The Nashville star’s latest album will be challenged next week by an older one: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights,” which was rereleased as a deluxe version with bonus tracks.
The country superstar Morgan Wallen continues to dominate the Billboard album chart. His latest release, “One Thing at a Time,” holds No. 1 for a 12th straight week, surpassing a milestone by Whitney Houston and marking the longest chart-topping run for a country album since Billy Ray Cyrus three decades ago.
The 36-track “One Thing at a Time,” which first arrived at the top of the Billboard 200 chart in early March, remains undefeated after three full months. In its latest week, it had the equivalent of 129,000 sales in the United States, including nearly 163 million streams and 6,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate. Since the album came out, it has been streamed 2.8 billion times in the United States.
Last week, Wallen tied a chart feat by Houston, whose 1987 album “Whitney” spent its first 11 weeks at No. 1. The last album to debut at No. 1 and hold there for a longer stretch is Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life,” which had 13 weeks in 1976 and 1977.
As a country album that has made it to No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, “One Thing” has also now surpassed Taylor Swift’s “Fearless,” which logged a total of 11 weeks there in 2008 and 2009. The last country album to have a longer run on the main chart was Cyrus’s “Some Gave All” — which included the ubiquitous “Achy Breaky Heart” — in 1992. (It opened at No. 4 and then notched 17 consecutive weeks at the top.)
Wallen’s song “Last Night” also clinches the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 singles chart for an eighth week.
How much longer can Wallen hold the No. 1 album? His next major challenger is not a new release, but Swift’s “Midnights,” which came out in October and racked up a total of five weeks at No. 1. (This week it is in third place.) With a new deluxe version of the album, including extra tracks like a version of “Karma” featuring Ice Spice, “Midnights” has a shot at retaking No. 1 on the next chart.
Also this week, SZA’s “SOS” rises five spots to No. 2, propelled by its release on vinyl and CD. Wallen’s last LP, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” is No. 4. Dave Matthews Band’s new “Walk Around the Moon” opens at No. 5 with the equivalent of 44,000 sales.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
