Adelle^s 21 album has now sold 16.52m copies worldwide and has leaped to number 99 on the list of the 100 best selling albums ever. Congrats Adelle. But why am i mentioning this on a Sting fan site? Well Adelle"s achievement has knocked Synchronicity by our very own fave band The Police down to number 100 on the exact same list. This means that the next big selling album to shift upwards of 16.5m copies will push The Police out off the top 100. I think that would be a great shame and cast doubt on the belief that The Police/Sting are among the worlds all time greats.
I have always felt that Synchronicity should have been given the big re-promotion on its 25th anniversary slap bang in the middle of the reunion tour. A big opportunity missed. However the 30th anniversary is not so far away - June 2013 - so who is up for a re-packaged and properly promoted re-issue with a new sleeve and a new booklet with Someone To Talk To and Once Upon A Daydream and maybe a couple off "unreleased "tracks?
What do you all think?
source www.globalcharttrack.com

This is only important if one measures quality of the music based on sales figures, which I do not. While Adele might have sold many copies of her last album, I do not see her having the kind of longevity that the Police do, and Sting subsequently.

Also, these days, people don't really know who's at what spot. Sting was quoted saying once that back in the day - 60s, 70s - , everybody knew what the number one song was (or album); nowdays, very few people know, and even fewer care.

In my opinion, sales figures mean nothing at all. Most on this forum won't agree with this, but I enjoyed If On a Winter's Night...far more than Brand New Day, for example, but BND outsold the winter album by multiple millions of copies. Same goes for the Soul Cages, my favorite Sting album. It's by far his worst selling studio album, which was not a classical record.

There are two rather awful songs on Sync in my view (Mother, Miss Gradenko). Miss Gradenko is passable I suppose, but really I think they spoil the album; sorry Andy and Stewart. Counteracted of course by some absolute classics like King of Pain, Wrapped, Tea In The Sahara, Synch I and II, Every Breath... amazing... all those songs one after another...

I agree many b-sides like Someone To Talk To, Once Upon A Daydream, Low Life, were good enough to be on Synch. Not to mention the beautiful I Burn For You, it was sadly wasted on the Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack..!!

A 30th Anniversary re-release great idea though.

Let's hope there is not a surge in posthumous Whitney Houston sales that ends up bumping the Police down the pecking order of best selling albums. I am very shocked that they are so low anyway! That's crazy. I can't believe what IS best selling when you look at the figures.

Anyway here's one for you Stevie to celebrate 5 years since the Grammys 2007 when our beloved Police came back.

Roxanne - The Police at the 2007 Grammys