Taylor Swift has broken Elvis Presley’s long-held record for most weeks spent No 1 on the Billboard album chart as a solo artist, setting a new record of 68 weeks.
Swift’s album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) reached top spot on the US album chart for a fifth time in the final week of 2023. While the 34-year-old now holds the record as a solo artist and is second overall, she has a while to go to challenge overall record holders the Beatles, whose albums have spent 132 weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart.
Presley’s 67 weeks at No 1, for albums spanning 1956 to 2002, puts him in second place among solo artists and third among all acts. His longest-running No 1 album was the Blue Hawaii soundtrack, which spent 20 weeks in the spot from 1961-62. Four of his 10 No 1 albums were soundtracks: Loving You, GI Blues, Blue Hawaii and Roustabout.
Swift holds the record for the most albums to debut at No 1 consecutively, with 13: a feat achieved due to her decision to rapidly re-record and release all of her albums after her former talent manager, Scooter Braun, acquired her old record label, Big Machine Records, and subsequently the rights to all the master recordings for her music.
Swift has accused Braun of being an “incessant, manipulative bully”, which he has denied. Regardless, Swift re-recorded all her first six albums to stop Braun financially benefiting from licensing fees.
Swift’s first No 1 album was Fearless, which spent 11 weeks topping the album chart in 2008 and 2009. She followed it with Speak Now, which was No 1 for six weeks in 2010-11); Red (seven weeks, 2012-13); 1989 (11 weeks, 2014-15); Reputation (four weeks, 2017-18); Lover (one week, 2019); Folklore (eight weeks, 2020-21); Evermore (four weeks, 2020-21); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks, 2021); Red (Taylor’s Version) (one week, 2021); Midnights (six weeks, 2022-23); Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks, 2023); and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (five weeks, 2023-24).
She is also the first living artist to chart five albums in the Top 10 simultaneously, a feat Prince only achieved after his death in 2016.
In July Swift broke a record set by Barbra Streisand to become the female artist with the most No 1 albums in history, with the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
The Beatles still hold the record for the most No 1 albums overall with 19, followed by Jay-Z with 14 and Swift with 13. Presley and Swift are currently tied for the most No 1s in a single year, both having had three in a single year twice – Presley in 1957 and 1961 and Swift in 2021 and 2023.
