The Best Selling Vinyl Records of 2011

The Best Selling Vinyl Record in 2011 Was….

2011 was the year of Adele – she dominated the sales charts, the radio, and my fantasies nightmares. But did she have the number one selling vinyl album in 2011? I’ll kill the suspense and say, NO!, she did not. But who did? Perhaps surprisingly, it was The Beatles, for their 1969 classic album, Abbey Road (via Rolling Stone). This was the third year in which Abbey Road was the number 1 selling vinyl record – did Austin Powers bring an army of Beatle-loving friends with him in his time machine?

Abbey Road “sold 41,000 copies in 2011, up from 35,000 in 2010 and 34,800 in 2009. Abbey Road was the second-highest selling vinyl album in 2008, with its 16,500 copies eclipsed by Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which sold 25,800 that year.”

According to Neilsen Soundscan, the 10 selling vinyl albums of 2011 are:

1. The Beatles – Abbey Road (41,000)
2. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (29,700)
3. Bon Iver – Bon Iver (27,200)
4. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (26,800)
5. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (20,800)
6. Adele – 21 (16,500)
7. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (16,200)
8. Wilco – The Whole Love (14,900)
9. The Black Keys – Brothers (14,200)
10. The Black Keys – El Camino (13,800)

Amazing that the previous release from the Black Keys outsold their new album, but remember that it came out in December. I guess I answered my own statement.

Check out the classic medley from the end of Abbey Road, and discover (if you don’t already know) why 41,000 people bought this on vinyl last year.

The Beatles
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