The Most Popular 12-inch Singles of All Time

Of the more than 2.3 million singles contributed to the Discogs Database, nearly 60 percent of them are vinyl records. The first and most common form of the vinyl single — the 7-inch — was introduced to listeners in 1949 as a smaller, durable, high-fidelity replacement for the 78 rpm shellac disc. The 7-inch was lightweight and inexpensive to produce, which quickly made it the standard format for single releases.

Though the 12-inch single has been around for roughly the same amount of time, the format’s relative lack of portability stopped it from gaining early widespread popularity. DJs increased demand for 12-inch singles throughout the 1970s as a format for disco and dance records to be played in clubs. The 12-inch single was well-suited for this as it allowed for louder levels to be cut into discs to produce wider dynamic range and better sound quality. The format also allowed the longer runtimes of Tom Moulton’s pioneering disco edits, extended mixes of tracks like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” and later for the development of house and techno tracks meant to be mixed seamlessly into longer sets. As a result, club-friendly genres such as electronic, synth-pop, and new wave rank among the most popular 12-inch single releases of all time.

The 12-inch single also gave artists and designers a larger canvas for eye-catching art, such as Peter Saville’s iconic covers for New Order and Joy Division on Factory Records — eight of which feature on the list below — or The Designers Republic’s disquieting work for Aphex Twin.

This list of the most collected 12-inch singles on Discogs is ranked based on the number of users who have added a release to their Collection, a unique Discogs feature that allows collectors to manage the physical music they own. Each 12” single listed below can be found in over 4,000 Discogs Collections worldwide.