France Best Selling Albums Ever:
Update Part 2

Richard Cocciante – Compilation 74-94 (1994) : 1 040 000

With only one studio album charting during the last 20 years, peaking at #88, and no record at all entering the Comprehensive Chart initiated in 2011, days of Richard Cocciante as a relevant seller are over. The only version of this Compilation 74-94 available at Amazon.fr is an import, showing how dead it is. The album has never been replaced though which is why it keeps having a few sales.

Florent Pagny – Bienvenue Chez Moi (1995) : 1 550 000

As the first compilation of one of the most successful artist of all-time from French catalog, one may expect heavy sales for Florent Pagny set Bienvenue Chez Moi. It clearly did wonders in its first years. Since, the singer added Savoir Aimer ground breaking hit in 1997, Ma Liberté de Penser in 2003 plus various more cross over songs, making this 1995 compilation outdated. Consequently, 2014 package Triple Best Of performs much better now. It ranks inside the Top 1,000 of Amazon.fr ranking while Bienvenue Chez Moi is just Top 20,000. Considering even Triple Best Of failed to chart in the country album chart in 2016, we can expect very low figures for 1995 album in spite of Florent Pagny recent smash albums.

Lara Fabian – Pure (1996) : 1 975 000

Arriving during the absolute domination of Céline Dion, Lara Fabian was presented by Medias as her main challenger. The hype was undoubtedly massive as even her earlier 1994 album debuted on charts in 1998 climbing as high as #4, while the live album released at the end of Pure era went #1 for four weeks. Although she suffered a backlash after reaching saturation point among the public, she managed to recover in later years. Her back catalog is selling fairly weak amounts though.