The Eagles’ ‘Greatest Hits’ is the first album in US history to sell over 40M units
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NEW YORK (AP) — Take it easy … and go quadruple diamond. The Eagles’ 1976 album “Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975” the bestselling album of all time in the U.S., has officially sold over 40 million units. That’s according to new certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.
It was also announced on Thursday that the band’s 1976 record “Hotel California” has been certified 28x platinum, maintaining its position as the third bestselling album in the U.S.
The second? That’s Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which was certified 34x diamond in 2021.
The RIAA tracks U.S. sales and streaming equivalents. Certifications must be applied for and go through a third-party audit.
RIAA’s diamond status was once equivalent to selling 10 million albums or songs, but in 2013 the company began incorporating streaming from YouTube, Spotify and other digital music services to determine certification. Now 1,500 streams of an album is equivalent to an album sale.
“Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975″ was originally released almost exactly 50 years ago, on Feb. 17, 1976. To celebrate the anniversary and the new RIAA certification, the band is released a crystal-clear, 180-gram vinyl edition of the album.
“In an age, in a culture, where everything seems to become more ephemeral, by the day, it is gratifying to have been part of something that endures, even for fifty years,” founding member, drummer and singer Don Henley shared in a written statement to The Associated Press. “We are amazed and grateful.”
It’s a good time to be the Eagles. On Friday, the band will launch 12 final shows at Las Vegas’ Sphere, setting a record for longest-running residency at the state-of-the-art venue. According to a press release, since launching their residency on Sept. 20, 2024, “Eagles – Live In Concert At Sphere” has entertained over 700,000 fans across 44 performances.
The Eagles, who formed in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, mastered the mix of rock ’n’ roll and country music. Their hits — including but certainly not limited to “Hotel California” and “Take It Easy” — became part of the soundtrack of that decade. They broke up in 1980, coming back together 14 years later with Henley and Glenn Frey as the only remaining original members. Frey died in 2016.
The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2016.