ABBA Tops Adele as Top-Selling CD in U.K. History

9:13 AM PDT 10/1/2012 by Stuart Kemp

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Olle Lindeborg/AFP/Getty Images

ABBA in 1974

The Swedish foursome's greatest hits package, "Gold," has sold 4 million copies since its 1992 release. Adele's "21" is second.

LONDON -- A foursome from Sweden and not Liverpool can lay claim to having the biggest selling CD of all time in the U.K.

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European pop behemoth ABBA's greatest hits album Gold is the U.K.'s top-selling CD, shifting 4 million copies since its release in 1992, according to the Official Charts Co.

The one and only showing in the CD chart for the original fab four, The Beatles, is for the compilation album 1, with 2.85 million sold.

Despite being unleashed nearly 20 years after ABBA's Gold, Adele's album 21 has spun out on 3.5 million CDs here, putting it in second place.

The third-most popular CD of all time in the U.K. is Oasis's sophomore outing What's the Story, Morning Glory? which sold 3.4 million copies since its release in 1995.

Shania Twain, Lady Gaga, Norah Jones, Eminem and Kings of Leon also all make it into the top 30 biggest-selling CD albums of all time.

Twain's Come On Over is the best-selling CD by an U.S. act at No. 7, with 3 million sales.

Gaga comes in at No. 22 with 2.47 million sales for The Fame, the same number as Jones' Grammy-winning Come Away With Me.

The CD format was released to U.K. music buyers in 1982.

Coldplay, who performed at the Paralympics closing ceremony along with Rihanna and Jay-Z, has its first three albums -- Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head and X&Y -- all in the top 30.

Former Take That singer Robbie Williams also has three albums in the top 30: I’ve Been Expecting You, Sing When You’re Winning and Greatest Hits chart sequentially at 25, 26 and 27.

Said BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor, also a director of the Official Charts Co.: "The CD represented a great leap forward in sound technology, becoming one of the most successful consumer products in history as music fans embraced its sound quality, durability, instant track access and ease of use. There are many music fans in the U.K. who want to own music and value a physical product they can collect."