Best Selling Beatles Albums

Human behavior never ceases to amaze me.   What I think people will like, they of course don’t.  What I think they won’t like, they most certainly do.

Today I was perusing the Amazon.com sales statistics for my favorite group, The Beatles.  Let me say that I was shocked at which Beatles albums were the most popular.

If you know nothing about The Beatles or their music, I suggest that you read up about Beatles albums, or Beatles Songs, or at least study up on theBeatles.org because this could go down on your permanent record.

Anyhow, I was letting my fingers do some strolling through the Amazon catalog and noticed they were kind enough to publish sales statistics.  Not the absolute type, like such and such album sold x number, but the relative type, as in such and such album sold more than so and so album. They refer to this as Sales Rank.  Given the volume of sales that Amazon.com does, these statistics mean something. And by mean something, I mean in a scientific sense.

So, I put together a snapshot of the Beatles sales scene from a list that includes all the Beatles original studio albums and a bit of other stuff.

*As of December 1, 2010 and obviously highly subject to change.

As you can see, I’ve left all of the items blank except for two, for two reasons.

First, being confronted with a box set when the subject at hand is “which Beatles album do people find the most popular?” does not provide a wealth of information. It’s a bit like asking someone what he or she would like to order, the escargot, the deep fried camembert with raspberry sauce, or the goose liver pate (or for my fellow Americans, the Big Mac, the McNuggets or the Filet-O-Fish) and then have them answer “Yes”.

Secondly, I’ve listed these because it is so mindblowingly impressive.  That $147.99 USD Beatles Stereo Box set is ranking at #43. Mind you, this is not #43 out of Beatles Albums, but out of ALL albums by ALL artists, including such fierce competitors as Boxcar Willie, MC Hammer, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

But allow me to put this number into a bit more perspective by comparing it to the album The Saga Continues by Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy, Diddy, or P. Diddy.

The Sales Rank for his The Saga Continues was an impressive #94,926.

This is especially amazing considering that The Beatles have not put out an original studio album since 1970.

All of this fits into my broader thesis that music sales are down not because of piracy but because the music they put out nowadays mostly sucks. They've run out of ideas.

The music of the Beatles ages like fine wine. The music of the sensations du jure? Well, my bet is that it will age like cheese left out too long in the sun.

But I digress. The purpose of this little blog is this…

Which Beatles album do you think tops the list? And by list, I mean not which Beatles album are bst, but which Beatles album do you think the Amazon buying public - people with computers and credit cards - think is best?

You can click here to take a guess and see the results.