Which albums have spent the most weeks at number 1 on the Top Catalog Albums chart?
It’s an eclectic list, to say the least, encompassing pop, traditional pop, rock, hard rock, R&B, rap, country, and reggae.
Bob Marley, John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, Taylor Swift and Michael Bublé
We’re going to count down the 17 albums with the longest runs at No. 1 on Catalog Albums from 1991 to the present. It’s an eclectic list, to say the least. It includes two Christmas albums, a film soundtrack and a remarkably wide range of music, including pop, traditional pop, rock, hard rock, R&B, rap, country and reggae.
Eight of the albums on the list were released prior to the 1991 inception of the chart. Impressively, they made the list even though activity prior to the chart’s inception doesn’t count.
Prince, The Very Best of Prince, 18 weeks
Released: July 31, 2001
First reached No. 1: April 10, 2004
The Righteous Brothers, Unchained Melody: The Best of the Righteous Brothers, 19 weeks
Released: Oct. 2, 1990
First reached No. 1: May 25, 1991
Notes: This album was released three months after the release of the box-office smash Ghost, which featured the duo’s 1965 smash “Unchained Melody” over the famous pottery wheel scene. Two competing Righteous Brothers recordings of “Unchained Melody” – the original and a re-recording – made the top 20 on the Hot 100 in the wake of Ghost.
Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, 23 weeks
Released: March 1, 1973
First reached No. 1: April 17, 1993
Notes: This rock classic spawned the band’s first top 20 hit on the Hot 100, “Money.” Pink Floyd did not receive a single Grammy nomination for this album, if you can believe that: The album’s only nomination was best engineered recording (non-classical), for which Alan Parsons got the nod. Note: A separate, high-end audio SACD edition topped the Catalog Albums chart for one week in 2003. That week is not included in the tally for the regular edition.
Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell, 23 weeks
Released: Oct. 21, 1977
First reached No. 1: Aug. 24, 1991
This album initially peaked at No. 14 in September 1978 and re-entered the chart at No. 13 in February 2022, resulting in a new peak position.
Johnny Cash, 16 Biggest Hits, 26 weeks
Released: February 1999
First reached No. 1: Sept. 27, 2003
Notes: This is the country album with the longest run at No. 1. The album topped the catalog chart for the first time in the issue dated Sept. 27, 2003, the week following Cash’s death on Sept. 12, 2003.
Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill, 27 weeks
Released: Nov. 15, 1986
First reached No. 1: June 24, 1995
Kenny G, Miracles: The Holiday Album, 27 weeks
Released: Nov. 1, 1994
First reached No. 1: Nov. 11, 1995
Michael Jackson, Number Ones, 31 weeks
Released: Nov. 18, 2003
First reached No. 1: July 11, 2009
Notes: This is the R&B/pop crossover album with the longest run at No. 1. This topped the catalog chart for the first time in the issue dated July 11, 2009, the week following Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.
Eric Clapton, Time Pieces/The Best of Eric Clapton, 37 weeks
Released: May 14, 1982
First reached No. 1: Feb. 22, 1992
Notes: This collection became a smash on Catalog Albums while “Tears in Heaven” was a hit, on its way to becoming Clapton’s longest-running Hot 100 hit to that point. (“Tears in Heaven” isn’t on the collection, nor is the subsequent “Change the World,” which had an even longer run on the Hot 100.)
Adele, 19, 41 weeks
Released: Jan. 28, 2008
First reached No. 1: March 5, 2011
Metallica, Metallica, 45 weeks
Released: Aug. 12, 1991
First reached No. 1: Jan. 17, 1998
Taylor Swift, Lover, 45 weeks
Released: Aug. 23, 2019
First reached No. 1: June 10, 2023
Notes: This is the album by a female solo artist with the longest run at No. 1. It exploded thanks to the popularity of “Cruel Summer,” which is Swift’s longest-charting Hot 100 hit to date, and to the phenomenal success of Swift’s The Eras Tour. In addition to its Grammy nod for best pop vocal album, the album’s second single, “You Need to Calm Down,” was nominated for best pop solo performance and the album’s title song was nominated for song of the year.
Various Artists, Grease soundtrack, 52 weeks
Released: April 14, 1978
First reached No. 1: Nov. 2, 1996
This is the only album on this list that received a Grammy nomination for album of the year. (Feel free to inject here, “You mean to tell me [blank] wasn’t nominated for album of the year?” Nope, it wasn’t.) Newton-John received a second nod for best pop vocal performance, female, for “Hopelessly…”
Creed, My Own Prison, 54 weeks
Released: Aug. 26, 1997
First reached No. 1: Jan. 22, 2000
Michael Bublé, Christmas, 56 weeks
Released: Oct. 25, 2011
First reached No. 1: Nov. 17, 2012
Notes: This is the album by a male solo artist with the longest run at No. 1. It’s also the Christmas album with the longest run at No. 1. It was Grammy-nominated for best traditional pop vocal album, but, surprisingly, didn’t win. (It lost to Paul McCartney’s collection of standards, Kisses on the Bottom.)
Queen, Greatest Hits, 105 weeks
Released in the U.K.: Oct. 26, 1981
First reached No. 1: June 2, 2018
Notes: This is the rock album with the longest run at No. 1. The compilation first hit No. 1 on Catalog Albums five months before the U.S. release of the film Bohemian Rhapsody, which turbocharged Queen’s popularity.
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Legend, 126 weeks
Released: May 8, 1984
First reached No. 1: May 22, 1993
Notes: This compilation, consisting of recordings from 1972-81, was released three years after Marley’s death on May 11, 1981. Marley had only one Hot 100 hit as an artist, “Roots, Rock, Reggae,” which reached No. 51 in 1976 — and that song isn’t included on this compilation. Legend does include two songs Marley wrote that became big pop hits for other artists: “Stir It Up,” a No. 12 hit for Johnny Nash in 1973 and “I Shot the Sheriff,” a No. 1 hit for Eric Clapton the following year.
But though they weren’t chart hits for him, many of the songs from Legend have become widely known, including “One Love” (performed with an interpolation of the melody from another all-time classic, The Impressions’ “People Get Ready”), “Three Little Birds,” “Jamming,” and “Get Up, Stand Up.”
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