Michael Jackson Albums

When you look up the history of the certifications for The Eagles; ‘Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)’ from the RIAA’s searchable database, it’s strange – to say the least! It was first certified Gold & Platinum on February 24th, 1976, denoting 1 million shipments in America. It’s next certification never came until August 21st 1990, and that was for 12.00x Multi-Platinum (so that’s 11 million additional shipments in 14 years) which I think is a viable amount. It then went 14.00x Multi-Platinum on December 14th 1993 (that’s another 2 million shipped in 3 years & 4 months). But most strangely of all, is when it jumped to 22.00x Multi-Platinum on June 5th, 1995. That’s an additional 8 million shipments in a year and a half (did Nielsen Soundscan report at least 7 million scans of a nearly 20 year catalogue album during this period – I think not!). From there it jumped to 24.00x Multi-Platinum on March 3rd 1997 (another 2 million shipments in under 2 years). From here, certifications are more steady, going 25.00x Multi-Platinum on January 8th, 1999 & 26.00x Multi-Platinum on November 10th 1999 (another 1 million shipped in 10 months – how do they do it!) which just happened to nicely eclipse Michael Jackson’s then 25.00x Multi-Platinum Thriller, and was named on that exact same day ‘The Best-Selling Album of the 20th Century’. This is where people do forget this is U.S sales only, so Thriller still is in the lead! The album then went 27.00x Multi-Platinum on November 8th 2000 (another 1 million shipped in 1 year). 28.00x Multi-Platinum on November 7th, 2002 (aw, only 1 million shipped in 2 years – what is the RIAA thinking!!) & finally 29.00x Multi-Platinum on January 30th, 2006 (1 million shipped in a little over 3 years). So technically, the RIAA are claiming that the album has shipped an additional 16 million copies in the U.S since Nielsen Soundscan came into effect in 1991, which would co-incidentally also make it the joint third highest-shipped album since the 1990s, alongside Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and Hootie & The Blowfish ‘Cracked Rear View’ (both of which have shipped 16 million too). But what has Nielsen Soundscan reported of this compilation in over-the-counter sales. Although it may be a few million, it certainly doesn’t equate the supposed 16 million additional shipments the RIAA are claiming! The certifications for this album are so erratic, it doesn’t make sense and quite frankly, is hard to believe. I don’t believe that it’s shipped 29 million copies in the United States. In my opinion, I thought they were being dramatic when they upped it from 14.00x Multi-Platinum to 22.00x Multi-Platinum in the space of a year and a half (not forgetting this was from (1993-1995) & the album was released in 1976! During Thriller’s initial chart run, it was certified 20.00x Multi-Platinum on October 30th, 1984, not forgetting that in February of that year, Guinness Records declared it the best-selling album of all-time! Where was The Eagles ‘Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975 album during this time, still high on the success of the Platinum award it received back in 1976 no doubt! Thriller outsold this albums 20 times over in it’s initial chart run, the RIAA searchable database back’s this up, so how on earth did it overtake it? My only explanation is that the RIAA did not want to give Michael Jackson the distinction of having the ‘Best-Selling Album of the 20th Century’ title, so over-certified The Eagles Greatest Hits album to the extreme. Thriller is currently certified 27.00x Multi-Platinum, two Platinum awards behind The Eagles. Upon the RIAA discovering this clearly anti Eagles rant, they’ll probably double it’s certification to 58.00x Multi-Platinum.