Queen’s Greatest Hits eyes return to Number 1 for the first time in 40 years

A new 40th anniversary reissue could send the collection back to the top of the Official Albums Chart.

Queen’s Greatest Hits could return to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart this week following the release of a special 40^th anniversary edition – for the first time since 1981.

The popular retrospective is currently leading the Official Chart Update by over 4,000 chart sales, with 86% of its sales so far on physical formats. The anniversary re-release includes a collector’s edition of the CD with an exclusive slipcase cover, and a limited edition cassette available in five different colours.

See all of Queen's biggest songs and albums on their Official Chart history

If it holds its place it will mark the album’s fifth total week at the top of the Official Albums Chart, with its first run at the top taking place over four consecutive weeks across November and December 1981.

Released in 1981, the collection is the best-selling album of all time in the UK – in 2019 Greatest Hits became the first album ever to sell 6,000,000 copies – and has spent a whopping 952 weeks in the Official Albums Chart to date.

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Meanwhile, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie teams up with French musician Jehnny Beth for Utopian Ashes which is set to debut at Number 4, while Laura Mvula’s third studio album Pink Noise is also eyeing up a Top 5 debut as it sits at Number 5 midweek. Laura will feature on this Wednesday’s Record Club livestream in association with Bowers & Wilkins to talk all about the 80s dance-channeling album.

Further down, The Reprise Albums (1968-1971), a four-CD boxset of Joni Mitchell’s first four albums, is at Number 12, while ghillie suit-wearing post-punk band Snapped Ankles start at Number 18 with their third studio album Forest Of Your Problems. Brighton indie six-piece The Go! Team are heading for their third UK Top 40 album with Get Up Sequences: Part One at 21.

English pop-rock band Lawson return with CMD Z (30), potentially their third Top 40 album, while Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Angel Dream (33) – a reimagined version of their 1996 album Songs and Music from the Motion Picture “She’s The One” – is set for a Top 40 entry. If Angel Dream continues on course it will chart higher in the UK than the original 1996 collection, which peaked at 37.

Finally, Marina’s latest album Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land could re-enter this week’s Top 40, rebounding 26 places to Number 39.