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The Eagles Greatest Hits Album Surpasses Thriller in the USA

R1chard said:
Why not? Do you have any evidence at all, or is it just "they're not as good as MJ and I refuse to believe they're successful".

That's just silly. Makes you sound bitter and twisted.
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If this was the Beatles, who are the biggest band ever, I would have believed it.

But The Eagles? No chance.
 
Nite Line said:
Thriller is literally always higher than their Greatest Hits album on the USA album charts, yet, somehow they keep finding new certifcations for Eagles. It's baffling.
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Well the charts are kinda irrelevant. Getting a RIAA certification is voluntary. The record company has to do it and they have to pay for it. Certifications doesn't have anything to do with the artist. Before the 1980s, Motown rarely reported to the RIAA, so only the label knows how much those records sold. If Mike's label does not get certifications, that doesn't have anything to do with the Eagles who are not on Sony. Anyway, the RIAA does not audit anything, they just go by what the label tells them. Labels have been known to tell the RIAA that a record has sold less than it has, to get out of paying the artist as much in royalties. In other cases they give the number of records shipped to stores, not if they sold or not. Stores can send back unsold copies. Labels generally did not count cutout albums or the ones that used to be sold by record clubs (12 albums for a penny!). Obviously, bootleg albums did not count as a sale, like the "street tapes" that used to be sold at flea markets and store parking lots along with Velvet Elvis & dogs playing poker paintings.

It's ironic that today that a certain amount of streams count as a sale, when nobody bought anything, but the record club stuff did not count as a sale, when there was a physical product. But some people would scam the clubs. They'd get the first set of penny albums, but not buy the certain amount of later albums at the regular prices, which was usually more than they would cost in a store, plus the shipping charge. The member would also get the selection of the month automatically if they did not cancel it before a certain date.
 
Snow White 1937 said:
How on earth is it possible that they sold 9 million within a year but Michael apparently sold nil???
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It's well-known: Thriller 40 sold a total of 0.1 million copies.

0.1 million!

People simply didn't want to buy a copy of Thriller. What's hard to understand about that? It's not a god-given right to keep selling copies on an album.

Snow White 1937 said:
What a BS story! Artists don't really sell music anymore, that's why this stupid counting system of streams and YouTube views has been incorporated. I really hate the term "outsold Thriller" they used. It's completely misleading.
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That's exactly what I said. A stream is not a sale, and never will be, so it's false to try to equate the two. It's also open to manipulation and is just unrepresentative of anything important.

But everybody here told me to get with the times and move into the modern world. "Streaming is how artists make money in 2026" I was told.

THEREFORE, it's entirely possible that other artists outstream MJ and therefore overtake his "sales" and beat his records.

And then suddenly MJ fans don't like it! No competition allowed!!

So which way do we want it? Can't have it both ways. Should streams count for anything or not?
 
Blues_Away2023 said:
The Eagles have got to be one of the most boring bands out there, can’t believe they have sold that much!
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A difference between Eagles & Michael Jackson is that a lot of Eagles songs are country based. Music that is considered "country rock", "Southern Rock", or "Americana". The USA has a large country music listening audience. A lot of the same people who are into things like monster trucks, NASCAR, & rodeos. There is even a sub-genre of rap called "hick hop". Garth Brooks is the biggest selling artist of the 1990s & the Dixie Chicks & Shania Twain were popular then too. You could even say Hootie & The Blowfish music was countryish and they had a big selling album back then. At one time westerns were hugely popular in the USA, country & bluegrass music goes with that, all the way back to "singing cowboys" of the 1930s. Plus rural based TV shows like Beverly Hillbillies & The Dukes Of Hazzard. To this day, there is a Dukesfest, sort of a Comicon for people with General Lee cars.

I guess since country music is not as popular outside of the USA, people in other countries don't realize the popularity of it in the states. Fairly recently a big deal was made about Beyoncé winning a country Grammy, a lot of people didn't consider her album actual country music.
 
DuranDuran said:
A difference between Eagles & Michael Jackson is that a lot of Eagles songs are country based. Music that is considered "country rock", "Southern Rock", or "Americana". The USA has a large country music listening audience. A lot of the same people who are into things like monster trucks, NASCAR, & rodeos. There is even a sub-genre of rap called "hick hop". Garth Brooks is the biggest selling artist of the 1990s & the Dixie Chicks & Shania Twain were popular then too. You could even say Hootie & The Blowfish music was countryish and they had a big selling album back then. At one time westerns were hugely popular in the USA, country & bluegrass music goes with that, all the way back to "singing cowboys" of the 1930s. Plus rural based TV shows like Beverly Hillbillies & The Dukes Of Hazzard. To this day, there is a Dukesfest, sort of a Comicon for people with General Lee cars.

I guess since country music is not as popular outside of the USA, people in other countries don't realize the popularity of it in the states. Fairly recently a big deal was made about Beyoncé winning a country Grammy, a lot of people didn't consider her album actual country music.
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Exactly! Popular soft rock and country music can crossover and attract pop and hard rock fans alike.

Like in case of Shania Twain's 'Come on over' that thing sold more than Dangerous has, probably because you have both country and pop fans buying that record.

Similarly the Eagles are the kinda band wherein, hard rock fans like because of the guitars, country fans like cause it's similar, and general pop fans like coz of the 'cool factor' (jumping on the fan bandwagon) coz it's easy on the ears to enjoy.

Jagged little pill is another example of attracting both rock and general pop fans.
 
Looking back I really think we were conditioned as MJ fans growing up that sales were the be all and end all of an album, and that's on both MJ and his team. Obviously it was great that MJ always sold so well, but does it really matter if something was to actually outsell Thriller? It doesn't change the album in any way. It took years for it to dawn on me that the Thriller 25 artwork actually had "The biggest selling album of all time" engraved on the actual artwork itself. It's obviously an incredible achievement, but it doesn't make the album sound any better than it is, and if it were to lose that title it certainly wouldn't sound any worse.

This opinion has only come to me over time though, does anyone else feel the same? I'm aware that the question of The Eagles record sales is what's actually in question here, and should absolutely be questioned and properly verified. I am not OK with fake stats, but if or when Thriller is overtaken for real (in the US most likely) I won't feel any change.
 
etoile 37 said:
Where do the Eagles outstream him?
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I don't care. I'm not the RIAA. Clearly it is close, because they've overtaken each other a couple of times now, with the Eagles now being ahead again. It's conceivable somebody like Swift could overtake him soon - or is that "impossible" as well?

It just comes across as jealousy.

innuendo141 said:
Looking back I really think we were conditioned as MJ fans growing up that sales were the be all and end all of an album,
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This is a really interesting point, and worth exploring further.

Seems to me the only reason MJ fans think sales are important is because MJ has a lot of sales. No other fans are so obsessed with it - they leave that to the record company to worry about.

innuendo141 said:
Obviously it was great that MJ always sold so well, but does it really matter if something was to actually outsell Thriller?
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Exactly. My favourite band has actually never had a top 20 single. I don't like them any less because of it. Lol.

innuendo141 said:
It doesn't change the album in any way. It took years for it to dawn on me that the Thriller 25 artwork actually had "The biggest selling album of all time" engraved on the actual artwork itself
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Comes across as big-headed.

innuendo141 said:
It's obviously an incredible achievement, but it doesn't make the album sound any better than it is, and if it were to lose that title it certainly wouldn't sound any worse.
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Whisper it - the only reason we keep getting anniversary editions of Thriller is because Sony thinks it will help them hang on to the title.

innuendo141 said:
This opinion has only come to me over time though, does anyone else feel the same?
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I became a MJ fan before I knew Thriller was the biggest selling album. It didn't bother me one bit. I don't enjoy the album more just because of that fact. I don't take it as a personal insult if a single doesn't reach the top ten, etc.

Maybe it's just a sign of maturity or confidence, or something like that.

I find it really sad that MJ fans feel the need to insult these other bands by calling them boring etc.
 
R1chard said:
No other fans are so obsessed with it - they leave that to the record company to worry about.
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I guess you've never came across any Elvis Presley, Janet Jackson, or Beyoncé fans (aka The Beyhive) online.
R1chard said:
I find it really sad that MJ fans feel the need to insult these other bands by calling them boring etc.
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You should check out Prince.org and see what some say about Michael Jackson & Madonna or just pop music acts in general. They say a lot worse than their music is boring. It's the same thing on the site Lipstick Alley about anything, no matter what the topic or who the celebrity is
 
Peter_Pan said:
Exactly! Popular soft rock and country music can crossover and attract pop and hard rock fans alike.

Like in case of Shania Twain's 'Come on over' that thing sold more than Dangerous has, probably because you have both country and pop fans buying that record.

Similarly the Eagles are the kinda band wherein, hard rock fans like because of the guitars, country fans like cause it's similar, and general pop fans like coz of the 'cool factor' (jumping on the fan bandwagon) coz it's easy on the ears to enjoy.

Jagged little pill is another example of attracting both rock and general pop fans.
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Occasionally there's always been a country song that hit the pop charts. But probably Kenny Rogers was the first to really crossover as an act himself in the late 1970s and Dolly Parton to a lesser extent. In the 1970s, there were country singers that had a more R&B sound like Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, & Charlie Rich. They even got some airplay on R&B radio stations. Country singer Conway Twitty actually started out as a R&B singer and Kenny Rogers originally played bass in a jazz trio. If you look at the 1950s R&B chart (then called 'Harlem Hit Parade') in Billboard, Conway Twitty actually got a few hits there. So did Elvis Presley.
 
So Garth brooks and Eagles have notched 2 albums each in the top 15 in the US.

I don't really care about Sales n Charts anymore now that Mike is gone. But it is kinda of a let down that Bad n Dangerous sold just about 10mil each in the US, inspite of the Promotional machinary of industrial scale that Mike had backing him.

It was his desire to present himself as larger than life artist, that probably made him uncool to be a fan of, after Bad. It definitely turned away his peers in the industry from supporting him.
 
travis3000 said:
Re: The Eagles dethrone Michael Jackson with all-time top-selling album

How is that possible? That this album can shoot from 29 million sales to 38 million? Just based on streams and Youtube views? Are people really viewing The Eagles material this often?

I got looking at the RIAA website, and MJ's albums are all behind. Thriller and Bad haven't been updated in 18 months, Off The Wall in 9 years, Dangerous and HISTORY haven't been updated since 1999 and 2000 completely before streaming and Youtube. Number Ones and Essential are now 5 years behind, Invincible 16 years, BOTDF 18 years. The estate and Sony should pay to renew MJ's numbers. His 81 million in US sales could easily increase to over 90 million.

As for Thriller, I've always been very suspect about The Eagles and their numbers with the RIAA, they seem to rise so fast.
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The thing is thst it was only in the US thriller still holds the record worldwide
 
R1chard said:
Seems to me the only reason MJ fans think sales are important is because MJ has a lot of sales. No other fans are so obsessed with it - they leave that to the record company to worry about.
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There are literally websites and internet forums that focus on music charts, sales and streams of music artists.

But sure, only MJ fans care about these things.
 
R1chard said:
Why not? Do you have any evidence at all, or is it just "they're not as good as MJ and I refuse to believe they're successful".

That's just silly. Makes you sound bitter and twisted.
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lol. better you show evidence for the fake sales of the eagles. They were asked, the RIAA were asked, and they dont know where the sales coming from.
 
mjchris said:
lol. better you show evidence for the fake sales of the eagles. They were asked, the RIAA were asked, and they dont know where the sales coming from.
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Sales say very little about quality (The Bodyguard isn't even Whitney's best album). Thriller is a rare example of both being true though.

Wikipedia, however accurate or inaccurate, has this to say:
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In physical sales, I don't think Thriller can ever be surpassed, and few will ever even enter the 20-40 million range. While we've seen a resurgence in physical media, it will never sell like it did in the 20th century again. This is why they invented the whole streaming equals sales nonsense, something I see my fellow kpop fans abusing and manipulating all the time. If the Eagles are claiming physical sales in 2026 in the excess of millions unrelated to streaming, Occam's razor would suggest that's just not feasible (same with Thriller and any other album on this list). I also find it a bit suspect any Eagles album has outsold The Dark Side of the Moon, objectively.
 
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