As 2014 limps towards its halfway point it has been announced that Cold Play have sold more records than their competitors, but the most bought single is still ‘Happy’.
The Official Charts Company today revealed that ‘Ghost Stories’ sold a whopping 168,000 copies in its first week leading to 375,000 copies to date. As a result Coldplay’s sixth studio album had beaten Paolo Nutini’s ‘Caustic Love’ which sold 329,000 copies and Ellie Goulding with ‘Halcyon’ at 275,000 so far this year.
Coldplay have therefore sold 11.1 Million albums in the UK since the millennium when the band released their debut ‘Parachutes’. In fourteen years Cold Play have released sixth studio albums, but it was in 1996 that the band had officially formed. In 1998 Chris Martin and Johnny Buckland released 500 copies of their EP ‘Safety’ but as the vast majority of these were given to friends, family, and to attract the attention of record companies, there were only 50 released to the public which are now known to fetch around more than £2000 on eBay. In nearly twenty years the band have soared to success and with today’s figures it seems they are vastly ubiquitous in the world of popular music.
In the singles list it is Pharrell Williams, despite taking 6th place in the most sold albums, who is still climbing the ladder with his 2013 single ‘Happy’, originally used in the ‘Despicable Me 2’ Soundtrack. This will be the second quarter that ‘Happy’ has remained the most popular single, having only kicked interest in December last year when it was second for the Christmas No.1 spot behind, unsurprisingly, X-Factor Winner Sam Bailey’s ‘Skyscraper’.
His third-million selling UK feat is a heady height for the singer, as he is brushing shoulder to shoulder with the legendary Beatles.
Jess Glynne has also seen success having featured in ‘Rather Be’ with Clean Bandit (no.2), and ‘My Love’ alongside Route 94 (no.6).
The list of Top Ten bestselling albums of 2014 so far is as follows:
1. Coldplay ‘Ghost Stories’ with 375,000 copies.
2. Paolo Nutini ‘Caustic Love’ with 329,000
3. Ellie Goulding ‘Halcyon’ with 275,000
4. Paloma Faith ‘A Perfect Contradiction
5. Sam Smith ‘In the Lonely Hour;
6. Pharrell Williams ‘Girl’
7. Bastille ‘Bad Blood
8. London Grammar ‘If You Wait
9. Beyoncé, ‘Beyoncé
10. Arctic Monkeys, ‘AM’.
Singles List for 2014 so far:
1. Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’
2. Clean Bandit Feat Jess Glynne ‘Rather Be’
3. John Legend ‘All of Me’
4. Pitbull feat Kesha ‘Timber’
5. Mr Probz ‘Waves’
6. Route 94 feat Jess Glynne ‘My Love’
7. Katy Perry feat Juicy J ‘Dark Horse’
8. Sigma ‘Nobody To Love’
9. Kiesza ‘Hideaway’
10. Idina Menzel ‘Hideaway’
