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Originally posted by Jennifer
Where are you getting such exact numbers? Lol I highly doubt that technology existed to that extent back in the 60s.
The RIAA's list of best selling singles quite clearly reveals that physical single sales weren't that huge. Candle in the Wind is the best selling but after that the next like 15 songs would be digital.
By the end of the year, we're gonna have like 20 different artists who have topped 30 million digitally. And a bunch them will be over 50 million.
Who has sold that many physical singles? Nobody except maybe the Beatles.
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I'm a huge fan of The Beatles, and most of those numbers are most commonly cited in an International Beatles bibliography, which in turn, has references to the original news sources and Capitol Records from the 1960s, if you're interested.
RIAA's list relies heavily on certifications and processed claims. The Beatles' catalog is heavily under-certified. For example, like I said, they had 9 singles sell over 1 million copies in 1964 alone, and only 2 of those have any certifications. If they wanted, they could claim at least Platinum certifications for all of those singles.
Their presence was notable, because in that era, sales were absolutely dominated by single sales, and they turned the tide and proved to be the most powerful album selling force the earth had ever seen. Nevertheless, the 1950s and 1960s were dominated by single sales, with other frontrunners like Elvis who were able to move many many many millions of records within that frame. For the most part, you didn't see the 6M+ sellers that you do today, but keep in mind these artists were releasing MANY singles per year. Elvis released 21 singles (11 discs) in 1956. The Beatles released 36 singles (18 discs) in 1964. Overall single sales were colossal.
Oh, there's also been all kinds of arguments and rule changes over how to handle early single sales. When they used to release physical singles, they would have an A-side and a B-side (in the simplest of cases), and there were and are varying opinions on how the A and B-sides should chart and how sales should be counted, since songs weren't available for true individual purchase as they are now. This was complicated even more as time progressed and artists began including more than one B-side on a single.
