Highest placed albums chart act

As the site generation page explains the list of albums does not reflect the most popular albums of all time since there are variable levels of charts for different historical periods. There are a number of reasonable ways to compare artists of different periods, further down this page there is an analysis that examines the top albums for each year, but first we show what happens when you list the top artists of each year and tallying up the number of years each artist held the top slots.

#	Artist	Years as Number 1 Artist	Years as Number 2 Artist	Years as Number 3 Artist	Years as Number 4 Artist	Years as Number 5 Artist
1	The Beatles	1963 + 1964 + 1965 + 1966 + 1967 + 1968 + 1969 + 1973	1970 + 2000		1977
2	Elvis Presley	1956 + 1957 + 1960 + 1961	1977	1958 + 1962	1969	1965
3	The Rolling Stones	1972 + 1981	1964 + 1971	1965 + 1966 + 1968 + 1969	1978
4	Frank Sinatra	1955 + 1958	1956 + 1957 + 1961	1960
5	U2	1987	1988 + 2004	2000	1983 + 1991	1984 + 1993 + 2009
6	Madonna	1989 + 1990	1984		1986 + 1998	2000 + 2005
7	Celine Dion	1996 + 1997	1994 + 1999			1998
8	Bruce Springsteen	1984	2009		1980 + 1992 + 1995 + 2002 + 2007
9	Michael Jackson	1982	1987 + 2001		2009	1979 + 1995
10	Bob Dylan	1975	1965	1976	1974	1963 + 1966
11	Eminem	2000 + 2002			2010	2004
12	Miles Davis	1954 + 1959				1958
13	Pink Floyd	1979	1973 + 1975			1994
14	Elton John	1974		1973 + 1975	1971
15	Linkin Park	2003	2007	2001
16	Nirvana	1994	1991	1993
17	Coldplay	2008		2002 + 2005
18	Bee Gees	1978	1979
19	John Lennon	1971	1980
20	Whitney Houston	1993	1986

Unlike the greatest song act chart there is a clear winner in the album acts. There are a number of surprises in the list.

The album didn't really arrive as a recognised format until the 1950s which is why the timespan covered starts in 1950.

Given The Beatles domination of this chart and the marginal lead that Elvis has over them in the singles version it is clear that any combined chart would put The Beatles as the world's greatest overall chart act of all time.

Here are the top five album chart acts for the years 1950 to 2011.

Year	Number 1 Artist	Number 2 Artist	Number 3 Artist	Number 4 Artist	Number 5 Artist
2011	Adele	Justin Bieber	Foo Fighters	Lady GaGa	Glee Cast
2010	Glee Cast	Arcade Fire	Lady Antebellum	Eminem	Kanye West
2009	Taylor Swift	Bruce Springsteen	Susan Boyle	Michael Jackson	U2
2008	Coldplay	Radiohead	Metallica	AC/DC	Leona Lewis
2007	Amy Winehouse	Linkin Park	Michael Buble	Bruce Springsteen	Norah Jones
2006	Johnny Cash	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Justin Timberlake	Christina Aguilera	Nelly Furtado
2005	System of A Down	Il Divo	Coldplay	James Blunt	Madonna
2004	Green Day	U2	Usher	Norah Jones	Eminem
2003	Linkin Park	OutKast	Metallica	50 Cent	Evanescence
2002	Eminem	Norah Jones	Coldplay	Bruce Springsteen	Red Hot Chili Peppers
2001	Shaggy	Michael Jackson	Linkin Park	Destiny's Child	Alicia Keys
2000	Eminem	The Beatles	U2	Radiohead	Madonna
1999	Santana	Celine Dion	The Backstreet Boys	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Britney Spears
1998	Shania Twain	Celine Dion & James Horner	Lauryn Hill	Madonna	Celine Dion
1997	Celine Dion	Radiohead	Andrea Bocelli	The Prodigy	The Verve
1996	Celine Dion	Spice Girls	The Fugees	No Doubt	Metallica
1995	Alanis Morissette	Oasis	Mariah Carey	Bruce Springsteen	Michael Jackson
1994	Nirvana	Celine Dion	Green Day	Eagles	Pink Floyd
1993	Whitney Houston	Mariah Carey	Nirvana	Pearl Jam	U2
1992	REM	Garth Brooks	Eric Clapton	Bruce Springsteen	Abba
1991	Guns n' Roses	Nirvana	Metallica	U2	REM
1990	Madonna	Sinead O'Connor	New Kids On The Block	MC Hammer	Mariah Carey
1989	Madonna	Phil Collins	Fine Young Cannibals	Roy Orbison	The Cure
1988	Tracy Chapman	U2	Rick Astley	INXS	Traveling Wilburys
1987	U2	Michael Jackson	Guns n' Roses	George Michael	Def Leppard
1986	Paul Simon	Whitney Houston	Bon Jovi	Madonna	Peter Gabriel
1985	Dire Straits	Phil Collins	Tears For Fears	Bryan Adams	Sting
1984	Bruce Springsteen	Madonna	Prince	Bob Marley	U2
1983	The Police	Culture Club	Lionel Richie	U2	David Bowie
1982	Michael Jackson	Men At Work	Paul McCartney	Toto	Roxy Music
1981	The Rolling Stones	Queen	The Police	Phil Collins	The Human League
1980	AC/DC	John Lennon	Barbra Streisand	Bruce Springsteen	Kenny Rogers
1979	Pink Floyd	Bee Gees	Supertramp	Rod Stewart	Michael Jackson
1978	Bee Gees	Billy Joel	Blondie	The Rolling Stones	Boney M
1977	Fleetwood Mac	Elvis Presley	Meat Loaf	The Beatles	The Sex Pistols
1976	Eagles	Abba	Bob Dylan	Stevie Wonder	Donna Summer
1975	Bob Dylan	Pink Floyd	Elton John	Queen	Led Zeppelin
1974	Elton John	Wings	Deep Purple	Bob Dylan	Mike Oldfield
1973	The Beatles	Pink Floyd	Elton John	Deep Purple	Stevie Wonder
1972	The Rolling Stones	Neil Young	Jethro Tull	Deep Purple	Yes
1971	John Lennon	The Rolling Stones	Led Zeppelin	Elton John	Cat Stevens
1970	Simon & Garfunkel	The Beatles	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Santana	Black Sabbath
1969	The Beatles	Led Zeppelin	The Rolling Stones	Elvis Presley	Creedence Clearwater Revival
1968	The Beatles	Jimi Hendrix	The Rolling Stones	Simon & Garfunkel	Otis Redding
1967	The Beatles	The Monkees	Jimi Hendrix	The Doors	Cream
1966	The Beatles	Herb Alpert	The Rolling Stones	The Beach Boys	Bob Dylan
1965	The Beatles	Bob Dylan	The Rolling Stones	Richard Rodgers	Elvis Presley
1964	The Beatles	The Rolling Stones	Jim Reeves	The Beach Boys	John Coltrane
1963	The Beatles	Peter, Paul & Mary	The Beach Boys	James Brown	Bob Dylan
1962	Ray Charles	Leonard Bernstein	Elvis Presley	The Shadows	Henry Mancini
1961	Elvis Presley	Frank Sinatra	Judy Garland	Cliff Richard	Bill Evans
1960	Elvis Presley	Bob Newhart	Frank Sinatra	The Kingston Trio	Ella Fitzgerald
1959	Miles Davis	The Kingston Trio	Henry Mancini	Dave Brubeck	Johnny Mathis
1958	Frank Sinatra	Johnny Mathis	Elvis Presley	Mitch Miller	Miles Davis
1957	Elvis Presley	Frank Sinatra	Nat King Cole	John Coltrane	Frederick Loewe
1956	Elvis Presley	Frank Sinatra	Harry Belafonte	Sonny Rollins	Ella Fitzgerald
1955	Frank Sinatra	Glenn Miller	Mario Lanza	Sarah Vaughan	Jackie Gleason
1954	Miles Davis	Chet Baker	Art Blakey	Dave Brubeck	Louis Armstrong
1953	Jackie Gleason	Peggy Lee	Duke Ellington	Bud Powell	The Quintet
1952	Nat King Cole	Fred Astaire	Danny Kaye	Jane Froman	Benny Goodman
1951	Thelonious Monk	George Gershwin	Mario Lanza	Bud Powell	Paul Lingle
1950	Benny Goodman	Charlie Parker	Ella Fitzgerald	Yma Sumac	Doris Day & Harry James

This analysis was done with data version 2.1.044

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An Alternate Similar Approach

The figure above shows the order that results from looking at the actual albums rather than artist's success. Each album has been scored based on the position it reached in the overall year chart, 1.0 for the number 1, 0.5 for number 2 and so on, and each artist has been rated based on the number of albums reaching the number one slot, or top 5, or top 10 etc.

This plot really illustrates the domination that The Beatles had over the album charts while they were active.

This analysis was done with data version 1.10.0014

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Previous Comments

Previous Comments (newest first)

13 Oct 2017

A british singer+

In the video clip , she is wearing a long red dress and sining in the street ,i can't remember the lyrics or her name , the song was around 2000 .+