Music History Events: Certifications
June 17, 1968 Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy" is certified gold.
May 22, 1968 Cream's Disraeli Gears is certified gold.
March 13, 1968 The Byrds' Greatest Hits is certified gold.
July 24, 1967 Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow LP is certified gold.
June 23, 1967 Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" is certified gold.
May 4, 1967 The Turtles' "Happy Together" is certified Gold.
November 1, 1966 Elvis Presley's LPs Elvis Presley, Elvis' Golden Records, Vol. 2, and Elvis' Golden Records, Vol. 3 are certified gold.
February 14, 1966 Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds Of Silence" is certified gold.
August 13, 1963 Elvis Presley's Girls! Girls! Girls! album is certified Gold.
January 27, 1962 Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love" is certified gold.
February 12, 1961 The Miracles' "Shop Around" is certified gold.
February 10, 1942 RCA Victor presents Glenn Miller with a gold record for "Chattanooga Choo Choo." It's purely a promotional gimmick (the label is celebrating sales of over one million), but still the first time that a gold record is awarded. Other labels follow suit in handing out framed golden discs to their artists in celebration of the one million milestone, and in 1958 the RIAA makes it official, awarding gold records to singles and albums that sell over a million copies.
February 16, 2021 Lauryn Hill's 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is certified Diamond for 10 million sales in America, making her the first female hip-hop artist to earn that certification.
August 20, 2018 The RIAA certifies the Eagles Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 at 38 million units, making it the best-selling album of all-time in America, besting Michael Jackson's Thriller by 5 million (another Eagles album, Hotel California, is third with 26 million). Worldwide, Thriller is by far the biggest selling album.
May 21, 2018 The Hootie & the Blowfish album Cracked Rear View is certified for selling 21 million copies in America, overtaking Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction as the top-selling debut album of all-time in that country.
March 3, 2017 Nickelback's album All The Right Reasons is certified Diamond for sales of over 10 million copies in the United States, making them just the fourth Canadian act to reach that level. The other three are female artists: Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette.
February 1, 2016 Skillet's 2009 track "Monster" goes double platinum with more than 2.6 million sales and streams, making it the biggest digital single in Christian music history.
October 3, 2014 Thirty-seven years after its release, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album is certified Double Diamond by the RIAA for sales of over 20 million in the US. It is the ninth album to achieve the certification.
May 9, 2013 The RIAA starts counting streaming toward its Gold and Platinum awards, with 1,500 album streams equal to one album sale (a "unit"), and 150 song streams counting for one song sale.
December 15, 2009 The RIAA certifies 5 million ringtone sales of Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," making it the best-selling ringtone ever.
September 23, 2008 Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction is certified for sales of 18 million by the RIAA, overtaking Boston's self-titled album (at 17 million) to become the all-time best-selling debut album in America. Ten years later, Hootie & the Blowfish earn the title when their album Cracked Rear View is certified at 21 million.
October 3, 2006 Skillet releases their sixth studio album, Comatose. It's the Christian rock band's first gold-certified album, selling half a million copies. By 2016, sales reach one million, which earns the album platinum status.
February 15, 2005 The Norah Jones album Come Away With Me is certified Diamond for sales of over 10 million in America. A mellow, jazzy set, it's an outlier on the list of Diamond-certified albums, which are dominated by pop, rock and country.
November 15, 2004 Shania Twain's album Come On Over is certified double diamond by the RIAA, with over 20 million copies sold in the US. It's just the seventh album to do so, and the only one by a female artist.
July 16, 2001 Kid Rock's album Devil Without A Cause goes Diamond, selling over 10 million albums in America. His previous three albums sold maybe 50,000 copies combined, mostly in the Detroit area.
June 4, 1999 As he predicted on the title track, Kid Rock goes Platinum with his album Devil Without A Cause. It goes on to sell another 10 million copies.
April 12, 1999 Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II becomes just the fourth album certified by the RIAA as Double Diamond for sales of over 20 million in the US, following Thriller, Eagles - Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975 and The Wall.
April 7, 1999 Shania Twain's third album Come On Over is certified Diamond (10 million in sales) by the RIAA, making her the first female artist with back-to-back Diamond albums; her second album, The Woman in Me, was certified in 1997.
March 4, 1998 Bad Religion's breakthrough album, Stranger Than Fiction, released almost four years earlier, is certified gold by the RIAA, becoming the band's only album to achieve this certification in the United States.
November 17, 1997 Shania Twain's second album, The Woman in Me, is certified Diamond for sales of 10 million copies.
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