{"id":776497,"date":"2026-02-20T06:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/776497\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:18:19","slug":"the-five-songs-that-sold-more-than-10million-copies-in-the-1970s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/776497\/","title":{"rendered":"The five songs that sold more than 10million copies in the 1970s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charts<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ NASA \/ Uwe Conrad)<\/p>\n

Thu 19 February 2026 22:00, UK <\/p>\n

The 1970s<\/a> were the decade of the blockbuster album.<\/p>\n

Having emerged from the previous decade\u2019s countercultural embrace of the LP, the holy album swelled to the era\u2019s primary relic, deemed by any self-respecting artist their ultimate artistic expression in the music canon.<\/p>\n

Such an impression wasn\u2019t wrong; the top ten biggest-selling albums of all time marked by Pink Floyd at the earliest with 1973\u2019s The Dark Side of the Moon, and over half of the ten packed with LPs from the decade. But the single hadn\u2019t entirely shifted. While plenty of bands were indebted to the album, Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead famously viewed the single as an afterthought, the all-important promo still was able to force pop pickers to part with their cash.<\/p>\n

The singles record breakers by claimed sales to this day are still the hits of yesteryear, for a long time Bing Crosby knocking it out of the park with his \u2018White Christmas\u2019 and \u2018Silent Night\u2019 before Elton John stole his thunder with the weepy \u2018Candle in the Wind 1997\u2019, but of late, Chinese actor Xiao Zhan\u2019s \u2018Spotlight\u2019 has stacked up an incredible over 53million units flying like hot cakes.<\/p>\n

The 1970s don\u2019t quite touch such commercial heights, but there are still some impressive million movers among the decade\u2019s chart toppers. Billy Joel<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Piano Man\u2019 and Queen\u2019s \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019 and \u2018We Are the Champions\u2019 all just about sniffed at the ten mil mark, Joel\u2019s 1973 hit managing 9.81million single sales.<\/p>\n

So, what are the six 1970s songs that sold over 10million?<\/p>\n

In sixth place is Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s \u2018Have You Ever Seen the Rain\u2019 with 10.2million, jumping up a million with Aussie favourites AC\/DC duckwalking fifth with 1979\u2019s scorching \u2018Highway to Hell\u2019, a feat not much of a surprise considering their mammoth stature as one of the biggest selling artists ever.<\/p>\n

R&B party ensemble Earth, Wind & Fire take bronze with the massive \u2018September\u2019, raking in an astonishing 11.8m, but the one band that takes both silver and gold will likely be no surprise.<\/p>\n

The 1980s were certainly strong for Queen, but the 1970s were their classic decade. Orbiting the glam era but weaving their lavish baroque pop before stripping down their ornate sound as the punk and new wave lit a fire underneath the whole classic rock scene, Queen soldiered through the decade as the era\u2019s true cockroach survivors, withstanding rock\u2019s rapidly shifting climate as a national treasure off their celebrated 1970s output.<\/p>\n

With 12.12m copies flying, 1977\u2019s \u2018We Will Rock You\u2019 couldn\u2019t get enough sales, the arena stomper from News of the World that managed to enjoy a cultural footing among American sports grounds as much as the UK football terraces.<\/p>\n

Taking the 1970s\u2019 top spot, however, is Queen\u2019s defining orchestral opus. Leading 1975\u2019s A Night at the Opera, \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody<\/a>\u2019 would wow the globe with its chamber pop drama and midway rock attack, selling a whopping 17.47m certified units and reigning champion as the decade\u2019s all-time biggest selling single.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ NASA \/ Uwe Conrad) Thu 19 February 2026 22:00, UK The 1970s were the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[91533,77,269,4575,55332,16,15],"class_list":["post-776497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-queen","tag-singles","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116101507411333161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}