10 Best-Selling Rock Singles Of All Time
1. Bill Haley & His Comets, ‘(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock’ (1954)
Total weeks on the UK Singles Chart: 36
YouTube views to date: 3.7 million
You could be forgiven for expecting one of the all-time greatest rock acts to take the top spot – Aersomith, The Rolling Stones or even Guns N' Roses – but, alas, we go instead back to 1954, with Bill Haley & His Comets and '(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock'.
Though many million miles away from contemporary rock music, Bill Haley's hit was one of the very first true rock hits, making history as the very first rock and roll number one in the US and riding this new wave of popularity across the Atlantic and taking over stereos across the globe.
Far and away the best selling rock single of all time, 'Rock Around The Clock' re-entered the charts decade after decade following its initial release, achieving global sales well over the most recent figure of 25 million units (reported in 2000, a whopping 22 years ago).
As was the fashion at the time, the song was not written by the recording artist. Songwriters Max Freedman and James Myers originally penned the ditty in 1952, and it was first recorded by Sonny Dae and His Knights, who experienced little popularity or commercial success.
Though the public's appetite for traditional rock and roll waned throughout the 20th century, and has seen no hint of a revival in the 21st, the song has repeatedly made it into the Guinness World Records, and no other rock single has even come close to this volume of sales.