Candle in the Wind 1997

Background

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris, France. The news shocked John, as he and the Princess were good friends. A month earlier, he had also lost another good friend, fashion designer Gianni Versace. Pictures depicting Diana appearing to console a distraught John at Versace's funeral were featured prominently in news coverage throughout the world.

To cope with the grief, John wanted to pay a tribute to Diana. It was recorded at Townhouse Studios in West London, immediately following the funeral.

John publicly performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" only once, at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997. even for the memorial Concert for Diana in July 2007, having vowed never to perform it again unless asked by Diana's sons. The song has never been released (or re-released) on any of his other albums or compilations, not even his 1997 album The Big Picture, nor the 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales: Tribute album (an official 2-CD release sanctioned by Diana's family that included other artists such as Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Queen, Celine Dion, and Rod Stewart). The song was included on Diana, Princess of Wales: The BBC Recording of the Funeral Service. The soundtrack was released on 30 September 1997.

Chart performance

"Candle in the Wind 1997" became the fastest-selling single in the UK, selling 658,000 copies on its first day of release and over 1.5 million in its first week. The song debuted at number one on the UK singles chart the day after its release on 13 September 1997, staying at number one for five weeks and becoming the best-selling song in the UK, overtaking the 13-year-old record held by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" It is the best-selling single of all time in the UK, and has sold 4.94 million copies in the UK as of September 2017.

The chart success in the US was similar. "Candle in the Wind 1997" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, with first week sales at 3.5 million copies. The single stayed at the top for the Hot 100 for 14 consecutive weeks (until 17 January 1998), a record for a male solo artist. At first, Billboard listed "Candle in the Wind 1997" before "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" on its sales charts, but once airplay points for "Candle" had fallen below "Something" on 1 November 1997, the latter song took first position as per new chart rules regarding double A-side releases that took effect in March 1997. The single has sold 8,839,000 physical copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. Billboard ranked it as the number-one song for 1997 despite being on the chart for only eight weeks in the chart year, and it was the only number-one debut to top the Year-End Hot 100 until Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" in 2017. It was on the chart for 35 more weeks, making it the number-eight song of 1998 and one of only five songs in the history of the chart to be ranked on the top ten of two separate Hot 100-year-end charts, along with Chubby Checker's "The Twist", LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live", The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”. The best-selling single in Billboard history, and the only single ever certified Diamond in the United States at the time, the single shipped over 11 million copies in the US. The solo number-one single broke Elton John's "Kiki jinx". After five number-one solo hits in America in the 1970s, John hit number one in a duet with Kiki Dee with 1976's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". From then until "Candle in the Wind 1997", John did not record a number-one single by himself and only had two chart toppers altogether, collaborating with other artists. "Candle in the Wind 1997" was also the only number-one song in the year-end to be number one the year after. (1997 year-end, and it was number one for the first two weeks of 1998.)

On the Canadian Singles Chart, "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" spent three years in the top 20, with 45 non-consecutive weeks at the top spot. However, the song's unusual chart performance in Canada has also been explained as a structural factor, due to the relative lack of CD singles available for sale in Canadian stores. On Canada's RPM Top Singles chart, neither song made it to the top spot, with "Candle" reaching number 14 and "Something" peaking at number 13 and spending a much longer amount of time in the top 20. In Germany, the song is the 8th best selling pop hymn ever. Having spent six weeks at number one on the ARIA Charts, "Candle in the Wind 1997" is one of the all-time best-selling singles in Australia, being certified 14 times platinum with 56 weeks in the Top 100. According to Musiikkituottajat, the Finnish music industry federation, "Candle in the Wind 1997" is the best-selling single of all time in Finland, with quintuple-platinum sales of over 54,000 copies to date.

"Candle in the Wind 1997" had 150,000 preorders in Netherlands, 2 million in Germany and 250,000 in France. In Australia it had 400,000 preorders and in Germany it had 2 million preorders ahead of its September 13 issue. In France the single was released September 11, and following day it reached a platinum status with 500,000 sales.

It is estimated that at the peak of sales, almost six copies of the single were sold per second. In the UK, the single grabbed the number one slot on the first day of its release, with more than 650,000 copies sold in 24 hours, becoming the fastest-selling record of all time in the UK charts. All artist and composer royalties and record company profits were donated to Diana's charities via the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

All time sales ranking

The song has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.

"Candle in the Wind 1997" is either the best-selling or the second best-selling single worldwide of all time. The confusion and debate on whether John's record is or is not the best-selling single in the world is due to a lack of information on sales for the record's main contender for the number-one spot, Bing Crosby's recording of "White Christmas," because Crosby's recording was released before the advent of the modern-day US and UK singles charts. However, after careful research, Guinness World Records in 2007 concluded that, worldwide, Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has, in their estimation, sold at least 50 million copies, and that John's recording of "Candle in the Wind" has sold 33 million, making Crosby's recording the best-selling single of all time. However, an update in the 2009 edition of the book decided to further help settle the controversy amicably by naming both John's and Crosby's songs to be "winners" by stating that John's recording is the "best-selling single since UK and US singles charts began in the 1950s," while maintaining that "the best-selling single of all time was released before the first pop charts," and that this distinction belongs to "White Christmas," which it says "was listed as the world's best-selling single in the first-ever Guinness Book of Records (published in 1955) and – remarkably – still retains the title more than 50 years later."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Cover versions

In 1997 La Bouche covered "Candle in the Wind 1997" as a bonus track on their album A Moment of Love.

References

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