The Eagles Greatest Hits album now the No. 1 best selling album of all time

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he Eagles album "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" is displayed at Amoeba Music on August 20, 2018 in San Francisco, California. The Eagles album Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 has surpassed Michael Jackson's Thriller album as the best-selling album of a

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An album released nearly 50 years ago is now the No. 1 selling album of all time according to new certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which tracks U.S. sales and streaming equivalents.

Dig deeper:

The RIAA says The Eagles’ 1976 album "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" has officially sold over 40 million units, making it the top-selling album of all time. 

"Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" was originally released on Feb. 17, 1976 and is now certified 40 times platinum, overtaking Michael Jackson's "Thriller," which was certified 34x diamond in 2021.  

RIAA also announced that the band’s 1976 record "Hotel California" has been certified 28x platinum, maintaining its position as the third bestselling album in the U.S.

The RIAA tracks U.S. sales and streaming equivalents and diamond status was once equivalent to selling 10 million albums or songs.  In 2013, RIAA began incorporating streaming from YouTube, Spotify and other digital music services to determine certification. Now 1,500 streams of an album is equivalent to an album sale.

The backstory:

The band, consisting of founding members Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner, and Don Felder, was formed in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and cultivated country rock.   

Their hit songs "Hotel California" and "Take It Easy" became part of the 70s soundtrack. The Eagles broke up in 1980, and came back together 14 years later with Henley and Glenn Frey as the only remaining original members. Frey died in 2016.

The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and in 2016 was a Kennedy Center honoree.