The UK Albums Chart (currently called the Official Albums Chart) is a list of albums ranked by

physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming[1] in the United Kingdom. It was
published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts
Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and
published in Music Weekmagazine (top 75), and on the OCC website (top 100).
To qualify for the Official Albums Chart the album must be the correct length and price. It must be
more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album
costs between 0.50 and 3.75. Additionally, various artist compilations which until January 1989
were included in the main album listing are now listed separately in a compilations chart. Full
details of the rules can be found on the OCC website.[2]
According to the canon of the OCC, the official British albums chart was the Melody Maker chart
from 8 November 1958 to March 1960 (although the Record Mirror published charts from 22 July
1956[3]); the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official Albums Chart from 1969 on. In
the 1970s the new album chart was revealed at 12:45 pm on Thursdays on BBC Radio 1, and then
moved to 6:05 pm (later 6:30 pm) on Wednesday evenings during the Peter Powell and Bruno
Brookes shows. In October 1987 it moved to Monday lunchtimes, during the Gary Davies show, and
from April to October 1993 it briefly had its own show from 7:008:00 pm on Sunday evenings,
introduced by Lynn Parsons. Since October 1993 it has been included in The Official Chart show
from 4:00 5:45 pm on Fridays (previously from 4:00 7:00 pm on Sundays). A weekly 'Album
Chart' show was licensed out to BBC Radio 2 and presented by Simon Mayo, until it ended on 2
April 2007.
Though album sales tend to produce more revenue and, over time, act as a greater measure of an
artist's success, this chart receives less media attention than the UK Singles Chart, because overall
sales of an album are more important than its peak position. 2005 saw a record number of artist
album sales with 126.2 million sold in the UK.[4] In February 2015, it was announced that, due to the
falling sales of albums and rise in popularity of audio streaming, the Official Albums Chart would
begin including streaming data from March 2015.[1] Under the revised methodology, the Official
Charts Company takes the 12 most streamed tracks from one album, with the top-two songs being
down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams is divided by 1000 and
added to the pure sales of the album. This calculation was designed to ensure that the chart
rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the
performance of one or two smash hit singles. The final number one album on the UK Albums Chart
to be based purely on sales alone was Smoke + Mirrors by Imagine Dragons. On 1 March 2015, In
the Lonely Hour by Sam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official
Albums Chart.[5]
Contents
[hide]

1Record holders

1.1Debut albums

2See also

3References

4External links

Record holders[edit]
The most successful artists in the charts depends on the criteria used. As of February
2016, Queen albums have spent more time on the British album charts than any other musical act, [6]
[7]
followed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, U2 and ABBA. By most weeks at number one, however,
The Beatles lead with a total of 174 weeks, and the most number one albums of all with 15. [8] The
male solo artist with the most weeks at number one is Presley with a total of 66 weeks. Presley also
holds the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist (13) and most top ten albums by
any artist (50).[9] Madonna has the most number one albums (12) by a female artist in the UK, though
this includes the Evita film soundtrack which was a cast recording and not strictly a Madonna album.
[10]
Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks. [11]
Queen's Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in UK chart history with 6 million copies sold as of
February 2014.[12] Previous first-place holder The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is
now in third-place after being supplanted by Queen and then by ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits. Both
albums have sold in excess of 5.1 million copies.[13] The longest running number one album, both
consecutively and non-consecutively, is the soundtrack of the film South Pacific. It had a consecutive
run of seventy weeks from November 1958 to March 1960 (meaning it was number one for the entire
year of 1959), and had further runs at the top in 1960 and 1961, making a non-consecutive total of
115 weeks. With eight consecutive UK number-one albums, Led Zeppelin and ABBA are tied for the
most consecutive chart-topping UK albums.[14]
The youngest artist to top the chart is Neil Reid, whose debut album topped the chart in 1972 when
he was only 12 years old.[15] The oldest living artist to top the charts is Vera Lynn at the age of 92
with We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn, released in 2009 (though the album only
contains material she recorded between 1936 and 1959).
The album which has spent the most weeks on the charts is Queen's Greatest Hits with over 700
weeks on its own and a further 211 weeks as part of The Platinum Collection. See List of albums
which have spent the most weeks on the UK Albums Chart for full details.
In 1980, Kate Bush became the first British female artist to have a number-one album in the UK
with Never for Ever, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at
number 1. In August 2014 she became the first female artist to have eight albums in the Official UK
Top 40 Albums Chart simultaneously, (altogether she had eleven albums in the Top 50 in one week).
[16]
She is currently in fourth place for artists having the most simultaneous UK Top 40 albums, behind
Elvis Presley and David Bowiewho both tie for the most simultaneous Top 40 albums (twelve each,

both immediately following their deaths in 1977 and 2016 respectively), [17] and The Beatles who had
eleven in 2009 when remastered versions of their albums were released.
The fastest selling album (first chart week sales) is 25 by Adele. Released in November 2