Taylor Swift (who we’ve reluctantly been referring to as “This Generation’s Beatles”) just broke another Beatles record …
On the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart dated March 2nd, Swift had three albums ranked in the Top Ten … which pushed her cumulative total of weeks in The Top Ten to 384, spread across her sixteen Top Ten charting albums to date. (The albums in question THIS week include “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” “Lover,” and “Midnights,” all former #1 Albums in their own right.)
This new combined total of 384 weeks pushed her past The Beatles’ record of 382 weeks, spread out over their 32 Top 10 charted albums.
Swift earned her first Top 10 LP on the November 24th, 2007, chart when her self-titled debut climbed from #26 to #8.
The Beatles first hit the Top 10 on the February 8th, 1964, chart, when “Meet The Beatles” skyrocketed from #92 to #3. (The Beatles last appeared in the Top 10 as recently as November, 2022 ... some 58 years later! ... when the deluxe reissue of their 1966 album “Revolver” made the list at #4.)
Swift’s individual chart stats, however, blow The Beatles’ accomplishments away (although I don’t know that many history books will record ANY of Taylor’s albums as being more significant than say “Abbey Road” or “Sgt. Pepper!”)
Still, of Taylor’s sixteen Top 10’s, “Midnights” has logged 68 weeks now in The Top 10 (and it’s still there … and likely will be NEXT week, too). It is followed by “1989” (60 weeks), “Fearless” (58 weeks) and “Lover” (54 weeks.)
By comparison, The Beatles BIGGEST Top 10 LP was “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which spent "just" 35 weeks in The Top Ten … followed by “Abbey Road” and “A Hard Day’s Night” (which logged 28 weeks each), “Meet The Beatles” (21 weeks) and “1” (20 weeks.) Incredibly, those stats pale in comparison.
The only other artist to log more that 300 weeks in Billboard’s Top 200 Top Ten are The Rolling Stones with 309. (To date, The Stones have the most Top 10 albums in all with 38 ... Taylor's got a bit of catching up to do in that department ... of course if she keeps remaking every single one of her albums the way she's been doing, she'll double her 16 total in no time!)
Next in line are Barbra Streisand (277) and Drake and Mariah Carey, with 233 each.
60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
3/4/64 - Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of jury tampering
