The album a week ago was tying with The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pink Floyd's The Wall for the record with 15 weeks apiece. However, 21 now claims the record all by itself having sold another 104,000 copies in the US last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to make it 16 weeks at number one.
That is also the lengthiest chart-topping run on the same chart since 1998 when the soundtrack to Titanic spent 16 weeks at number one. Only 20 albums in the 56-year history have occupied at least that long at the top with the all-time record held by the soundtrack of West Side Story with 54 weeks.
Two other albums involving Brits have spent longer at number one than 21 but had other non-UK artists involved. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours led for 31 weeks during 1977 and 1978 when the line-up included founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and fellow Brit Christine McVie plus Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, while there was a 24-week run in 1978 by the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever, an album led by the Bee Gees but also including other artists.
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