Rhino Factoids: The Eagles Go Platinum
40 years ago today, a week after releasing Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), The Eagles officially became the first band to be able to say that they'd “gone platinum.”
The RIAA Platinum Award is doled out to those albums which have shipped one million copies, and although more than a few artists have released full-length efforts that have achieved that status, The Eagles did it first. More impressively, they continued to do it.
Yes, they went on to release more albums that went platinum, but that's not what we meant. We're talking specifically about Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), which just keeps on selling, even after all these years: on November 10, 1999, it became the all-time best-selling album in the US when it was certified 26x platinum. At the time, the late Glenn Frey joked, “"I think when Michael Jackson sees this on television, he's going to go out and buy a million-and-a-half copies of Thriller,” which is somewhat ironic, given that the reason it's no longer atop the RIAA's Top 100 Albums list is because Jackson's death caused a surge in his sales that sent Thriller back to #1.
As of this writing, the RIAA website had Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) at 29x platinum, but we can't help but wonder if Frey's recent passing will have the same result on The Eagles' overall sales. If so, then we may soon see a day when they're back on top again, and if not… Well, hey, at least they'll always be able to say that they were first.
