It may come as no surprise that the best-selling single of all time is one of the oldest songs on this list, as well as another Christmas classic. "White Christmas" has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and continues to be a holiday chart success year after year. Bing Crosby's perennial hit was first released in 1942 and was repeatedly reissued by record label Decca, making its annual appearance on the music charts an annual tradition.

Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by a variety of artists, with Bing Crosby's version being the world's best-selling single (in terms of physical media sales), with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. When the sales of other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, the song's total sales exceed 100 million.

Sales: 50 million copies

Elton John's "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" is a song from his 25th studio album, The Big Picture. Chris Thomas produced the song, which was written by John and Bernie Taupin. Mercury Records and the Rocket Record Company released it as the album's first single on September 8, 1997.

Five days after its solo release, the song was released as a double A-side single with "Candle in the Wind 1997". The single and video were dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, who died that year, with proceeds from the single's sale going to Diana's charities. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, this double A-side is "the best-selling single of all time" in terms of certified sales. According to Guinness World Records, the song is "the biggest-selling single since the UK and US singles charts began in the 1950s, with worldwide sales of 33 million copies".

Sales: 33 million copies

Mungo Jerry's debut single, "In the Summertime", is available on iTunes. Ray Dorset, the band's lead singer, wrote and composed the song, which celebrates the carefree days of summer. In 1970, it topped charts all over the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks on one of the Canadian charts, and three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States. It went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling 30 million copies.

Dorset has stated that the song took him only ten minutes to write, and he did use a second-hand Fender Stratocaster while on leave from his regular job, working in a Timex lab. Dorset sued his former management company, Associated Music International, which was run by his former friend and business manager Eliot Cohen, in 2012, claiming over £2 million in royalties from the song that he believed were withheld from him.

Sales: 30 million copies

"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar blues rock and roll song written in 1952 by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter under the pen name "Jimmy De Knight"). Bill Haley & His Comets recorded the best-known and most successful version for American Decca in 1954. It was a number one single for two months and performed well in the UK charts; the recording also re-entered the UK Singles Chart in the 1960s and 1970s.

It was the first rock and roll record to top the charts in the United States. Despite this, Haley's recording became an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth, especially after it was featured in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. It topped the pop charts for two months and peaked at number three on the R&B chart. The recording is widely regarded as the song that, more than any other, propelled rock and roll into the mainstream of global culture. The song is ranked 159th on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Sales: 25 million copies

"I Will Always Love You" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton in 1973. The country single was released in 1974 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, expressing Parton's decision to pursue a solo career. The song was a commercial success for Parton, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart twice: first in June 1974, then again in October 1982, with a re-recording for the soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Whitney Houston covered the song for the 1992 film The Bodyguard. Houston's single spent 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting a new record at the time, and went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time, as well as the best-selling single by a woman. Many other artists have covered the song, including Linda Ronstadt, John Doe, Amber Riley, LeAnn Rimes, and Sarah Washington, whose dance version reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Sales: 20 million copies

"It's Now or Never" is an Elvis Presley song that was released as a single in 1960. The song is one of Presley's best-selling singles (20 million copies), as well as one of the best-selling physical singles of all time. Bill Porter recorded it at RCA Studio B in Nashville. It is written in the key of E major and has a tempo of 80 beats per minute.

"It's Now or Never" was a number-one record for Elvis Presley in the United States in 1960, spending five weeks at the top, as well as the United Kingdom, where it spent eight weeks at the top in 1960 and an additional week at number one in 2005 as a re-issue, and numerous other countries, selling in excess of 20 million physical copies worldwide, making it Elvis Presley's biggest international single ever. Because of rights issues, its British release was delayed for some time, allowing the song to amass massive advance orders and enter the UK Singles Chart at number one, a very rare occurrence at the time. On the R&B charts, "It's Now or Never" peaked at number seven.

Sales: 20 million copies

"We Are the World" is a charity single released in 1985 by the supergroup USA for Africa. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote it, and Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson produced it for the album We Are the World. It is the eighth best-selling physical single of all time, with over 20 million copies sold.

Columbia Records released the song as the album's first single on March 7, 1985. It was a worldwide commercial success, topping music charts all over the world and becoming the fastest-selling US pop single in history. The Recording Industry Association of America certified "We Are the World" as Quadruple Platinum, making it the first multi-platinum single. The song received numerous awards, including three Grammys, one American Music Award, and a People's Choice Award, and was promoted with a critically acclaimed music video, a VHS, a special edition magazine, a simulcast, and several books, posters, and t-shirts.

Sales: 20 million copies

"If I Didn't Care" is a song written by Jack Lawrence that was first performed and recorded in 1939 by the Ink Spots with Bill Kenny. With over 19 million copies sold, the Ink Spots recording became the tenth best-selling single of all time, making it one of only forty all-time singles to sell 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide. Lawrence claims that he mailed the song before showing it to some of his friends. His friends were almost unanimously negative about the song, but he remained optimistic about it, and it went on to become one of his biggest successes.

It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and ranked 271 on the list of "Songs of the Century". The Library of Congress chose the Ink Spots' recording of the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2018 as "culturally, historically, or artistically significant". The song was also used in the film The Shawshank Redemption, which was released in 1994.

Sales: 19 million copies

"Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" by the Spanish vocal duo Baccara was a hit single in 1977. This disco song, written by Frank Dostal and Rolf Soja and produced by Soja, was a hit across Europe and became the duo's only number-one single in the UK, spending a single week at the top of the UK Singles Chart in October 1977.

Mayte Mateos and Maria Mendiola were Spanish flamenco dancers who performed at Baccara. They were discovered by RCA Records executive Leon Deane on the Canary Islands island of Fuerteventura, who saw them dancing flamenco and singing traditional songs for tourists and signed them to the label. Following the team's qualification for the UEFA Euro 2020 championships in 2020, fans of the Scotland national football team adopted the song. It first gained local attention in 2015, thanks to a stag party video of Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine miming to the song while dressed as a drag queen.

Sales: 18 million copies

Celine Dion, a Canadian singer, recorded the song "My Heart Will Go On". The song serves as the main soundtrack to James Cameron's blockbuster film Titanic, which is based on the true story of the same-named transatlantic ocean liner, which sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. James Horner composed the song's music, Will Jennings wrote the lyrics, and Walter Afanasieff, Horner, and Simon Franglen oversaw the production.

"My Heart Will Go On" is widely regarded as Dion's signature song. [3] With over 18 million copies sold worldwide, it is the second best-selling physical single by a woman in music history and one of the best-selling physical singles of all time. It was also the best-selling single in the world in 1998. It was also named one of the Recording Industry Association of America's and the National Endowment for the Arts' Songs of the Century. Bille Woodruff directed the music video, which was released at the end of 1997. On May 21, 2017, Dion performed the song to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards.

Sales: 18 million copies

Mariah Carey recorded "All I Want for Christmas Is You" for her fourth studio album and first-holiday album, Merry Christmas (1994). Carey and Walter Afanasieff wrote and produced the song, which was released as the album's lead single on October 29, 1994. The song is an upbeat love song with bell chimes, backing vocals, and synthesizers. The song has become a Christmas classic, and its popularity grows with each passing holiday season.

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" was praised by critics, with The New Yorker calling it "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon". The song went on to become a global hit, topping the charts in twenty-six countries including Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the first time in 2019, 25 years after its initial release, breaking several records, including the longest trip to number one. It also topped the charts in the United Kingdom for the first time the following year, spending a record 69 weeks in the top 40 before reaching number one.

Sales: 16 million copies

Bryan Adams is a Canadian singer-songwriter who wrote the song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". The power ballad was written by Adams, Michael Kamen, and Robert John "Mutt" Lange and served as the lead single for both the soundtrack album for the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Adams' sixth studio album, Waking Up the Neighbors (1991). On June 17, 1991, the single was released.

The song was a huge international chart success, reaching number one in at least nineteen countries, with notable exceptions in the Western World being Italy (number three) and Spain (number four). It is especially notable for its success in the United Kingdom, where it spent sixteen weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart, the longest uninterrupted run on that chart as of 2022. It also topped the European sales chart for eighteen weeks in a row. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Hot 100, which combines radio airplay and sales, for seven weeks, but remained at the top of the sales-only chart for seventeen weeks.

Sales: 15 million copies

"You're the One That I Want" is a song written by John Travolta and performed by Olivia Newton-John for the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease. John Farrar wrote and produced the film. It was released in May 1978 as the second single from Grease: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. "You're the One That I Want" is one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling over 6 million copies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France alone, with an estimated total sales of more than 15 million copies.

The single became a huge international hit after its release in conjunction with the film (and its status as a potential blockbuster worldwide), reaching number one in several countries. In the United States, the single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified Platinum on July 18 for shipments of more than 2 million copies. It also topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks in the summer of 1978, months before the film was released there. In the United Kingdom, where it has sold two million copies, it is still the fifth best-selling single of all time as of 2018.

Sales: 15 million copies

"Wind of Change" is a song recorded by the West German rock band Scorpions for their eleventh studio album, Crazy World (1990). Klaus Meine, the band's lead singer, composed and wrote the power ballad, which was produced by Keith Olsen and the band. Meine wrote the lyrics after the band visited the Soviet Union during the height of perestroika when the enmity between the communist and capitalist blocs subsided concurrently with the implementation of large-scale socioeconomic reforms in the Soviet Union.

"Wind of Change" is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with an estimated 14 million copies sold worldwide. It is the best-selling single ever by a German artist. In 1991, the band presented Mikhail Gorbachev with a gold record and $70,000 in royalties from the single, with Soviet news outlets reporting that the money would be donated to children's hospitals.

Sales: 15 million copies

"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is a popular Yiddish song written by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda for the 1932 Yiddish language comedy musical, I Would If I Could, which closed after one season at Brooklyn's Parkway Theatre. The Yiddish title was transcribed as "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn" in the song's score. The song's original Yiddish version is a conversation between two lovers. The song became a worldwide hit in November 1937, five years after it was written in 1932 when it was recorded by The Andrews Sisters under the Germanized title "Bei mir bist du schön".

According to Neil W. Levin, a Jewish music scholar, "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is "the world's best-known and longest-reigning Yiddish theater song of all time". In a similar vein, writer Stephen J. Whitfield has argued that the song's popularity and influence in pre-war America exemplify how "a minority culture" can transform the popular arts of a large democratic nation.

Sales: 14 million copies