The top 20 fastest-selling albums
Year: 1988
First week sales: 360,000
1987’s The Joshua Tree had sold 235,000 copies in its first week but, just over a year later, Bono and chums had found over 125,000 more fans eager to purchase their new album the week it came out. A mixture of live and studio tracks, the album found the Irishmen exploring American blues and featured several covers (The Beatles’ Helter Skelter and Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower). The album’s worldwide sales of 14 million make it U2’s fourth most successful album behind The Joshua Tree (25m), Best Of 80-90 (16m) and Achtung Baby (17m).
Shameless publicity stunts
Girls Aloud's secrets revealed
Guess the pop silhouette
New bands old music
Classic rock: where are they now?
Worst cover versions
Is music sexist?
Why we love Cliff 
