2003440333.

Entries from Taiwan

Taiwan

This claims to be a list of the 10 best selling albums in Taiwan of all time. In fact given that all the albums were released between 1992 and 1998 it looks like the best selling albums of the 1990s. The source data was from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_Taiwan

Entries from UK

UK

The complete album charts from the UK started in 1956 and has been going ever since. This updated data set includes expands the original data to include all the positions (rather than just the top 40) and dates up to the end of 2008.

This data comes from //www.chartstats.com/ which is a great site for examining the UK charts.

Entries from UK album sales

UK album sales

There are various lists of claimed album sales, and as we have said many times none of them can be trusted (even this one for example). This list, originally compiled by the Official Charts Company for a VHS program was apparently created by someone called "Hanboo". It appears quite reasonable and is quoted in a number of places, for example //www.everyhit.com/recordalb.html, //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_United_Kingdom and //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6151 050.stm.

Entries from UK Albums

UK Albums

Top 100 albums of each year in the UK listed on pages like //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_British_ music.

Entries from UK all time albums

UK all time albums

There are various lists of claimed album sales, and as we have said many times none of them can be trusted (even this one for example). This list is from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sel ling_albums_in_United_Kingdom which obtained it from //www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the- official-top-40-biggest-selling-albums- of-all-time-2288/.

Entries from UK BPI Certificate

UK BPI Certificate

The BPI will (for a fee) audit the level of sales of an album in the UK and certify that the the record has managed "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" or "Multi-Platinum" levels of sales. A database of qualifying records was originally at //www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinum.html but has now been moved to //www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/Search.a spx.

As we have mentioned elsewhere quoted sales figures are generally not to be trusted. The BPI certification programme is, one of the most reliable set of sales figures available on the internet. However the fact that record companies have to fund the process means that the BPI list focuses on well known groups that large record companies want to promote in the UK.

This is one of the elements included in our estimates of global album sales

Entries from UK EP

UK EP

For a period during the 1960s there was a distict chart for Extended Play (EP) records. These usually contained 3-5 songs and so have been treated as albums.

Entries from US 1970s

US 1970s

The "Billboard 200" album chart is not generally available this chart claims to be from "The All Music Book of Hit Albums" by Dave McAleer, specificly the "Seventies Albums - Month By Month" chapter. It was downloaded from //www.superseventies.com/albumsbymonth.h tml.

Entries from US BB Year End

US BB Year End

Billboard has listed the top albums of each year since 1955. The actual Billboard site only provides access to the top 5 of each year (that chart is included elsewhere). This listing claims to provide Billboard's annual list and comes from //hitsofalldecades.com/. The quality of data at that site is fairly poor, however since it is the only source we have for the lower positions it has been included.

The most recent years are available on Billboard's site on pages such as: //www.billboard.com/#/charts-year-end/th e-billboard-200?year=2010

Entries from US Billoard Hot 200

US Billoard Hot 200

The Billboard "Hot 200" album chart has been running since 1963. This data can been seen in detail on Billboard's site (for example by starting at //www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200 / and entering a historical date). The data on the Billboard site has a number of inconsistencies and converting the more than 500,000 weekly entries to a consistent set of "chart runs" has proved to be challanging. This tidying up work is still continuing so there may be differences between other charts (such as the Wikipedia number one's list) and this one. Where you find these tell us and we'll fix them.

A more detailed look at the album chart US Billoard Hot 200 can be found here

Entries from US Cashbox

US Cashbox

Top 100 albums of each year in 'Cashbox Magazine' chart (original source //members.aol.com/randypny/cashbox/).

The Cashbox charts have now been moved to //www.cashboxmagazine.com/archives.htm.

Entries from US Certificate (since 2008)

US Certificate (since 2008)

Since October 2008 (when we loaded the RIAA certificates) the RIAA have updated their web site, it now has more information and fewer errors, but can still be found at //www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php. These entries are the certificates awarded between October 2008 and June 2011.

As we have mentioned elsewhere quoted sales figures are generally not to be trusted. The RIAA certification programme is, almost without doubt, the most well audited set of sales figures available on the internet. However the fact that record companies have to fund the process means that the RIAA list focuses on well known groups that large record companies want to promote in the US.

Entries from US Longest Runs

US Longest Runs

There are 106 albums that have spent more than 150 weeks in the Billboard 200 up to 2010. This list is from //davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.co.uk/2013 /03/the-longest-charting-albums-in-us-c hart.html.

Entries from US Number 1

US Number 1

This chart lists the Number 1 albums in the US Billboard list as reported on Wikipedia (source //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-o ne_albums_(United_States)).

Between the start of 1961 and August 1963 there were two album charts, one for mono albums and one for stero. Where the number one is the same in both it has been counted as as single week at the top, however where they are different both albums have been credited as joint number ones.

Entries from US RIAA Certificate

US RIAA Certificate

The RIAA will (for a fee) audit the level of sales of an album and certify that the the record has managed "Gold", "Platinum" or "Multi-Platinum" levels of sales in the US. A database of qualifying albums can be examined at //www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php.

As we have mentioned elsewhere quoted sales figures are generally not to be trusted. The RIAA certification programme is, almost without doubt, the most well audited set of sales figures available on the internet. However the fact that record companies have to fund the process means that the RIAA list focuses on well known groups that large record companies want to promote in the US. The "Gold" level in particular often means that the album did not break into the Billboard chart, but someone was prepared to pay to promote it.

One cause of confusion is that the RIAA runs a parallel certification scheme for Latin music in the USA. This awards at much lower sales levels, for example the equivalent to a Platinum record requires sales of 100,000 (as opposed to 1 million for the standard award). Unfortunately the way the RIAA web site lists these hits makes it impossible to distinguish them from the standard ones, we've attempted to remove the Latin awards from the listing.

This is one of the elements included in our estimates of global album sales

Entries from US Sales

US Sales

The RIAA have listed albums that sold more than 5 million copies in the US. This is one of the more trustworthy sources of actual sales numbers, however as with all sales lists there are some entries that appear to be inconsistent and the overall entries should be treated with some caution. In particular the sales levels of albums from before 1975 seem low. This data came from //www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?t able=tblTop100. This list is similar to the numbers that can be deduced from the RIAA Certification levels.

Entries from US Year

US Year

The Billboard 200 chart lists the top 200 albums of each year. This version only contains the positions 1 to 5 of that chart up to 2015, since that is all that is made freely available. This data originally came from Wikipedia.

The years 2006-2023 came from the Billboard site (at pages like //www.billboard.com/#/charts-year-end/th e-billboard-200?year=2010). Unfortunately this set does not go back before 1985.

Entries from Vatican All Time

Vatican All Time

The top 10 albums of all time listed in "L'Osservatore Romano" (the Vatican newspaper) in Feb 2010. (as reported at //www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belie f/2010/feb/15/pope-top-10-albums-vatica n)

Entries from Vinyl Surrender

Vinyl Surrender

The website //www.vinylsurrender.com/ consolidates opinions from users. This list of the top 100 albums of all time was grabbed in March 2014.

Entries from Virgin

Virgin

The top 100 albums voted for by listeners of Virgin Radio in the UK (as reported at //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/9086 74.stm)

Entries from WFUV

WFUV

WFUV 90.6 New York asked listeners for their all-time essential albums, from the beginning of time through the fall of 2006. This is the list which is here for information only it does not contribute to the overall score. The list can be found at //www.wfuv.org/music/best/essentialalbum s

Entries from World Sales

World Sales

A group of people have collected sales figures from a variety of sources to attempt to build a comprehensive estimate of worldwide sales. Because the numbers are based on verified sources (both published and private) the final numbers seem fairly reasonable. On the source page (//www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7 79494) it lists the sales in each country that contribute to the number.

There are those who believe that the site this data comes from is not trustworthy, for example if you quote the site on Wikipedia editors will complain. However these particular numbers seem to be better than most listings of claimed album sales (even if they don't link to verified sources).

Entries from WTMD

WTMD

Top albums of all time as voted for on Baltimore WTMD 89.7 listed at //wtmd.blogspot.com/search/label/897%20a lbum%20countdown

Entries from WXPN

WXPN

Listener's top albums from WXPN 88.5 satellite radio as listed at //xpn.org/music/885ATGA.php

Templates for entries

The following list shows the templates used for each input chart so you can identify the exact source for each entry.

Back to Introduction

The comments here are from the the MusicID impact site site. This version is not able to accept comments yet

27 Sep 2016

query

Thought-provoking post - I loved the analysis - Does anyone know where I mightget access to a template IRS 8832 version to type on ?


23 Nov 2014

#5 - The Sickness

This album hit the Billboard charts in 2000 (#29-103 weeks). A good source of data on Billboard data would be Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums". But you may have to buy the book.

Buying the book would have two problems, first it would not be in a usable form, secondly we wouldn't want to break his copyright.

If you know somewhere we can get the actual data we'd like to know about it.


18 Jun 2013

live streaming abs cbn

the MusicID impact site.info is my favorite website now


30 Aug 2012

Dutch charts of february/march 1994

Dear Sir,

I am trying to identify a song which used to be frequently shown on MTV in 1994 between february and march, in Holland. It is in Dutch language of which I only remember the rhtyhm and video. Is it possible to get these charts?

Thanks Chris

Look in the Song Charts page, it provides links to the original Dutch charts we use.


6 May 2012

Steve Miller

At "Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974-1978" is Diamond Certification in Canada written two times

You are right. We have two different sources for the CRIA certifications, one lists all certificates since 2001 and the other lists all albums that got Diamond. These two lists overlap (with sone records that reached Diamond after 2001).

We have now made one of the charts only those records that reached Diamond before 2001, so the results should be more consistent.

Thanks for pointing that out


14 Jan 2012

weekly US charts

Thanks for doing this site. Are you aware of any databases that provide weekly chart positions for specific albums and singles over a specified period of time? I'm interested in tracking the US chart positions for each Beatles album during the 1960s (so, for example, the US chart position for Revolver each week after it was released through 1969). Record sales would be a sufficient alternative for chart positions.

Thanks for any help!

All our sources are listed on the source charts page. You might be able to do what you want with the Bullfrog data.


26 Sep 2011

Chart data

Here are some suggestions for new chart data: 1.KEXP's Top 903 Albums - www.kexp.org/top2008 2.WFUV 90 Essential Songs - www.wfuv.org under Music: Bests and Essentials Lists 3.WFUV 90 Essential Albums - www.wfuv.org under Music: Bests and Essentials Lists

We feel that all three of those charts are somewhat questionable, being all time charts based on "listner votes". However our instinct is to include charts unless there is a good reason for not doing so.

We've added the charts, but made it so they don't contribute to the overall score (the positions are noted on the entries of course).

Thanks for the suggestion


23 Jun 2011

cato fashion aiken sc

Fashion songs for a runway show?


10 Jun 2011

French Charts

Sorry but Infodisc is not trustable at all.

Only top.france.free.fr is based on singles sales and under control of french IFPI.

Given the obvious mistakes in that source we would agree that Infodisc does not seem like a good source. However until we have too many sources for the French charts we feel that we have to keep it.

The site you mention does appear to have some valid charts, we have added it to the lists. Thanks for the suggestion.


22 Apr 2011

Stop hack the program!!!


15 Mar 2011

Canadian Charts

I really enjoy your site. +I could spend hours here, being a chart nut.

Being Canadian, I was a little disappointed that you ware using the Chum charts.

They were a consistent source; however, a little limiting.

They were only a Top 30 chart from Toronto. In 1979, they went to a rock edge and did not give a fair representation of hits in Canada. We did have a national hits magazine, RPM. It was out from 1964 - 2000. I suppose all previous years, are done now and archived.

Just thought I would pass this along.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/index-e.html

Thanks for all your hard work.

Thanks for the encouragement. We would also prefer to use the RPM chart for Canada, unfortunately we don't have a source we can use. The national archives you linked to (which we have looked at before) have weekly charts as scanned images, which of course, can't easily be processed for example to extract chart runs.

If you know of anywhere where this data is available as text, a spreadsheet, or a database we'd be happy to add it.


29 Dec 2010

Wikipedia

Hello, great site, currently used some of the chart info for wikipedia however some other contributors believe this site is not a valid source of chart positions. Any way I can prove this site is valid, what sources does this site use? Thanks.

All the charts used on the site are listed on the "Song Charts" page (or "Album Charts" page), most of them linked to original sources.

We have seen some places where people claim that the data quoted here is invalid. Usually such comments have come from sources that don't provide any better data and often claim that "my private data shows the the MusicID impact site site is wrong" and then when asked refuse to share that data or say where it came from.

If anyone makes a constructive suggestion we will normally consider it. We can do little about the people on the internet that feel it is easier to criticise our site anonymously than to offer suggestions to us for how to improve it.

There are also fans of particular artists who believe it is valid to assert "your site says my artist had fewer hits than a rival, therefore it is wrong", there is little we can do (or wish to do) to break their self delusion.

We've not seen anyone on Wikipedia claim that our data is wrong and should not be used. If you know of a page where that is being claimed we'd like to know about it so we can contribute to the discussion. There are many Wikipedia pages that do use this data, anyone saying you shouldn't is, we suspect, in the minority.

Our position is that a link on each artist's Wikipedia discography page to the matching page here would be helpful to most Wikipedia users. Of course Wikipedia's "Conflict of Interests" rules mean that we wouldn't add such links ourselves.

Of course the suitability of this data for use on Wikipedia varies, for example the description of the "Global" chart explains why that data shouldn't be quoted there. The charts from Poland, France and Brazil should probably not be used, but the US, UK and Australian charts are definitely the best available.


8 Feb 2010

music lists

With this site's focus on music lists, you should also check out Dave's Music Database.

Website: DavesMusicDatabase.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Daves-Music-Database/300371661944

Indeed, the site not only provides a good description of the most popular albums but its rankings also appear to be an objective combination of the most important source charts. Well worth checking out.

We have added his top 100 albums and top 100 songs lists as new charts

Thanks for the suggestion


2 Jan 2010

Euro Chart

In my opinion i would only count Euro Chart and drop all european charts that contributes for euro chart. However i'd keep all results untill the 1st Euro Chart. If so, i also think you would have to increase the importance of the songs featured in euro chart like the US... These ones are surely the most important.

I guess it would be important too if you find any data for South Africa.

If by any chance you would think you could have any help, just let me know... Have a great new year!

Note: May I insist on you publishing the results you have for 2009? Like I said before, it would be very interesting how your chart improves... it would be more "dynamic".You can protect yourselves by puting a note like: "Chart not defenitive. Data still incoming. Return and check our upgrades"

As we have already discussed the European charts were included only after some discussion. The country charts are more extensive so if anything was to be removed it would have to be the less reliable Euro charts rather than the country ones.

Keeping the Euro charts does distort the results, but removing them would also distort them. We suspect that keeping them is the lesser of these two evils.

We, of course, already have one chart from South Africa, any additional data (for example album success in South Africa, charts from Mexico, China, India or Russia) is always welcome.

We will indeed continue to publish the 2009 results as we gather the data, but as we mentioned the volume of source charts won't be enough to give good results for a few years yet. The 2009 page already has a message that explains why its data is not reliable.


24 Dec 2009

Euro Chart

Hi again :)

Just a doubt... if you consider "euro chart" you have to consider that it already considers charts from most of european countries. If you prefer country by country in europe you should not include Euro Chart.

Or try to find out which european countries are contributing for "Euro Chart" and stop counting them in your tables.

If not, european results are not very correct... For example, Holland counts in Euro Chart, songs that feature on both gets better performance here because they are in both charts.

I would like to get you more information but i'm not sure so it's not official... (i THINK) UK charts are also included in euro-chart and this chart began in the early 90's (NOT SURE)

Have fun... keep up this great hard work!

Merry Xmas!

Your concern is a completely valid one. We share your doubt that the European Charts are "official" (or at least not systematically biased).

However the European Decade chart starts in 1930, where there are very few other charts. The other European charts start much later of course.

The site follows the ideas in the book "The Wisdom of Crowds", this claims that combining many different, unreliable, sources will lead to result that is more reliable than any of the originals. Provided that there is no systematic bias built into the selection of the sources.

You suggest that adding the European charts gives additional weight to results from the contributing countries. That is clearly correct. When we were considering adding these charts we asked ourselves if this was necessarily a bad thing. After all the very fact that so many charts are available for the countries of Europe does demonstrate that there is an interest in conveying that information.

So, yes, we agree that including the "European" charts does exaggerate an already existing over emphasis on European success, but we felt that this continued to reflect the data that is available and so is, just about, OK.

Of course we are aware that the current data includes slightly too much input from Europe, but this is a balance between getting the ratio's correct and the data that is available. We continue to try and redress this, for example we will be reluctant to add any new European charts, but historic charts from South America or Asia would be added immediately, if only we could find them.

Thanks for the input, this is an interesting subject that continues to provoke discussion


27 Oct 2009

Duplicate entry: Italy

The paragraph on Italy is listed twice... BTW, great site!

You are right, the description of the Italian album chart was included twice. The error has now been fixed.

Thank you for your input