Singing sensation Susan Boyle has a No. 1 album in the United States and the U.K. simultaneously for the second time in a year — a feat not achieved for more than 40 years. Her record label, Sony, says she is the first woman to reach the milestone achieved previously by the Beatles in 1969 and The Monkees in 1967.-AP
My little brother was really into music stats at one time. He bought Billboard magazine and keep up with the Top 40, Top 100, and Top 200 charts. Back then there were only a handful of charts to worry about. Pop, Country, and R&B were the biggies. There was no Alterative, Urban, Rap, Latino, or Digital chats 30 years ago-or if there were I never heard of them. Blondie got credit for the first Number 1 Rap Song and Micheal Jackson was listed on the R&B charts. Ah, those were the good old days.
The Beatles were the king of the Charts with top stats for singles, albums, most songs in the Top 10 at one time, and so on and so forth. Elvis held the bulk of the single performer stats. The result of this chart domination was every new album that came out had to have a tagline like-Sold More Records Than Elvis or The Beatles!(in Iowa) But it’s been a while since anyone has seriously used the old Better Then The Beatles tagline.
So it’s kind of funny that Susan Boyle, with her new album The Gift, is being touted as the first performer since the Beatles and the Monkees to have 2 #1 albums in 12 months in both the US and the UK. Well, good for her. Of course, The Monkees had 4 #1 albums in one year, so Susan needs to release a few more CDs next year.
Do the stats for modern charts even matter? What with all the downloads, file sharing, and no one listening to the radio like they used to. Besides, with so damned many charts everyone with a recording contract can claim to be a number 1 artist in something, even if it’s only ringtones. These wild kids with their weird music charts. Shakes fist at no one in particular.
Maybe Susan Boyle should do a cover album of Beatles or Monkees hits. Yeah, Susan Boyle Sings The Lennon/McCartney Songbook. I might give that a listen.
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