When Back to Bedlam was released in 2004, first-week sales were just 482. Putting the list into further perspective, Susan Boyle's recent (albeit record-breaking) debut is already at number 56.įor better and for worse, Blunt gets to have the smuggest grin on his face. Williams is also the artist with the most albums – five – in the noughties' top 100. Eminem also topped the Americans' 10 year sales list, edging out the Beatles. The former Take That singer sold 12.18m albums between 1 January 2000 and 26 September 2009 (when data was last tabulated), followed by Westlife at 10.14m, Coldplay at 9.12m and Eminem at 8.01m. Counting across releases, and including back-catalogue sales, according to Music Week the trophy belongs to Robbie Williams. While James Blunt has every reason to celebrate, he was not in fact the decade's most successful act.

In Britain, however, the Fabs only came in at number six with the rest of the UK's top 10 filled by Leona Lewis, David Gray, Coldplay, Scissor Sisters, Take That, and one more Dido record. In the United States, Americans had the decency to make the Beatles' compilation disc, 1, top of their 10-year chart. Blunt's 2004 debut, seen by some as an easy-listening masterpiece, by others as a banal and soppy travesty, beat out Dido's No Angel and Amy Winehouse's Back To Black to be named the noughties' most successful release by the Official Charts Company. The markets will crash, the seas will rise, and the Four Horsemen will surely approacheth, because it's official – James Blunt's Back to Bedlam was the UK's bestselling album of the decade.

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