Admit it. Queen's Greatest Hits is in your record collection, isn't it? If not then you are bucking convention as today it is named the best selling album of all time.

Researchers at the Official UK Charts Company have produced a list which, oddly, has never been compiled before - the top 100 best-sold albums in the UK.

And the Queen album, which is often stored in the car glove compartment if anecdotal evidence is to be believed, comes an easy first, selling 5,407,587 copies, ahead of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with 4,803,292, and Oasis's What's The Story Morning Glory, selling 4,304,504.

Queen's Brian May said: "I'm really pleased - it did make me sit up and take notice. I thought it would have been Sgt Pepper. It is incredible how the appeal does seem to have broadened as well. In the audience for the musical there is a big age range and the kids know all the words to the songs."

May said he regularly checked out the Queen musical We Will Rock You, playing in London. "I was in there last night and there was standing room only."

To arrive at the list four researchers trawled through sales figures covering the past 50 years, even going back to 1950s Woolworth's till receipts.

Surprisingly the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Sting, and the Sex Pistols are not on the list. Jason Donovan is there, though just, at 100, with 10 Good Reasons. At 93 is Terence Trent D'Arby's debut album. And perhaps 2,336,086 people should today be hanging their heads in shame, for putting Robson & Jerome's eponymous album in the chart at number 43.

One of the biggest winners is Robbie Williams, who has six albums on the list at numbers 30, 49, 51, 58, 60 and 61, after only a decade as a solo artist.

John Kearns, producer of the music channel VH1, which presents the list this Saturday, admitted there were a lot of music lists around, but added: "The beauty of this is it's a real list based on what the public buy - this is totally based on sales. Very often you'll watch the TV and you've got people like myself giving opinions, but this is about people parting with their cash."

He said there were surprises "but in a way Queen makes sense, they're one of the most exciting bands ever".

The list also shines a light on the money to be made from musical soundtracks. The War of the Worlds is number 35, The Sound of Music is 36, and Grease is 39.

Top 10

1 Queen Greatest Hits

2 Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

3 Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory

4 Dire Straits Brothers in Arms

5 Abba Gold - Greatest Hits

6 Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon

7 Queen Greatest Hits 2

8 Michael Jackson Thriller

9 Michael Jackson Bad

10 Madonna The Immaculate Collection