Uproxx.com has put together a list of the most successful music acts for each letter of the alphabet. For “B” the choice was clear. It’s The Beatles, who have sold 178 million albums overall, more than any other act in history.
For solo performers, they classified artists by the first letter of their last name . . . and they dropped the ‘the’ in front of group names, so that there wasn’t a huge amount under ‘T.’
An act’s ‘success’ was determined by total album sales, or the equivalent digital units.
Here’s the full rundown, along with their album sales and overall rank.
A: AC/DC, 72 million units, 11th all time
B: The Beatles, 178 million, 1st
C: Mariah Carey, 64 million, 17th
D: Celine Dion, 50 million, 23rd
E: The Eagles, 101 million, 5th
F: Fleetwood Mac, 49.5 million, 24th
G: Guns N’ Roses, 44.5 million, 30th
H: Whitney Houston, 57 million, 19th
I: The Isley Brothers, 15.5 million, 156th
J: Billy Joel, 81.5 million, 6th
K: Toby Keith, 23.5 million, 82nd
L: Led Zeppelin, 111.5 million, 4th
M: Madonna, 64.5 million, 16th
N: Willie Nelson, 35 million, 44th
O: Ozzy Osbourne, 28.75 million, 63rd
P: Elvis Presley, 135.5 million, 3rd
Q: Queen, 34.5 million, 47th
R: The Rolling Stones, 66.5 million, 13th
S: Barbara Streisand, 72.5 million, 10th
T: Shania Twain, 48 million, 27th
U: U2, 52 million, 21st
V: Van Halen, 56.5 million, 20th
W: Kanye West, 15.5 million, 116th
X: Xzibit, 2.1 million, not enough to be ranked
Y: Neil Young, 17.5 million, 140th
Z: ZZ Top, 25 million, 86th
