Shania Twain Reaches
a Record Sales Peak
"Come On Over" is now the best selling album every by a solo female artist.
You've got Madonna. Alanis Morissette. Sarah McLachlan and Jewel and the whole Lilith crew. And then,
in a category all by herself, you've got Shania. With the RIAA's recent certification of Come On Over for sales of
more than seventeen million, Shania Twain can now lay claim to the best-selling album by a female solo artist in history.
Released 122 weeks ago, the country pop blockbuster -- produced by Twain's husband and co-writer Robert John "Mutt" Lange
-- has sold more than twenty-six million copies worldwide. It's also the top-selling country album of all time, so Garth Brooks
can join Madonna and Alanis in the line of dethroned champions.
Presently, only four other "single CD" albums stand between Come On Over and the best-selling-album-by-anyone-ever
crown: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Led Zeppelin's "Led Zeppelin IV," Michael Jackson's Thriller and grand champion
The Eagles' Greatest Hits. The soundtrack to The Bodyguard is tied with Twain's album as the fifth best-selling
single disc, but Come On Over's current Billboard 200 chart ranking -- No. 30 -- suggests that it could break away
if it continues to sell steadily. Both albums are also tied for seventh place (along with the Beatles' "White Album") when
multi-disc sets are included (making way for Pink Floyd's The Wall and Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 &
2).
By: Richard Skanse
