Welcome to OSML. Glad you like what you see so far.
And thanks for commenting: your input is important to me.

You certainly have a point about WIKI containing inaccuracies — I have come across many, many errors on a variety of subjects. I never considered they might fudge statistics that could be verified — so based on your input I will look for an alternate source of verification about this song being “the biggest selling instrumental single” . Perhaps it was up until that particular time?! Plus the “Star Wars” movie was a phenom so I really didn’t question the huge sales of the song from the movie: seemed logical to me.

Whether I find corroboration or not I will be back in touch here in this thread to let you know. Conversely, if you find something specific please let me know by posting here.

Hope you continue to enjoy your visits here to help me keep the oldies alive.

Hmm, I have doubts about the accuracy of that Wiki entry as well as its relevancy. As you know, until 1976, the RIAA did not acknowledge or certify sales of singles beyond ‘gold’ status and at that time, gold was 1 million units gross (before returns). After 1976, labels had to pay a fee for re-certification of earlier gold singles to platinum status and it seems most never bothered to, after all, what was in it for them beyond bragging rights?
I’d bet that Percy Faith’s 1960 “Theme from ‘A Summer Place” (Billboard #1 9-weeks) might have given the 2 million mark a good run. But by 1976, would documentation still have been around to certify sales from 1960?
How about 1969′s #1 “Love Is Blue” by Paul Moriat, 1973′s #1 “Love’s Theme”, 1974′s #1-2 wks “TSOP” by MFSB, and even 1975′s #1 – 3wks “Fly, Robin, Fly” or “The Hustle” (though these 2 do feature a chorus)?
I use to pull certification info straight from the RIAA a long time ago (pre-internet age) but no longer bother. So I don’t know for sure who’s done retro certifications.
IMHO, “Wiki is whack”, as the young folks use to say. Too many erroneous entries or entries lacking sufficient context. To beat this dead horse further, RIAA changed their definitions of gold & platinum again after 1976 to address other physical media formats (mini-discs, CDs, etc). Even Grammy info on Wiki lacks context in terms of the ridiculous explosion of categories after the 1970s, to the point where one 1960s Grammy category would be the equivalent of maybe four or six 2000s Grammy categories, makes the award kind of like ‘dog years’ where 1 old award = 4 modern awards .