Top 20 most successful musicians of all time

While terms like “best” tend to be fairly subjective, the numbers (usually) don’t lie. For this Top 20 list, we’re looking at the all time most successful artists, based on Grammy nominations/wins and units sold.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

We all love Top 10/20 lists, even though much of the time they’re somewhat subjective. Here’s one that I couldn’t resist though. It’s the Top 20 most successful music artists of all time by Stacker. Actually Stacker’s list is of the top 50, but I condensed it down a bit here.

The list takes awards like gold and platinum records and sales data that comes from the RIAA to determine the ranking.  Then it came up with an index to rank each artist that takes into account the total number of RIAA certified units (70%), Grammy wins (20%), and Grammy nominations (10%). To be considered for the list, artists must have sold 10 million RIAA certified units.

Are you ready? Here we go:

#20. Vince Gill – Certified units: 24 million (13 Gold, 11 Platinum, 6 Multi-platinum). Grammy wins: 21 (47 nominations).

#19. Mariah Carey – Certified units: 64 million (16 Gold, 14 Platinum, 10 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 5 (34 nominations).

#18. Metallica – Certified units: 63 million (13 Gold, 13 Platinum, 11 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 8 (18 nominations).

#17. Eric Clapton – Certified units: 40 million (23 Gold, 11 Platinum, 7 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 17 (37 nominations).

#16. Madonna – Certified units: 64.5 million (20 Gold, 17 Platinum, 12 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 7 (28 nominations).

#15. Beyonce – Certified units: 13 million (6 Gold, 6 Platinum, 4 Multi-platinum). Grammy wins: 24 (79 nominations).

#14. Eminem – Certified units: 46 million (11 Gold, 9 Platinum, 8 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 15 (44 nominations).

#13. Stevie Wonder – Certified units: 19.5 million (12 Gold, 7 Platinum, 2 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 25 (74 nominations).

#12. Jay-Z – Certified units: 27.5 million (14 Gold, 13 Platinum, 8 Multi-platinum). Grammy wins: 22 (80 nominations).

#11. Elton John – Certified units: 78.5 million (38 Gold, 27 Platinum, 14 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 5 (34 nominations).

#10. Barbra Streisand – Certified units: 68.5 million (51 Gold, 30 Platinum, 12 Multi-platinum). Grammy wins: 8 (46 nominations).

#9. Billy Joel – Certified units: 84.5 million (18 Gold, 17 Platinum, 13 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 5 (23 nominations).

#8. U2 – Certified units: 52 million (17 Gold, 17 Platinum, 12 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 22 (46 nominations).

#7. Led Zeppelin – Certified units: 111.5 million (19 Gold, 18 Platinum, 14 Multi-platinum, 5 Diamond). Grammy wins: 1 (3 nominations).

#6. Michael Jackson – Certified units: 84 million (15 Gold, 13 Platinum, 9 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 13 (38 nominations).

#5 – Bruce Springsteen – Certified units: 65.5 million (22 Gold, 17 Platinum, 11 Multi-platinum, 2 Diamond). Grammy wins: 20 (50 nominations).

#4. Eagles – Certified units: 120 million (13 Gold, 13 Platinum, 11 Multi-platinum, 3 Diamond). Grammy wins: 6 (18 nominations).

#3. Garth Brooks – Certified units: 148 million (30 Gold, 30 Platinum, 16 Multi-platinum, 7 Diamond). Grammy wins: 2 (14 nominations).

#2. Elvis Presley – Certified units: 146.5 million (117 Gold, 67 Platinum, 27 Multi-platinum, 1 Diamond). Grammy wins: 3 (14 nominations).

#1. The Beatles – Certified units: 183 million (48 Gold, 42 Platinum, 26 Multi-platinum, 6 Diamond). Grammy wins: 7 (23 nominations).

Some of this is pretty surprising, some not so much, some open to interpretation. The floor is open for discussion.

Find out who the other 30 on the rankings are, as well as some other cool lists, at Stacker.