Mental Floss

The Quick 10: 10 Billboard 200 Milestones

Stacy Conradt|

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.

dark side
dark side

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!

ill
ill

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!!