France best selling albums ever: Summary 1970-1979
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PER ACT TYPE
Band Albums
01 Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) : 1 715 000
02 Pink Floyd – The Wall (1979) : 1 525 000
03 The Beatles – 1967-1970 (1973) : 1 490 000
04 Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975) : 1 430 000
05 The Beatles – 1962-1966 (1973) : 1 360 000
06 Eagles – Hotel California (1976) : 1 355 000
07 Simon & Garfunkel – Greatest Hits (1972) : 1 325 000
08 Supertramp – Breakfast In America (1979) : 1 240 000
Seeing how iconic each of those albums are highlights very well the difficult task it was to sell so many records in the 70s. Pink Floyd dominate in full this ranking with three albums among the Top 4 while the Beatles complete the Top 5 with their couple of 1973 monster compilations. All those albums had the good idea to sell well not only upon release but ever since, accumulating huge amounts as catalog items. In a list favoring catalog sellers, their main flagship Dark Side Of The Moon almost comes naturally at #1. Eagles classic album and Simon & Garfunkel first big compilation did just about the same as they were huge sellers for decades. If there is many sales myths of exaggerated figures related to Supertramp Breakfast In America album, it is still very true that the album was a massive smash, enough to feature on this list.
Various Artists / Concept Albums
01 Musical – Starmania (1978) : 2 075 000
02 Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène (1976) : 2 065 000
03 Soundtrack – Grease (1978) : 2 040 000
04 Soundtrack / Bee Gees – Saturday Night Fever (1977) : 1 530 000
05 Richard Clayderman – Rêveries (1979) : 1 400 000
06 Jean-Michel Jarre – Equinoxe (1978) : 1 350 000
In an era where music wasn’t promoted on TV at all as ads were too expensive to sell only records with them, this various artists list ends up full of big albums. Indeed, the rare albums that got able to register gigantic sales within’ a few months needed extra help. Radio airplay is the most consistent creator of sales but it takes more to enter on a roll of monster sales. Thus, albums at #3 and #4 of this list extensively used theaters as a sales creator, the #1 was represented on stage thousands of times while two more benefited from monster outdoor concerts. Both Jean-Michel Jarre and Richard Clayderman are featured on this list since there albums were instrumentals.