Earlier today the Official Charts Company (OCC) revealed the Top 40 best-selling vinyl of 2020 in the UK. Both classic albums and new releases made into the chart with almost 5 million total vinyl sales across the country. A recent report by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) confirmed a rise of over 10% compared to 2019, a staggering increase for a 13th consecutive year.
The number 1 best-selling record of last year is Fleetwood Mac’s iconic Rumours from 1977 with a total of 32,500 purchases. A regular Top 10 entry in recent years, the album ended at #3 in both 2019 and 2018. At second and third position in 2020 are What’s The Story Morning Glory (1995) by Oasis and Back To Black (2006) by Amy Winehouse. The fourth spot is claimed by Nirvana’s seminal Nevermind (1991) followed by Harry Styles’ latest release Fine Line (2019).
Classic albums by @fleetwoodmac, @oasis and Amy Winehouse were the UK’s Top 3 best-selling vinyl records of 2020. View the Official Top 40 in full: https://t.co/9N6lnA8Ply pic.twitter.com/tdcR6t0dqa
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 6, 2021
The best performing LP from 2020 is Kylie Minogue’s fifteenth record Disco that came out last November straight into topping the charts and selling 13,500 vinyl in its debut week. Already certified gold by the BPI, the album also made her the first female to land a chart topping release in five consecutive decades. The other 2020 releases to enter the year-end Top 10 include rock veterans AC/DC’s Power Up, Arctic Monkey’s Live At The Royal Albert Hall and Idles’ critically acclaimed Ultra Mono.
The rest of the Top 40 highlights two separate entries by the Beatles (Abbey Road at #15 and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at #37), Joy Division (Closer at #32 and Unknown Pleasures at #39), Nirvana (Nevermind at #4 and Unplugged In New York at #36) and Oasis (What’s The Story Morning Glory at #2 and Definitely Maybe at #29). The most featured band in 2020’s chart are Sheffield’s finest Arctic Monkeys with three separate best-selling records: Live At The Royal Albert Hall (#9), AM (#28) and Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I Am (#33).
.@ArcticMonkeys score three entries in the UK’s best-selling vinyl albums of 2020, including their latest, Live At The Royal Albert Hall: https://t.co/9N6lnA8Ply pic.twitter.com/D5NRLeopo0 — Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 6, 2021
Alongside the vinyl chart, the OCC also revealed the best-selling singles of 2020, topped by Liam Gallagher’s festive charity single ‘All You’re Dreaming Off‘. At the second spot is Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart‘ followed closely by Rolling Stone’s ‘Living In A Ghost Town‘. The rest of the Top 10 include tracks by Billie Eilish, New Order, Noel Gallagher, Coldplay, Kily Minogue and three other remastered singles by Joy Division.
The Official Charts Company was established in 1969 to keep track of all sales of singles, albums and movies in the UK. It is currently operated by the BPI and the Entertainment Retailers Association, and was updated few years ago to include downloads and streaming too to reflect the changing industry trends. For the last thirteen consecutive years, LPs have became increasingly popular and having a year-on-year rise in sales.
Surprisingly, the OCC also revealed that casette sales have doubled from 2019, and shared the Top 40 best-selling tapes.
