Abstract
By November 2011, how many copies of "Chasing Cars" had been sold in the US?
Chasing Cars
Chasing Cars They're Only Chasing Safety Chinese Democracy UK Singles Chart records and statistics Chasing Cars
Chasing_Cars-Abstract They're_Only_Chasing_Safety-Overview Chinese_Democracy-Commercial_performance UK_Singles_Chart_records_and_statistics-Biggest_selling_single_not_to_top_the_chart Chasing_Cars-Commercial
"Chasing Cars" is the second single from Snow Patrol's fourth album, "Eyes Open." It was recorded in 2005 and released on 6 June 2006 in the US and 24 July 2006 in the UK as the album's second single. The song gained significant popularity in the US after being featured in the second season finale of the popular medical drama "Grey's Anatomy. "It became notable as one of the songs that revealed the impact of legal downloads on single sales in the UK, selling consistently for years after its release. The song is Snow Patrol's biggest-selling single to date, ending 2006 as the UK's 14th best-selling single of the year and that year had the distinction of being the last song performed live on the BBC's "Top of the Pops". In 2007, on the strength of downloads, it was the UK's 34th best-selling single of 2007. The song peaked at number 6 in the UK Singles Chart, and number 5 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. At the 2007 Grammy Awards, "Chasing Cars" was nominated for Best Rock Song, and at the 2007 Brit Awards, the song was nominated for Best British Single. In 2009, the PPL announced "Chasing Cars" was the most widely played song of the decade in the UK. As of 26 August 2013, the song has spent 111 weeks on the official UK Top 75 Singles Chart and 154 on the Top 100 and has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the UK by October 2013. It also sold 3,131,000 copies in the US by November 2011, making it one of the top 10 best-selling songs by a British artist in the digital era. In a 2009 Channel 4 poll it was voted the number one "song of the noughties".
As of 2005, "They're Only Chasing Safety" sold more than 218,000 copies, with the re-release selling an additional 279,000 copies, making a combined sales of more than 500,000 copies in the US alone. All original version cover photography and album artwork was created by Kris McCaddon, formerly of Embodyment and Demon Hunter, and currently of The Famine. On October 4, 2005, the album was re-released through Tooth and Nail, which included four bonus tracks, and a bonus DVD. On December 21, 2011, it was announced that the album had been certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies. 
The album was initially released November 22, 2008, in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It was released on November 23, 2008, worldwide, except in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. "Chinese Democracy" debuted at number three on the US "Billboard 200" chart, selling 261,000 copies in its first week, well below expectations. The album also debuted at #2 on the UK Albums Chart. "Chinese Democracy" was certified Platinum by the RIAA on February 3, 2009, having shipped one million copies in the United States. The album secured an IFPI European Platinum Award, having sold more than one million copies in Europe, and had sold 2.6 million units worldwide as of February 2009, according to Universal Music. The album also reached triple platinum certification in Canada, as well as platinum certifications in many other countries, including Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It was certified gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, and Colombia. It re-entered the US "Billboard" 200 again in the week ending April 3, 2011, selling 3,200 copies, enough for the 198th position. At that date, the album had sold 614,000 copies in the US according to Nielsen Soundscan. 
The record is held by Wham! and their 1984 Christmas release, "Last Christmas / Everything She Wants". It hit #2 being kept off the top by Band Aid's huge sales. The single itself sold 1.45 million copies and even managed a first week sale of 0.5 million, meaning it would have easily topped the chart any other week. In 1997, Natalie Imbruglia's worldwide hit, "Torn" sold more than 1.17 million copies without reaching #1 and stalling at #2 for four weeks behind Aqua's Barbie Girl. In 2011, Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera hit "Moves like Jagger" sold 1,447,000 copies without reaching #1, spending seven consecutive weeks at #2. The biggest selling single to peak at #3 is New Order's "Blue Monday", which has sold over a million copies. However, it garnered its total sales via two further remixes of the track, meaning its one million sales are attributed over all three releases. The biggest selling single to peak at #3 without re-issues is Ed Sheeran's "The A Team", which has sold just over a million copies since its 2011 release. In 1942, Christmas classic "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby was released which became the second biggest selling single in the world (30 million copies sold). It peaked at #5 in 1977 after Crosby's death and is believed to have sold a million copies (if it has, it has been the million seller taking the longest to achieve the millionth sale – a total of 33 years). It is incredibly likely to have sold a million copies, seeing as it is so popular and has clocked up high sales around the world, but with the inception of the singles chart happening 10 years after the release, we can never be sure. If this is excluded due to uncertainty, "I Love You Because" by Jim Reeves is the biggest selling single to peak at #5. Although total sales are hard to come by, it seems to be the only #5 to have exceeded 750,000 copies with such a high degree of certainty. The biggest selling single to peak at #6 is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, which has sold over 1 million copies since its release in 2006, becoming the longest-running song on the top 100 of the chart in the process. The highest-selling #7 hit, which for a long time exceeded the sales of any #6 hits, is LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live" which despite selling around 714,000 copies during 1998, it only managed to peak at #7 (it did however spend 30 weeks in the UK Top 40). I'm Yours by Jason Mraz only managed to peak at #11 on the singles chart, but has sold an excess of 650,000 copies, making it the highest-selling song to never chart in the Top 10. As for lower peaking singles, sales get so close, it is hard to make out which singles have sold more overall, and it is usually not in a chart researchers interest to be aware of lower peaking singles sales. Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine, which only reached #23, but has sold over 345,000 copies since release - this is very likely to be the highest-selling song to never chart in the Top 20, while Gold Dust by DJ Fresh also didn't chart within the top 20, only peaking at #22, but has managed to sell over 202,000 copies. It is known, however, that Forever by Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem - charting only at #42 but having so far cleared 150,000 copies - is the highest selling song to miss the top forty. 
It was released as an overlapping single in early June and the video was re-edited to include clips from Grey's Anatomy. The video failed to catch on, regardless, so a third version was filmed for the edited single version of the song. On 13 September 2006, the song soared in the digital music charts to become the most-downloaded song in the U.S. iTunes Store, just one day after the DVD release of the second season of "Grey's Anatomy". The song was used in "Verbotene Liebe", a German soap opera. The song was released as a download-only single on 17 July 2006 and entered the UK Singles Chart in the week ending 29 July at #25 on the strength of download sales alone. Its physical release had come on 24 July and this pushed the song up to #15, peaking six weeks later at #6. However, seven weeks after that, in November the CD single was deleted and, under the chart rules prevailing at that time, the song was removed from the chart two weeks after that, having clocked up 17 weeks in total. It was then absent from the chart for seven weeks, but in January 2007 a change to the chart rules meant that all downloads, with or without a physical equivalent, were now eligible to chart. "Chasing Cars" duly surged back in at a Top 10 position (#9, just three places below its peak), and remained on the chart for 48 consecutive weeks, entirely on downloads, only falling out again in December. After a three-week absence, in January 2008 it was back again, for 13 weeks this time, peaking at #50. It then bowed out for a third time, re-entered the top 75 in June, August, October and November 2008, November 2009, January and December 2010, and March, July and December 2011, and re-entered again on 24 August 2013, charting at #66 before climbing up to #60 the following week, and up to #47 the week after now taking the song's tally up to an incredible 111 weeks on the UK Top 75, making it the 2nd longest runner of all time, bettered only by Frank Sinatra's "My Way" (124 weeks). For only 14 weeks out of those 111 was a physical copy of "Chasing Cars" officially available. It has also spent 154 weeks on the Top 100. The song was voted number one in a 2006 Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All Time poll. After the popularity of its association with the "Grey's Anatomy" television show, the song peaked at #5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the US, the band's first Top 10 hit in the US. The song peaked at #8 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was the fourth best selling digital single of 2006 in the UK, totaling 190,000 legal downloads and is the fourteenth most downloaded song in the country of all time. "Chasing Cars" also went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart for two non consecutive weeks. As of November 2011, the song has sold 3,131,000 copies in the US. 