Adele to equal The Beatles’ chart record

Adele is on course to become the first artist to score the biggest selling album and single in both for the US and UK for almost 50 years – since The Beatles in 1964.

The singer’s ‘Someone Like You’ is well ahead in the race to become the UK’s biggest selling single of 2011 after the first nine months of the year, having sold 1.2m copies to date – while ‘Rolling In The Deep’ is currently the biggest selling single in the US, according to www.musicweek.com.

The second biggest selling single of the year so far is Jesse J Ft. BOB’s ‘Price Tag’, which has sold 930,000 copies to date. The only possible rival to Adele this year is likely to be December’s X-Factor winner, in the lead up to Christmas – last year’s winner Matt Cardle sold 810,000 copies of his Christmas Number 1 before the end of 2010.

In the albums market, Adele is leading in the way in the US with 21 – and is a guaranteed top seller in the UK. To date, ‘21’ has sold 3.1m copies this year, challenged only by her debut album ‘19’ which has approaching 1.1m. The nearest rival right now is Bruno Mars’ ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans’, which has sold 770,000 copies.

The biggest selling compilation album of the year to date is ‘Now! 79’, which is has sold 770,000 copies to date.

The biggest sellers of the year in the UK (up to the end of week 40) are as follows:

Official Top 10 Singles – year to date
1 ‘Someone Like You’ – Adele
2 ‘Price Tag’ - Jessie J Ft Bob
3 ‘Party Rock Anthem’ - LMFAO/Lauren Bennett/Goonrock
4 ‘Give Me Everything’ - Pitbull/Ne-Yo/Afrojack/Nayer
5 ‘Grenade’ - Bruno Mars
6 ‘On The Floor’ - Jennifer Lopez Ft. Pitbull
7 ‘Rolling In The Deep’ – Adele
8 ‘S&M’ – Rihanna
9 ‘The A Team’ - Ed Sheeran
10 ‘Born This Way’ - Lady Gaga

Official Top 10 Albums – year to date
1 ‘21’ – Adele
2 ‘19’ – Adele
3 ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans’ - Bruno Mars
4 ‘Loud’ – Rihanna
5 ‘Born This Way’ - Lady Gaga
6 ‘Who You Are’ - Jessie J
7 ‘Progress’ - Take That
8 ‘The Lady Killer’ - Cee Lo Green
9 ‘No More Idols’ - Chase & Status
10 ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ - Plan B

Official Top 5 Compilations – year to date
1 ‘Now That's What I Call Music 79’
2 ‘Now That's What I Call Music 78’
3 ‘Now That's What I Call Music 77’
4 ‘Clubland 19’
5 ‘Sugar Sugar - The Birth Of Bubblegum Pop’

© 2011 The Official Charts Company.