The United States’s biggest selling soundtracks of all time:
1 The Bodyguard (1992, $16-million). Spawned the monster/monstrous I Will Always Love You plus four other hits, now all back with a vengeance on Whitney Houston’s current No 1 Greatest Hits set. The United States’s ninth-biggest-selling album of all time.
2 Saturday Night Fever (1977, $15- million). Virtually every track has been covered or reworked (by the likes of, er, N-Trance, 911, Kim Wilde). Never mind the Bee Gees’ meaningless songs in high voices, this is the album that brought you disco interpretations of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bare Mountain and Beethoven’s Fifth. Honestly.
3 Purple Rain (1984, $13-million). Some memorable songs (Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy); one eminently forgettable movie.
4 Dirty Dancing (1987, $11-million). Is anybody owning up to buying this? Pray Ricky Martin and Natalie Portman turn down rumoured offers to star in a sequel.
5 Titanic (1998, $11-million). The biggest-selling score soundtrack of all time, no doubt helped by the inclusion of Celine Dion’s dirge-like My Heart Will Go On.
6 The Lion King (1994, $10-million). Disney movie in best original song Oscar win shocker (for Can You Feel the Love Tonight). Ten weeks atop the US charts for Elton John-Tim Rice kiddie sing-a- long.
7 Grease (1978, $8-million). The only soundtrack to an actual musical left in the top 10. Spun off a succession of transatlantic smash hits (Summer Nights, You’re the One That I Want).
8 Footloose (1984, $8-million). American youth defies small-town puritanism by getting on down to … Kenny Loggins. Oh, and Bonnie Tyler.
9 Top Gun (1986, $7-million). Gave us Berlin’s end-of-the-evening power ballad Take My Breath Away, Kenny Loggins’s Danger Zone and The Righteous Brothers’s You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling – all on one handy album. Were we meant to be grateful?
10Waiting to Exhale (1995, $7-million). Chick movie, chick soundtrack. Whitney again, though this time not hogging most of the album – appearances also by Toni Braxton, Mary J Blige and TLC.