INXS’ ‘Very Best Of’ Hits New Heights With ‘Diamond’ Certification In Australia
INXS are rewarded with “Diamond” status for their 2011 career retrospective album "The Very Best Of," for sales upwards of 500,000 copies.
It’s official: INXS are rewarded with “Diamond” status for their 2011 career retrospective set The Very Best Of, for sales upwards of 500,000 copies.
Featuring such classics as “Never Tear Us Apart,” “Original Sin” and Billboard Hot 100 leader “Need You Tonight,” the LP has spent a whopping 430 weeks in the ARIA Top 100 albums chart, more than any other entry in the current Top 50.
The Very Best Of INXS logged seven weeks at No. 1, and earlier this year was crowned by ARIA as the top Australian Album of the Decade.
The prestigious “Diamond” certification was launched in November 2015 and has since been bestowed to the likes of Ed Sheeran and Michael Buble.
INXS’ latest accolade was recognized nationally at the 2020 ARIA Awards, held Nov. 25 in Sydney, where Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly presented the best band award to Tame Impala.
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“It’s very hard to express the pride and joy I have at this moment,” comments CM Murphy, founder and chairman of Petrol Records and long-time champion of the band. “It is now 10 years since returning to INXS and with their highest selling album having achieved a Diamond Award and now voted by the people as Artist of the Decade, it brings me to tears.”
Recently, Murphy signed a development deal with Sydney producer Michael Cassel to develop a major live musical production for Broadway and London’s West End, delving deep into the rockers’ catalog.
Originally formed in 1977 in the Western Australian capital of Perth, INXS’ body of work has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, scored six U.K. top 10 albums (including a No. 1 with Welcome To Wherever You Are from 1992) and five U.S. top 20 albums.
At their peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the new wave act enjoyed a period of superstardom and were often in the frame for the “biggest band on the planet.”
Tragedy struck in 1997, when INXS lost its charismatic singer Michael Hutchence, who was just 37. Four years later, in 2001, the band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
The surviving members of INXS announced in Nov. 2012 they were calling time on a career that spanned 35 years, more than 200 songs and 11 studio albums, including six that sold platinum or better in the U.S.
A controversial 2014 mini-series Never Tear Us Apart and Richard Lowenstein’s 2019 documentary film Mystify reignited interest in the band, and launched their music back into the charts.
Their music lives on, with new generations. That was confirmed on U.S. TV Monday night (Dec. 1) when contestant Cami Clune performed “Never Tear Us Apart” during the Live round of NBC’s The Voice.
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