Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher and David Bowie all scored big on vinyl in 2017.
Sheeran had quite the 2017, didn’t he? Not only has he dominated the Official Singles and Album Chart, but he’s also managed to bag himself the year’s best-selling vinyl, too.
Released on March 3, Ed’s third album ÷ tops the year-end chart for vinyl albums, with 51,700 units sold. Not far behind Ed at Number 2 is Liam Gallagher, whose debut solo album As You Were claims 2017’s biggest selling debut LP with 37,000 copies sold on the format. Liam’s solo debut also became the fast selling vinyl in 25 years, shifting 16,000 copies in one week.
The news comes as the record labels’ association, the BPI, revealed that sales of vinyl were up 26.8%, a tenth consecutive year of growth, with 4.1 million purchased in 2017 compared to 205,000 in 2007. Vinyl sales now account for almost 1 in 10 of all physical music sales.
Rounding out the year-end vinyl albums Top 3 is Fleetwood Mac’s classic album Rumours, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this year. Proving its timelessness, Rumours sold 35,00 copies on black plastic in 2017.
Of all the new albums that were released in 2017, 12 make it on to the Official Top 40 biggest selling vinyl albums. Among those are Rag’n’Bone Man, Foo Fighters, The XX, Royal Blood and Kasabian, who round out the Top 40.
Thanks, in part, to several vinyl reissues, classic albums are proving as popular as ever on vinyl. Both Radiohead’s OK Computer, which was re-released on vinyl this year to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and the Beatles’ 50th anniversary reissue of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band made the Top 20.
The re-release of Prince & The Revolution’s Purple Rain OST, which included a number of unheard tracks from the Paisley Park vaults, also helped the album crack the Top 40, as did a reissue of the Smiths’ The Queen of Dead, which had been remastered for 2017 and featured a second disc of extra recordings.
Among those artists no longer with us who scaled the Top 40 were David Bowie and Amy Winehouse, whose 2006 album Black To Black finishes at Number 5 with 32,000 copies sold, making it the biggest selling vinyl by a female artist this year. Amy is also the only solo female act to chart in the Top 40.
Bowie’s latest greatest hits collection, Legacy, rounds out the Top 10, while both The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory both hit Numbers 20 and 30 respectively.
David Bowie also proved popular on the vinyl singles chart, too. Not only did he claim Number 1 with the No Plan EP, but the icon has three more songs in the Top 10 – Heroes (3), Sound and Vision (6) and Be My Wife (8).
Liam Gallagher also makes an appearance at Number 4 with his debut solo single Wall of Glass, as does his brother’s band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, with their single Holy Mountain (10).
Meanwhile, new releases by Morrissey, Arcade Fire, Kasabian, U2 and Thunder all made the Top 20. Morrissey’s former band The Smiths hit Number 2 with a reissue of their 1986 single The Queen is Dead.
Other surprising entries on the Vinyl Singles Chart Top 40 come in the shape of Toto’s Africa (a limited edition Record Store Day release) and Madonna’s Into The Groove.