a list of the highest selling country artists of all time

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Clarification of Question by joneth-ga on 13 Nov 2002 01:10 PST

who are the highest selling country artists of all time

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 13 Nov 2002 07:32 PST

How many do you expect to recieve? Example: A complete list would
include every country music artist in the world who ever uttered a
recorded word in order from highest sales to lowest sales.

Commensurate with the bid amount that you have placed on your
question, would you consider the top three a sufficient answer?

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Clarification of Question by joneth-ga on 13 Nov 2002 15:31 PST

who would make up a list of the top 20 highest selling country artists of all time.

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 14 Nov 2002 08:41 PST

I've found a top - 10 list, would it satisfy yu?

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Request for Question Clarification by leeann-ga on 14 Nov 2002 09:09 PST

Would something like the following be acceptable -- it is a bit more
expansive, however, than just record sales. Let me know, and I will
post this as an answer and expand upon it.

"This list of the "Top 100 Country Hits and Stars Of The 20th Century"
was produced by Classic Hit Country music consultants, programmers and
experts, from analysis of jukebox and radio airplay charts, sales
figures and audience research data. The final 100 were chosen and
ranked based on a combination of both the song and the artist's impact
on Country music, including long-term popularity and/or historical
significance. In some cases, a "signature" song was chosen to
represent a particular act, which may or may not be that artist's top
selling or top charting song"

http://www.countrystars.com/index.html?/countrystars.html

leeann-ga

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Clarification of Question by joneth-ga on 14 Nov 2002 13:30 PST

a top 10 list of the highest selling country artits in history

Dear Joneth, 

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) makes (and
updates) a list of all time best selling artists. The list is general,
thus I had to pull out it myself. I also had three artists in
question, they are consider by some as country (but not by myself). I
put them on the list, thus making it 13 best selling artists on the
list.

No.   Name              Sales (millions) 
========================================
1.    BROOKS, GARTH     105.00 
2.    EAGLES             84.00 (first artists in doubt) 
3.    ROGERS, KENNY      50.50 
4.    STRAIT, GEORGE     50.50 
5.    ALABAMA            45.00
6.    NELSON, WILLIE     38.50  
7.    MC ENTIRE, REBA    34.50
8.    DENVER, JOHN       32.50 (second in question) 
9.    TWAIN, SHANIA      32.00 
10.   RONSTADT, LINDA    31.50 (third in question)  
11.   JACKSON, ALAN      31.00 
12.   DIXIE CHICKS       24.00 
13.   GILL, VINCE        21.50 

My source is RIAA (http://www.riaa.org/Gold-Best-4.cfm), and they also
have an all time best selling albums list
(http://www.riaa.org/Gold-Best-5.cfm). The last update to the list was
done few days ago.  May I quote though a member of Google "Country and
Western" Group (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.music.country.western),
saying that the fact that someone sold many albums doesn't mean that
he's the "best" country singer, only the best selling. This group is
recommended to all country lovers as yourself, and sometimes they make
private lists of country artists, that may also interest you (see for
example, the long debates in
http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=1998063015465900.LAA21215%40ladder03.news.aol.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dg:thl2864147163d%26dq%3D%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D1998063015465900.LAA21215%2540ladder03.news.aol.com
)

My search strategy included looking for the terms "top selling" or
"best selling" "country artists" and "all time". I must say it wasn't
as easy as expected: in Google general search (unlike Google groups),
the main result of such search is Charlie Pride, who was quoted in
some article as one of the top-20 artists, and since then the article
has been duplicated in dozen Internet sites.

Other sources: 
http://www.countrystars.com/index.html?/legends/top100.html - top 100,
not clear under which category
http://www.countryreview.com/ - country review
http://www.countryweekly.com/stories/charts.cfm - country charts , but
only weekly ones

I hope that answered your question. Feel free to contact me if you
need any clarifications on the answer, before you rate it.