Albums With Most Weeks at No. 1 on Top Catalog Albums

Released: July 31, 2001

First reached No. 1: April 10, 2004

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for one week (May 7, 2016)

Notes: This is the only album to simultaneously rank No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Catalog Albums chart. The compilation initially debuted and peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard 200 in August 2001, but re-entered the chart in the issue dated May 7, 2016, the week following Prince’s death (on April 21, 2016).

Released: Oct. 2, 1990

First reached No. 1: May 25, 1991

Billboard 200 peak: No. 161 (Nov. 24, 1990)

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.

Released: March 1, 1973

First reached No. 1: April 17, 1993

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for one week (April 28, 1973)

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.

Released: Oct. 21, 1977

First reached No. 1: Aug. 24, 1991

Billboard 200 peak: No. 13 (Feb. 5, 2022)

Notes: The album’s enduring success as a catalog album laid the groundwork for the success of Meat Loaf’s 1993 sequel Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Bat Out of Hell spawned his first top 20 hit on the Hot 100, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” This was Meat’s first solo album; he had previously teamed with female singer Shaun Murphy in Stoney & Meatloaf, which released an eponymous album in 1971.

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.

Released: February 1999

First reached No. 1: Sept. 27, 2003

Billboard 200 peak: No. 65 (Jan. 12, 2013)

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.

The album initially peaked at No. 185 on the Billboard 200 in May 1999, but reached its No. 65 peak in January 2013.

Released: Nov. 15, 1986

First reached No. 1: June 24, 1995

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (beginning March 7, 1987)

Notes: This is the hip-hop album with the longest run at No. 1. The album made history in April 1987 as the first hip-hop album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It bumped Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band out of the top spot, and put the industry on notice that rock’s era of unchallenged supremacy was coming to an end. The album spawned the trio’s only top 10 hit on the Hot 100, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).”

Released: Nov. 1, 1994

First reached No. 1: Nov. 11, 1995

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for three weeks (beginning Dec. 10, 1994)

Notes: This is the instrumental album with the longest run at No. 1. Miracles: The Holiday Album was the first Christmas album to top the Billboard 200 since Mitch Miller’s Holiday Sing Along With Mitch, which was released in 1961. Kenny G’s recording of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which Judy Garland introduced in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, received a Grammy nomination for best pop instrumental performance.

Released: Nov. 18, 2003

First reached No. 1: July 11, 2009

Billboard 200 peak: No. 13 (Dec. 6, 2003)

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.

Released: May 14, 1982

First reached No. 1: Feb. 22, 1992

Billboard 200 peak: No. 101 (June 12, 1982)

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.)

Released: Jan. 28, 2008

First reached No. 1: March 5, 2011

Billboard 200 peak: No. 4 (March 3, 2012)

Notes: 19 dominated the Catalog Albums chart while Adele’s sophomore album, 21, set up residency in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, as fans sought to catch up on what they’d missed. 19 brought Adele her first two Grammys — best new artist and best female pop vocal performance for “Chasing Pavements,” which was her first top 30 hit on the Hot 100.

This album initially peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in February 2009 (following Adele’s first big night at the Grammys), but reached its No. 4 peak in February 2012 (following her second, even bigger night at the Grammys).

Released: Aug. 12, 1991

First reached No. 1: Jan. 17, 1998

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for four weeks (beginning Aug. 31, 1991)

Notes: This is the only hard rock/metal album on this list. This was Metallica’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and spawned the band’s first top 20 hit on the Hot 100, “Enter Sandman.” Metallica won a Grammy for best metal performance.

Released: April 14, 1978

First reached No. 1: Nov. 2, 1996

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 12 weeks (beginning July 29, 1978)

Notes: This is the soundtrack with the longest run at No. 1. This is also the only album to log 10 or more weeks at No. 1 on both Catalog Albums and the Billboard 200. This album spawned four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — the Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta collabs “You’re the One That I Want” and “Summer Nights,” Newton-John’s solo smash “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and Frankie Valli’s “Grease.”

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…”

Released: Aug. 23, 2019

First reached No. 1: June 10, 2023

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for one week (Sept. 7, 2019)

Notes: This is the album by a woman 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.

Released: Aug. 26, 1997

First reached No. 1: Jan. 22, 2000

Billboard 200 peak: No. 22 (May 2, 1998)

Notes: This the debut album with the longest run at No. 1 on Top Catalog Albums. The band’s next two albums, Human Clay (1999)and Weathered (2001) logged a combined total of 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Released: Oct. 25, 2011

First reached No. 1: Nov. 17, 2012

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for five weeks (beginning Dec. 10, 2011)

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.)

Released in the U.K.: Oct. 26, 1981

First reached No. 1: June 2, 2018

Billboard 200 peak: No. 8 (Nov. 28, 2020)

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.

This album initially peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 in December 1981, but finally reached its No. 8 peak in November 2020.

Released: May 8, 1984

First reached No. 1: May 22, 1993

Billboard 200 peak: No. 5 (Sept. 20, 2014)

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.”

This compilation initially peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard 200 in October 1984, but finally muscled its way to its No. 5 peak in September 2014. Now that’s more like it for one of the best-selling sets of all time, and one reggae collection that just about everybody knows.