Today In History: Queen’s “Greatest Hits” Becomes Britain’s Most Popular Album

Today In History: Queen’s “Greatest Hits” Becomes Britain’s Most Popular Album

INGLEWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 22: From left to right, musicians John Deacon, Roger Taylor, Brian May and Freddie Mercury (1946 - 1991) of the British rock band Queen perform in concert at the Forum on December 22, 1977 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Queen performing at The Forum in Los Angeles in 1977 (Photo by Michael Ochs/Getty Images)

Queen has quite the catalog of mega-hits that have captured audiences of all ages for half a century. With the recent blockbuster film Bohemian Rhapsody, the beloved rock band’s admiration is still as high as ever. It was exactly 15 years ago today (November 16th, 2006) that Queen’s Greatest Hits album was officially declared the most popular album of all time in Britain. The record even surpassed The Beatles who came in second with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Greatest Hits is a compilation album consisting of 17 of Queen’s most popular songs since they first entered the charts in 1974, most (if not all) of which have become iconic rock staples over the years. The record, released in October 1981, has sold over 25 million copies, which also makes it Queen’s best-selling album. Greatest Hits has spent over 900 weeks on the UK Albums chart and has also been certified 22x platinum. Safe to say, the album was pretty successful.

Watch Queen perform Killer Queen, the third song on the album, at Earl’s Court, London in 1977 here:

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