TAKE 5 : DIAMONDS A MUSICIAN'S BEST FRIEND.

Byline: - Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Honoring a roster of artists that ranged from the Beatles to Backstreet Boys, the Recording Industry Association of America presented the first Diamond Awards on Tuesday in recognition of albums and singles that have sold 10 million copies or more.

The award is the first new level of sales achievement the RIAA has formally recognized since 1984, when it created the multiplatinum award for sales of 2 million or more units.

Tuesday's list of 62 titles by 45 artists included albums that have spanned generations with their popularity. RIAA president Hilary Rosen, who presented the awards at a ceremony held in the historic Manhattan ballroom Roseland, described them as ``cultural touchstones.''

Three of the inaugural Diamond winners are from the 1960s (all by the Beatles), while 17 were released in the 1970s, 19 in the 1980s and 23 in the 1990s. Eleven are hits compilations and six are original movie soundtracks.

Nearly every genre of the past 35 years is represented among the winners, which include singer-songwriters Carole King and James Taylor, album rock staples Boston and ZZ Top, flash-in-the-pan rapper MC Hammer, metal bands AC/DC and Metallica, country pop crooner Kenny Rogers, contemporary jazz instrumentalist Kenny G, alternative rockers Green Day and disco-era soundtrack ``Saturday Night Fever.''

The Beatles lead the pack in the first batch of Diamond Awards with five, three of which were for original album releases ``Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' and ``Abbey Road'' (11 million each) and ``The Beatles,'' a k a ``The White Album'' (17 million). The group's two double-disc hits collections, ``The Beatles/1967-1970'' (14 million) and ``The Beatles 1962-1966'' (13 million), were also recognized.

Country superstar Garth Brooks received Diamond awards for ``No Fences'' (16 million), ``Ropin' the Wind'' (14 million), ``Double Live'' (12 million) and ``The Hits'' (10 million). The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey and Van Halen were also multiple winners.

The only single on the list is ``Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight,'' John's tribute to Princess Diana, which has sold 11 million copies.

Artists showing up at Roseland to pick up their award included Rogers, John, Hammer, ZZ Top, Def Leppard, Billy Joel and Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page.

The cylindrical crystal given to the Diamond Award recipients turned out to be a slippery rascal as Kenny G dropped his while making an acceptance speech.

``Does this mean I don't get another one if I sell another 10 million records?'' he said as he stared at the trophy's broken pieces on the stage floor.

Double albums and box sets are credited for the number of discs sold. For example, Pink Floyd's double album ``The Wall'' is credited with sales of 23 million but was actually purchased 11.5 million times.

Futuristic Pinocchio: Astro Boy, a comic-strip character as familiar to Japanese audiences as Mickey Mouse is to Americans, appears headed for the big screen. Columbia Pictures is in final negotiations to buy film rights to Astro Boy with an eye toward a Christmas 2000 release. The Astro Boy film is envisioned as the story of Pinocchio in the 21st century. Combining computer animation, animatronics and live action, the film would tell the tale of a grieving scientist who builds a robot in the likeness of his son who was killed. The robot boy possesses extraordinary powers and fights crime in a no-nonsense manner. The character of Tetsuwan Atomu - a robot boy existing in Tokyo in the year 2000 - was the brainchild of Dr. Osamu Tezuka. The robot boy was by far the most popular creation of Tezuka, who was called the ``god of comics'' in his country. On Jan. 1, 1963, Tetsuwan Atomu became the first cartoon show on Japanese television. It was an instant hit. An American version of the show, dubbed into English and called ``Astro Boy,'' debuted in September of that year and ran for one full season. In the U.S. version, Astro Boy existed in New York in the year 2000.

O'Hara's bad breaks: Screen legend Maureen O'Hara, who was the grand marshal of this year's St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City, may have refused to discuss the thorny question of whether gays should be allowed to march in it, but she had plenty to say about old times the other day, over drinks at Langan's.

The 78-year-old actress talked about her more than 60 movies, and the toll they sometimes took on her. She held up the hand that Jackie Gleason broke while they were working on ``a real stinkeroo'' of a movie called ``How Do I Love Thee?''

``He sat on my hand,'' she says. ``I was in a cast up to here.''

Then there was the famous scene in John Ford's ``The Quiet Man'' where she broke her wrist in a donnybrook with John Wayne.

``He didn't hurt me,'' she admits. ``I hurt myself. I was so mad at Duke that I absolutely intended to break his jaw. Duke saw it coming and he put his hand up to stop the blow. That snapped the bone in my wrist.''

The moral: ``Don't ever harbor vengeance - it'll come back to you.''

Not that she didn't have her reasons for being angry at Wayne and Ford.

``They were devils. The scene where I was dragged on my stomach down a hill? They kicked all the sheep manure they could find in my path. I was dragged through the most dreadful manure on my stomach. John Ford gave instructions that I was to be given nothing to clean it off. They thought it was very funny.''

For all that, she says, ``I would never give in or cry help.'' And in spite of the torture, she insists, ``we all loved each other.''

Her grit impressed Wayne enough to call her ``the greatest guy I ever met.''

Lest you wonder, ``There was never romance between Duke and myself. Get that straight.'' Her late husband, decorated aviator Charlie Blair, ``was the love of my life.''

Wayne, America's consummate tough guy, did ``share a lot of secrets with me,'' a few of which she might include in a memoir she has been tending.

She may be ready to reveal the ``secret love'' she had during the 16 years between her first and second marriages.

O'Hara is ready to set the record straight on some things. Like: ``I never punched Errol Flynn in the jaw in Rome, or anywhere else.'' But she won't reveal all. ``What happens when I die and try to enter the pearly gates and God says, `Why did you tell that story?' ''

But about gays and the parade, she heads you off. ``Don't!'' the fiery redhead blurts. ``I don't wish to be involved in it. So don't ask me about it.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

PHOTO (1) Maureen O'Hara got fighting mad at John Wayne in ``The Quiet Man.''

(2) The Beatles had five albums that sold 10 million copies each.

(3) Multiple winner Whitney Houston adds Diamonds to her collection.

(4) Instrumentalist Kenny G let one slip through his fingers.

(5) The rock band Van Halen found itself in rare company.