The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that represents the US recording industry. It certifies gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond sales awards for best-selling record releases.
The following are the certifications for The Beatles' albums sold in the United States. It documents the original UK releases which are now available on CD in the US and around the world.
A release is certified gold after shipping 500,000 copies; 1m warrants a platinum award. Double albums are counted twice, hence the high score of The Beatles (White Album) and the Anthology releases.
- 1963: Please Please Me (1m copies)
- 1963: With The Beatles (0.5)
- 1964: A Hard Day's Night (4)
- 1964: Beatles For Sale (1)
- 1965: Help! (3)
- 1965: Rubber Soul (6)
- 1966: Revolver (5)
- 1967: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (11)
- 1967: Magical Mystery Tour (6)
- 1968: The Beatles (White Album) (19)
- 1969: Yellow Submarine (1)
- 1969: Abbey Road (12)
- 1970: Let It Be (4)
- 1973: The Red Album 62-66 (15)
- 1973: The Blue Album 67-70 (16)
- 1988: Past Masters Volume One (1)
- 1988: Past Masters Volume Two (1)
- 1994: Live At The BBC (4)
- 1995: Anthology 1 (8)
- 1996: Anthology 2 (4)
- 1996: Anthology 3 (3)
- 1999: Yellow Submarine Songtrack (0.5)
- 2000: 1 (10)
- 2003: Let It Be... Naked (1)
- 2006: Love (1)
Figures believed correct as of January 2009.
Joe, you've written that the albums are the original UK released albums but what about Magical Mystery Tour?
Also, how many sales indicate a Diamond certification?
Fair point. When I mentioned the original UK albums, I meant it didn't include Meet The Beatles!, Beatles VI etc.
Magical Mystery Tour was only properly released in the UK in 1976, although it was imported before then. But this list refers just to US sales. I'll reword it so it's a bit clearer.
As for diamond sales, they're for 10m units sold. There have been a few - I'll update the list later.