Calvin Harris has today cemented his reputation as one of music’s biggest megastars by grabbing top billing in the new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™2014 annual – leapfrogging ‘The King of Pop,’ the late Michael Jackson, to be officially recognised as having Most Top 10 hits on UK singles chart from one album.

The Scottish DJ/producer was given a private certificate presentation to celebrate his achievement in scoring an unprecedented nine Top 10 hits from his 2012 album “18 Months.”

This means he has overtaken Michael Jackson, who had previously held the title with seven Top 10 hits from both "Bad" (1987) and "Dangerous" (1991).

Remarkably, Calvin’s entry in the books was updated as recently as when he achieved his ninth top ten hit in August 2013 when “Thinking About You” climbed to Number 9 in the Official UK Singles Chart.

Other big music battles playing out in the new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™2014 annual include country-pop princess Taylor Swift edging ahead of One Direction in the musical stakes with two albums officially recognised in the new book compared to 1D’s solitary entry.

Taylor-Swift.jpg

The official records state that that Taylor Swift (USA) had the Fastest selling digital single with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” climbing to No. 1 on the iTunes’ singles sales chart just 50 minutes after it was released on 14 August 2012.

Swift is also the First solo female with two million-selling weeks on US album charts. She is the only female singer to notch up two million-selling weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. The “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” star, 23, achieved the rare feat with her third and fourth studio albums on their chart debuts. “Speak Now” shifted 1.047 million copies to bow at No. 1 on 13 November 2010 and “Red” crowned the countdown with sales of 1.208 million copies on 10 November 2012.

Meanwhile lagging behind her, One Direction (UK/Ireland) are highlighted as Highest debut by a UK group on the US singles chart. The band debuted at No. 3 on the US singles chart on 20 October 2012 with “Live While We’re Young” – the highest bow by an all- or predominantly British group in the 55-year history of the Billboard Hot 100.

PSY.jpg

Elsewhere, South Korean sensation PSY aka Park Jae-sang (South Korea, b. 31 December 1977) whose hit single “Gangnam Style” brought him worldwide fame in 2012, bags a spot in the new book with a world record for the Most viewed video online in 24 hours with "Gentleman." On 14 April 2013, the video had racked up 38,409,306 views on YouTube. PSY’s hit "Gangnam Style" will also be seen in the book as Most "liked" video online (having been "liked" 7,544,643 times on YouTube as of 16 May 2013).

Sande.jpg
Emeli Sandé
(UK) earns her place in the new 2014 Edition for Most consecutive UK Top 10 weeks for a debut album. Her album Our Version of Events” spent its 63rd successive week inside the UK Top 10 – including 10 weeks at No. 1 – on 4 May 2013. She broke a record which had stood for 50 years, beating the achievement of The Beatles’ "Please Please Me," with 62 consecutive weeks following its release in March 1963.

Rihanna -main


R&B sensation Rihanna took fans on a ‘detour’ from 8 Mile Road, dethroning the previous social media king, Detroit rapper Eminem, and taking the title of “ Most “Liked” Person on Facebook” with 70,738,549 “Likes” on May 16, 2013 (her current count stands at 74,769,237).

Justin-Bieber.jpg

Justin Bieber’s meteoric rise from teen heartthrob to pop culture icon has yielded a number of milestone record achievements along the way. With the successes of My World 2.0, Never Say Never: The Remixes, Under the Mistletoe, Believe, and Believe Acoustic, he became the “Youngest Solo Artist to Have Five U.S. #1 Albums” before his 19 th birthday. He became the “First Musician with a Music Channel Viewed Three Billion Times” on October 22, 2012, and quickly approaches the four billion marker with 3,943,512,926 views to date. Also attaining great influence in the social media world, One Direction racked up 12,952,247 followers on Twitter to earn the title “Most Twitter Followers for a Pop Group” as of May 16, 2013 (current count is 14,617,245).

Recently returning to television screens for its tenth series, ITV’s TheX Factor nabs a place in the records books as Most appearances by a judge. Two judges/mentors have appeared in nine series to date: Cowell himself was a judge on the first seven series in the UK (2004–10) and has starred in the first two series in the USA (2011–12). Louis Walsh (Ireland), who mentored UK series 2 (2005) winner Shayne Ward, has starred in all nine UK series to date (2004–12). That’s one-nil to Louis Walsh for coming out on top of Simon Cowell with that record-breaking feat.

Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief of Guinness World Records, said: "The glittering array of celebrity record holders in the 2014 edition truly reflects Guinness World Records' eclectic and diverse scope. Musically, we stretch from our homegrown talent Emeli Sandé and Calvin Harris to South Korea's PSY and the USA's Taylor Swift. There's a good reason these people are all globally recognized – they are quite simply the best in their fields, as their GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS certificates attest."

All these records and many, many more feature in the new Guinness World Records 2014 edition - available from 12 th September 2013 worldwide. For more information on this year’s book, including its incredible augmented reality features and your local stockist, head to www.guinnessworldrecords.com/2014