One billion records sold according to Guiness World Records

[Brian Quinn]

Just for the record 94% of the IICD album sales in the UK have been physical. However, this is the face of today's success:



Brian

[Scarre]

In 2012 the Official Charts Company listed the best selling artists in the UK with regards to singles sales. This has since been updated and looks like this with regards to the top-ten.

1. Rihanna (23,100,000)
2. The Beatles (21,900,000)
3. Elvis Presley (21,600,000)
4. Cliff Richard (21,500,000)
5. Madonna (17,600,000)
6. Michael Jackson (15,300,000)
7. Elton John (14,800,000)
8. Queen (12,600,000)
9. ABBA (11,200,000)
10. David Bowie (11,000,000)

Rihanna with more sales than The Beatles and Elvis? Yeah, sure.

You're right. The Wikipedia page is wrong. My fault for not checking myself. That's Rihanna's combined singles and album sales.

You gave me a fright then

I found stats in a hopeless place . . .

Hehehe...

[garyt]

According to The Official Charts Company by the end of 2012 Elvis had sold overall 21.7 million singles in the UK. Between 2002 and 2012 he sold 2.2 million singles and 5.7 million albums. Of course the albums total would now be well over 7 million with additional sales accruing to 'The Nations Favourite Elvis Songs' album (300,000) and the 'If I Can Dream' album (1 million) plus any others which have sold including Elvis' 30 No.1 Hits' and the many back catalogue/budget releases. I do not have a current tally for Elvis' single sales.

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-10-biggest-selling-male-singles-artists-of-all-time-r__2470/

Brian

And don't forget RPO...1 million.

I've already included that Scarre.

Brian

Is the 7million figure since 2000 or 2010?

[FredAistair]

brian, I was skeptical as you (especially because many times the Colonel was bluffing) but now I changed my point of view because I didn't realize that these sales were in the whole wide world not only US and UK. If It's Now or Never only alone was sold to over 25 million copies, the 100 millions mark announced by RCA in 1965 is very possible. Maybe Elvis sold even more records. Japan, Australia, Canada, South East Asia, South Africa, Germany and other countries of Western Europe were other markets.

The U.S. market is by far the biggest market in the world and especially in Elvis' lifetime.

The Asian Market and South American market in particual was not that big during Elvis' career so it's unrealistic that he would have sold enough records outside of America to make the 1 billion sales figure.

To give a very specific example Elvis has only had one million selling single in the U.K. and you would think that if he had sold 1 billion he would've had more than that.

He would have to have 700 million sales in the United States just to realistically get to the 1 billion worldwide sales figure.

Actually that's not true , forget about the plausibility of the 1 billion figure but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that more than 50% of Elvis's sales were outside the US from the the early 60's onwards.

[brian]

Actually that's not true , forget about the plausibility of the 1 billion figure but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that more than 50% of Elvis's sales were outside the US from the the early 60's onwards.

It is true the markets overseas were much smaller than the U.S. and I have seen no such evidence.
My advice stop listening to EPE.

[Brian Quinn]

According to The Official Charts Company by the end of 2012 Elvis had sold overall 21.7 million singles in the UK. Between 2002 and 2012 he sold 2.2 million singles and 5.7 million albums. Of course the albums total would now be well over 7 million with additional sales accruing to 'The Nations Favourite Elvis Songs' album (300,000) and the 'If I Can Dream' album (1 million) plus any others which have sold including Elvis' 30 No.1 Hits' and the many back catalogue/budget releases. I do not have a current tally for Elvis' single sales.

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-10-biggest-selling-male-singles-artists-of-all-time-r__2470/

Brian

And don't forget RPO...1 million.

I've already included that Scarre.

Brian

Is the 7million figure since 2000 or 2010?

Gary,

Between 2002 and October 2012 he sold 5.7 million albums in the UK. From October 2012 to date he has sold a further 1,300,000 albums minimum and probably around 1,500,000 in reality.

Brian

[Brian Quinn]

Ernst Jorgensen has stated that the ratio for Elvis' record sales are probably 60% Worldwide and 40% U.S.A.

Brian

[garyt]

What source(s) does the Guiness World Records use for the billion mark?

Well it certainly wasn't Brian.

Seriously, they have a index referring to their sources...printed in very small letters on 2 pages...literally hundreds and hundreds of sources. I have no problem believing them.

Are you or someone else able to post a link to these sources as I can't find one? Thanks.

[garyt]

According to The Official Charts Company by the end of 2012 Elvis had sold overall 21.7 million singles in the UK. Between 2002 and 2012 he sold 2.2 million singles and 5.7 million albums. Of course the albums total would now be well over 7 million with additional sales accruing to 'The Nations Favourite Elvis Songs' album (300,000) and the 'If I Can Dream' album (1 million) plus any others which have sold including Elvis' 30 No.1 Hits' and the many back catalogue/budget releases. I do not have a current tally for Elvis' single sales.

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-10-biggest-selling-male-singles-artists-of-all-time-r__2470/

Brian

And don't forget RPO...1 million.

I've already included that Scarre.

Brian

Is the 7million figure since 2000 or 2010?

Gary,

Between 2002 and October 2012 he sold 5.7 million albums in the UK. From October 2012 to date he has sold a further 1,300,000 albums minimum and probably around 1,500,000 in reality.

Brian

Thanks Brian.

So Elvis sells over half a milion albums annually in the UK.

[sweetangeline]

From October 2012 to date he has sold a further 1,300,000 albums minimum and probably around 1,500,000 in reality.Brian

...something doesn't seem right here the IICD release and THE NATION`S FAVOURITE ELVIS SONGS alone already come close to the 1,300,000 mark...so are you stating that in the last 3 and a half yrs "ALL" other Elvis releases in total have sold 200,000??

[Brian Quinn]

From October 2012 to date he has sold a further 1,300,000 albums minimum and probably around 1,500,000 in reality.Brian

...something doesn't seem right here the IICD release and THE NATION`S FAVOURITE ELVIS SONGS alone already come close to the 1,300,000 mark...so are you stating that in the last 3 and a half yrs "ALL" other Elvis releases in total have sold 200,000??

It's just a guestimate. Most of Elvis' album releases e.g. 'Prince From Another Planet'; 'Elvis At Stax; and the legacy releases etc., sell less than 5,000. Over a period of time they will sell more of course but not that much more. The budget releases sell well of course. Elvis sells records if the public are aware of them. Most of the time they are not. It's only when such releases as 'The Nations Favourite' and IICD come along with massive TV publicity that they sell in any quantity. I sincerely hope my guestimate is very short of the real figure.

Brian

[Scarre]

What source(s) does the Guiness World Records use for the billion mark?

Well it certainly wasn't Brian.

Seriously, they have a index referring to their sources...printed in very small letters on 2 pages...literally hundreds and hundreds of sources. I have no problem believing them.

Are you or someone else able to post a link to these sources as I can't find one? Thanks.

Sorry, it's in the book but don't know where to find it online...

[sweetangeline]

From October 2012 to date he has sold a further 1,300,000 albums minimum and probably around 1,500,000 in reality.Brian

...something doesn't seem right here the IICD release and THE NATION`S FAVOURITE ELVIS SONGS alone already come close to the 1,300,000 mark...so are you stating that in the last 3 and a half yrs "ALL" other Elvis releases in total have sold 200,000??

It's just a guestimate. Most of Elvis' album releases e.g. 'Prince From Another Planet'; 'Elvis At Stax; and the legacy releases etc., sell less than 5,000. Over a period of time they will sell more of course but not that much more. The budget releases sell well of course. Elvis sells records if the public are aware of them. Most of the time they are not. It's only when such releases as 'The Nations Favourite' and IICD come along with massive TV publicity that they sell in any quantity. I sincerely hope my guestimate is very short of the real figure.

Brian

...that`s the response that I was looking for and I would agree that 1,500,000 is very accurate over the last 3 and a half years...but these figures do tell the real story when you consider that the 1,300,000 figure is basically total sales since 2012 from IICD/NATION`S/30#1 and the 200,000 in sales are scattered over many, many CD`s that are on the market...which just goes to show that Elvis can still sell today in big numbers but only with the appropriate publicity attached to that item...which gets to my final point that people have to start realizing when it comes to investing in future Elvis releases without any marketing attached...that these sales numbers are relatively low...so therefore Sony will only do so much because things like IICD are not going to happen on a yearly basis...thats the reality!!

[MikeFromHolland]

.

A nice follow up to the IICD release? Elvis songs with extra added piano only:

Pianista cega toca ‘ao lado’ de Elvis Presley e emociona Rodrigo Faro
..

.

[elvis-fan]

Ernst Jorgensen has stated that the ratio for Elvis' record sales are probably 60% Worldwide and 40% U.S.A.
Brian

Brian, using the 60-40 ratio, is there any way to guess-timate Elvis' single, LP and CD sales worldwide? If it isn't 1 billion or even 500 million, what would be a more educated estimation in your opinion?

[Mike Windgren]

Hi there!! .

Ernst Jorgensen has stated that the ratio for Elvis' record sales are probably 60% Worldwide and 40% U.S.A.
Brian

Brian, using the 60-40 ratio, is there any way to guess-timate Elvis' single, LP and CD sales worldwide? If it isn't 1 billion or even 500 million, what would be a more educated estimation in your opinion?

Have a look on this: http://www.statisticbrain.com/elvis-presley-album-sales-statistics/ . Bye for now .

[elvis-fan]

Hi there!! .

Ernst Jorgensen has stated that the ratio for Elvis' record sales are probably 60% Worldwide and 40% U.S.A.
Brian

Brian, using the 60-40 ratio, is there any way to guess-timate Elvis' single, LP and CD sales worldwide? If it isn't 1 billion or even 500 million, what would be a more educated estimation in your opinion?

Have a look on this: http://www.statisticbrain.com/elvis-presley-album-sales-statistics/ . Bye for now .

I'm not sure I'd consider that information as being based on an "educated estimation", Mike!

[FredAistair]

Hi there!! .

Ernst Jorgensen has stated that the ratio for Elvis' record sales are probably 60% Worldwide and 40% U.S.A.
Brian

Brian, using the 60-40 ratio, is there any way to guess-timate Elvis' single, LP and CD sales worldwide? If it isn't 1 billion or even 500 million, what would be a more educated estimation in your opinion?

Have a look on this: http://www.statisticbrain.com/elvis-presley-album-sales-statistics/ . Bye for now .

I'm not sure I'd consider that information as being based on an "educated estimation", Mike!

I believe that research posted on Elvisinfonet, does tend to support the 40/60 split

[lucio]

.

A nice follow up to the IICD release? Elvis songs with extra added piano only:

Pianista cega toca ‘ao lado’ de Elvis Presley e emociona Rodrigo Faro
..

.

This is really nice. I've always felt that the piano was not given enough exposure in Elvis' music especially during the 70s concert recordings.
Some people are really talented.

[MikeFromHolland]

.

A nice follow up to the IICD release? Elvis songs with extra added piano only:

Pianista cega toca ‘ao lado’ de Elvis Presley e emociona Rodrigo Faro
..

.

This is really nice. I've always felt that the piano was not given enough exposure in Elvis' music especially during the 70s concert recordings.
Some people are really talented.

They sure are.

.

[DarkShade]

I guess it's good that Elvis gets recognized by Guiness without his label or anyone providing any proof that he has sold 1 billion.

If you look at when Elvis records were first issued and re-issued, the various singles/albums, the number of countries that issued Elvis records, the chart positions, then the issues of CDs.

I think it stands to reason that Elvis has gone over the 1 billion mark.

Elvis must have sold well over 100 million CDs alone.

As Sir Paul McCartney said in 2103 when he visited Graceland and saw all the awards that are on display "I thought The Beatles had Gold records until i had a private tour of Graceland, that said it all. Elvis has the most Gold, Platinum, multi-Platinum sales of all of us, amazing man, simply amazing".

That's true. Elvis does have the most gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums when you combine both extended plays and full-length albums as the RIAA does. The only place where he is short is the Diamond award by the RIAA. Garth Brooks has something like seven of them to Elvis' sole one for the 1970 Camden "Elvis' Christmas Album." The Beatles have 6 Diamond awards. Elvis is currently in a tie for 23rd for the most Diamond awards. Elvis has 117 Gold compared to second place Barbra Streisand with 51 (The Beatles are third with 48). Elvis has 67 Platinum awards compared to The Beatles 42. Elvis has 27 Multi-Platinum awards compared to The Beatles 26. If Elvis could pick up one more Diamond award, he would jump from a tie for 23rd to a tie for 6th. If he picked up two more Diamond awards, he would move into a tie for 4th most Diamond awards. If he picked up three more Diamond awards, he would move into 4th place by himself. Of course, Garth, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin hold the top three spots with 7, 6 and 5 Diamond awards respectively.

In my opinion, the best chances for Elvis to achieve Diamond award status with any of his albums (either while he was alive or posthumous) would be the 1958 album, "Elvis' Golden Records," the 1973 TV Special soundtrack "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" and the 2002 chart-topper, "ELV1S 30 #1 Hits."