Singer-songwriter James Blunt helped the British music industry to one of its best-ever year for sales in 2005. A record 126.2 million artist albums were sold last year, with Blunt’s Back To Bedlam topping the chart, according to the British Phonographic Industry.

Single sales were up by almost half to 47.9m, with the growth coming from the rapid growth in internet downloads.

The BPI said the final week of 2005 saw download sales top one million for the first time.

Tony Christie’s revived (Is This The Way To) Amarillo was the top-selling single track of 2005.

Album sales also hit a weekly record in the week before Christmas, with 10.4 million albums being sold, a 40% increase on the same week in 2004.