WASHINGTON (Reuter-CP) -- Canada's Alanis Morissette has
tied Whitney Houston for having the best-selling album ever by a
female solo artist, the Recording Industry Association of America
said Wednesday.
The Ottawa artist's album Jagged Little Pill was certified
at 12 million copies sold in the United States, tying Houston's
self-titled debut and outdoing industry veterans like Carole King,
Madonna and Mariah Carey.
The RIAA said the 12 million copies sold put Jagged Little
Pill in fourth place on its list of top-selling debut albums, trailing
Boston's Boston (15 million copies sold), Hootie and The Blowfish's
Cracked Rear View (14 million) and Guns N' Roses' Appetite for
Destruction (13 million).
Also tied at fourth with Morissette and Houston is Meat
Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell album. While the association considers
Jagged Little Pill Morissette's debut album, she actually released
two CDs in Canada in the early '90s, Alanis and Now is the Time.
The 12 million figure also doesn't include Canadian sales
figures, which are close to two million, or her sales in other
countries. The album continues to register in the Top 10 best-selling
album charts in more than a dozen countries.
Released in the middle of 1995, Morissette's album took
just 15 months to reach the 12-million mark, the RIAA said.