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It was this day in 1988 that Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album finally dropped off the Billboard 200, ending a phenomenal, record-setting streak that has yet to be broken. Check out their staggering accomplishment and nine other Billboard 200 milestones below.
1. Most weeks on the chart: Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, 741 weeks. 741 WEEKS. That’s more than 14 years! Color me impressed, Heather. No other artist or album has even come close to that achievement – the closest was Johnny Mathis’ Johnny’s Greatest Hits, which spent 490 weeks (almost 9.5 years) on the charts.
2. The most top-ten albums: The Rolling Stones with 36 albums, followed by Frank Sinatra at 32 and The Beatles at 31.
3. The most number-one albums: The Beatles with 19, followed by Elvis and Jay-Z with 10 each. Tied for third are The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen with nine each. Fourth place is another tie: Barbra Streisand and Garth Brooks both have eight.
4. The biggest chart jump: Life After Death by The Notorious B.I.G., #176 to #1. This is really no surprise – the album was released posthumously just 16 days after his death in 1997. Other huge leaps include Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy, from #173 to #1; Radiohead’s In Rainbows, from #156 to #1; and somewhat surprisingly, The Monkees’ More of the Monkees, from #122 to #1. And another quick fact about Vitalogy – it originally charted at#55, and that was actual vinyl album sales, not CDs. It was the first vinyl album to chart at all since CDs entered the market.
5. The biggest chart drop: Light Grenades by Incubus, from #1 to #40. This just happened in 2006 and broke the previous record held by Marilyn Manson’s The Golden Age of Grotesque, which dropped from #1 to #21 in 2003. Other plummets include Young Jeezy’s The Inspiration, falling from #1 to #18 and Nine Inch Nails’ The Fragile, which fell from #1 to #16. You can see that Incubus holds the record pretty handily.
6. The only artist to ever have four number one albums in the same year: The Monkees. They even topped ever-present bands The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, which is pretty astounding. The year was 1967 and the albums were The Monkees (released in 1966 but still #1 on the charts in 1967), More of the Monkees, Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. . Their two album releases in 1968 only managed #3 and #45, 1969’s efforts landed them at #32 and #100, and it only got worse from then on out. It must hurt to fall so hard, so fast!
7. The first rap/hip-hop album to hit #1: Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys. It was 1987. Kind of ironically, it only made it to #2 on the actual Hip Hop/R&B chart.
8. First artist to hold the #1 and #2 spots: Bob Newhart. Yep, that’s right. In the ’60s, Bob’s The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart and its sequel, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back held both spots, beating both Elvis and The Sound of Music soundtrack. The subtitle of the first album is “The Most Celebrated New Comedian Since Attila the Hun.” That first album garnered him three Grammys in 1961: Best New Artist, Best Comedy Performance (Spoken Word) and Album of the Year. But back to the #1 and #2 spots on the Billboard Charts thing: the only artists to ever do the same are Guns ‘n’ Roses in 1991 with Use Your Illusion I and II, and Nelly in 2004 with Suit and Sweat.
9. The most weeks on the top ten: Music for Lovers Only by Jackie Gleason at 153 weeks. Surprising, no? That’s almost double the length of time Thriller spent in the top ten: 78 weeks.
10. Longest time for an album to make it to #1: Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl, 64 weeks. Yep, Paula’s album was on the charts for more than a year before it finally gained enough steam to take the #1 position. But she did really well on the singles chart – the album contained four #1 hits, which ties her for second place for the most songs to hit #1 from one single album. The singles were “Straight Up,” “Forever Your Girl,” “Cold Hearted” and “Opposites Attract.” The number-one spot goes to Michael Jackson’s Bad album, which had five #1 singles: I Just Can’t Stop Loving You, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana.
Surprised by anything? Do you remember when these albums were hot? Share in the comments!!
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Comments (18)
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If I remember correctly from my late-90s record store days, the B.I.G. disc charted at #176 because of street date violations (stores selling the disc before its official release date). It was pretty common in those days, especially for hip-hop titles. Although the Pearl Jam might have been a similar case.
posted by Klinger on 4-23-2009 at 3:53 pm
Damn that Vitalogy was a good album – I think I’ll have to giver a listen when I get home today…
Though I don’t understand #7 – how can it sell more copies than any other album in a certain week, but sell less albums than some other hip hop/rap album in that same week?
posted by Bert on 4-23-2009 at 4:20 pm
During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held ten positions on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five positions.
Neither feat has been matched by any other artist to date.
The songs were “Can’t Buy Me Love” (Capitol Records), “Twist and Shout” (Tollie Records), “She Loves You” (Swan Records), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Capitol), and “Please Please Me” (Vee-Jay).[1] In addition, seven other singles occupied lower places on the chart: “I Saw Her Standing There” (Capitol), “You Can’t Do That” (Capitol), “All My Loving” (Capitol of Canada), “Roll Over Beethoven” (Capitol of Canada), “From Me To You” (Vee-Jay), “Do You Want To Know A Secret” (Vee-Jay) and “Thank You Girl” (Vee-Jay).[1] Furthermore, two Beatles tribute records appeared on the chart: “We Love You Beatles” by The Carefrees (at #42), and “A Letter to the Beatles” by The Four Preps (#85).[1] The 21 March 1964, Billboard Hot 100 singles chart included two additional Beatles tribute records: “My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut”, by Donna Lynn (at #83); and “The Boy With The Beatle Hair”, by The Swans (#85).
(from wikipedia)
posted by Paul on 4-23-2009 at 5:57 pm
How about Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Thanks to its 1991/1992 rerelease (tributes to Freddie Mercury and Wayne’s World), it became the first or only single to:
– top the charts twice in the same version
– be on the charts over four different calendar years, and
– hit the No. 1 spot twice at Christmas.
Pretty nice achievement, no?
posted by Lis Riba on 4-23-2009 at 8:42 pm
Monster Mash was a hit 3 or 4 times.
posted by skook on 4-23-2009 at 9:42 pm
Wasn’t there a record or something when Pearl Jam began releasing their “bootlegs” from their 2000 tour?
posted by Fran on 4-24-2009 at 8:12 am
Lis, that’s a nice achievement indeed, but we should point out that those rankings are for the U.K. chart, not the Billboard magazine rankings used in the U.S.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” didn’t reach #1 here. What’s worse, the tune was up for a Grammy for Best Vocal Arrangement and was defeated by – of all songs – “Afternoon Delight.”
posted by Sandy Wood on 4-24-2009 at 9:47 am
Starland Vocal Band? They suck!
posted by Brent on 4-25-2009 at 12:20 am
Excellent work
posted by Maria on 4-28-2009 at 4:55 am
How is it possible that Licensed to Ill was the top selling album overall but not in its genre? that makes the sense that is none
posted by Elbobbo on 4-28-2009 at 5:42 pm
I wonder who came in at 200 the week, ending Pink Floyd’s 741 week run? It would be funny it were Paula Abdul. Also, I wonder if it ever dipped back into the Top 200 since then.
posted by Brendan on 4-29-2009 at 9:51 pm
You forgot about one more 1st that I know of. In 1981 (or thereabouts), Styx became the first band to have four consecutive albums certified triple platinum – “The Grand Illusion” (1977), “Pieces of Eight” (1978), “Cornerstone” (1979), and “Paradise Theatre” (1980).
posted by Ken on 6-4-2009 at 1:58 pm
Ok, I gotta comment on this one for no other reason than this…
Recaptcha: “horus plosions” – Say it fast.
posted by roi_ratt on 7-8-2009 at 3:30 am
Adam and the Ants had 5 singles in the top 10, all in the same week, in Britian when he first exploded with Kings of the Wild Frontier LP.
posted by Robert Holdridge on 8-9-2009 at 12:28 pm
Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” never hit number 1, not on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at a lowly #9 in 1976, and an improved #2, based mostly on sales, in 1991. It went to #1 on the British charts, however, in 1975 and 1991.
In the U.S., the only single top top the charts in two separate runs was Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” in 1960 and 1962. Unless you go back to Vernon Dalhart’s “The Prisoner’s Song” from 1925, which returned to #1 in a second run later the same year, but that achievement is based on reconstructed charts as there were no actual charts until 1940.
posted by Freddy on 9-23-2009 at 3:26 am
Although Pink Floyd’s record is amazing, it is dubious at best. Prior to the SoundScan era, the Billboard 200 was compiled by record stores sending in a list of the “top selling” albums. I know because I worked in one at the time and keeping that Pink Floyd record going was more of an inadvertent, or intentional in some cases, phenomenon.
The Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill was #1 on the Billboard 200, but not on the R&B/Hip-Hop, because the methodology in determining the charts were different.
posted by Steve on 10-10-2009 at 1:39 pm
“Music for Lovers Only by Jackie Gleason”
ew. Assuming his “lovers” style is akin to the Ralph Cramden (sp?) “Honeymooners” style, I imagine it’s a lot of country banjo music and the sound of couples scream fighting on the front lawn ala “Cops” (’but I loooveee h-ehm!).
lol.
recaptcha “humorous and” … what?
posted by OkieMelissa on 10-14-2009 at 12:38 pm
Jackie Gleason, Your love is lifting me higher? Lonely Teardrops? Come on people.
posted by pb on 11-8-2009 at 8:52 pm