Fastest selling single?
Two months after their first US public appearance, The Beatles held all the top five positions in the Billboard Hot 100.
Places 2-5 were songs that had been released before their US visit. But the Number One spot went to a genuine new release with unprecedented advance sales of 2.7 million.
In terms of worldwide sales, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest selling commerical single.
Released on March 21, 1964, it was No. 1 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed on the chart for a further 10 weeks.
UK sales
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| Gets you a nice car, though |
The Beatles no longer hold the record for the fastest-selling song in the UK market. This was broken in September 1997 in tragic circumstances.
GOODBYE ENGLAND'S ROSE by Elton John was released on 13 September 1997, a week after the funeral of Princess Diana. It sold 658,000 in a single day. Over the week, this figure rose to 1.55 million, but then fell rapidly.
Memorial setting
An important caveat is that Elton John's Diana tribute was a charity record rather than a conventional commercial release. It was also a setting of an existing composition, CANDLE IN THE WIND, with new lyrics. This setting has been treated as a memorial and is rarely broadcast.
In the U.K, CAN’T BUY ME LOVE peaked at No. 1 for 3 weeks on the official charts. But it remained in the Top 30 for 15 weeks and was only outsold by SHE LOVES YOU and I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND. It continues to perform strongly in terms of radio play and downloads
