I was at the Nokie Edwards gig in San Franciscio last night. Several times during the evening, Deke Dickerson (who was backing Nokie) announced that the Ventures have sold over 100 million records, that they are the best selling instrumental band ever etc.
The Shadows bio on Wikipedia says ...According to the Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Albums (19th edition), The Shadows are the 3rd most successful UK charted hit-singles act, behind Elvis Presley (1st – 136 hits) and Cliff Richard(2nd – 125 hits...
which does not contradict the Ventures claim at all, but indicates that the Shads too have sold a lot of records.
So, do we have any idea how many records the Shads have sold?