(July 21, 2024). In October 1976, Stevie Wonder’s magnum opus — Songs In The Key Of Life — became only the third album ever to enter the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in the chart’s then-20 year history. Songs followed two Elton John albums that pulled off this previously unheard-of No. 1 debut in 1975: Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock of the Westies.
All other prior No. 1 LPs had to move to the top from other positions on the chart as albums either slowly built momentum over time or some retailers across the country were slower to reflect an album’s out-of-the-box success than others. This changed in 1991 when Billboard adopted its current point-of-sale, barcode scanning methodology for its sales charts, making what was once a rare occurrence commonplace on the Billboard 200.
But Stevie’s Motown blockbuster did what Elton’s and others’ albums couldn’t: spend its first 13 weeks at No. 1 after debuting there. (He later added a 14th frame after a two-week interruption by Eagles’ Hotel California and Wings Over America by Paul McCartney and Wings.) And for the next 48 years — even with hundreds of albums hitting No. 1 right out of the gate since then — none have been able to top or even match Stevie’s full three-month initial reign after starting at the top.
And now — thanks to fellow Michigander and living rap legend Eminem, along with a couple of other artists — Wonder’s record will remain intact for the foreseeable future.
That’s because Em’s new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) debuts atop the next Billboard 200 chart (dated July 27), thereby ending the long reign of last week’s No. 1 (and the latest threat to Stevie’s longevity title): Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
Taylor’s album remained at No. 1 for its first 12 weeks, tying her with Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster One Thing at a Time, which spent its first 12 weeks at No. 1 last year (before adding seven more weeks non-consecutively). Both albums now remain in second place in this category – one week shy of Stevie’s 13-week champ. Stevie’s Songs is likely to hold this title for some time as Swift and Wallen — arguably the chart’s two biggest acts of the current decade — have no new music on the horizon and are seemingly the only ones capable of posing a serious threat to Stevie’s Songs.
But unlike Stevie, whose album was released in vinyl/tape form with no variations or special versions tacked on during its 3-month reign – those things simply didn’t happen back then — Taylor’s album remained No. 1 for its first twelve weeks by virtue of some very well-timed – and some might add suspiciously sequenced – releases of special versions, limited vinyl editions, and re-stocking of previously limited editions on her web site’s store. And some of those variations clearly elevated her sales to levels that were needed to stave off very strong competition.
In Taylor’s Week 5, pop rival Billie Eilish’s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted with more than 339,000 album equivalent units moved. But in the same tracking week for that chart (dated June 1), Taylor released three new versions of Tortured (including a live/acoustic variation – why wasn’t that tracked separately, btw?) to add to more than a dozen earlier variations featuring different vinyl pigments, bonus tracks and collectibles like autographs, magnets, etc. As a result, the calculated sales for Tortured, which included all of its variations, reversed a declining trend and increased to 378,000 album equivalent units, more than enough to hold Eilish’s new LP at bay as the runner-up.
Then in Week 12, for the most recent chart, several vinyl Tortured variants – including a restocked “limited” version on Taylor’s website – were issued. The consumption numbers on Tortured increased by nearly 43% to 163,000 from its prior week, and Taylor was able to hold off the serious threat from chart-topping veteran Zach Bryan, whose new album The Great American Bar Scene had to settle for a No. 2 peak (so far) on the July 20 chart.
There were other weeks in which the many versions of Tortured contributed to its dominance over albums that fell short of the top by big names like Charlie XCX, ATEEZ, and Gunna, all of which had to settle for No. 2 or 3 peaks on the Billboard 200 during Taylor’s reign. To be fair, several of those albums — along with Taylor’s other competition noted above — had multiple variants released as well, but they were contained to the albums’ first weeks, as opposed to Taylor whose more dubious approach was timed to keep her album at No. 1 whenever there was a perceived threat by her competition.
But the chart gods finally caught up to Taylor’s shenanigans, and her label likely knew that no number of special releases or variations of Tortured Poets Dept. would be enough to catapult its sales this week to a figure sufficient to keep Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady – with 281,000 units moved — from becoming his eleventh No. 1 album (and first in over four years). As a result, Tortured Poets Dept. fell out of the No. 1 spot for the first time since its debut in May. In fact, Swift’s opus lost half of its consumption numbers from the previous week and tumbled from No. 1 to No. 4 – with 82,000 units moved — behind Eminem, ENHYPEN, and Zach Bryan at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Songs In the Key of Life — which featured life-affirming classics like “I Wish,” “Sir Duke,” “As,” and “Isn’t She Lovely” — is largely viewed as one of the most important albums of the 1970s. It is easily Wonder’s biggest seller and one of the decade’s most critically acclaimed releases. Its long-running No. 1 stint came during an era when technology – and economics – didn’t allow labels to release multiple versions of albums seemingly every month. What you started with in Week 1 was pretty much what you ended with weeks, months and years later. Albums’ sales were sustained over long periods of time by strategic single releases — singles were usually available for individual purchase themselves and those sales did not count towards an album’s chart points — and radio support.
It’s also worth noting that Wonder’s initial 13-week reign for Songs in the Key of Life occurred before the first single, “I Wish,” topped the pop chart and before a second single (“Sir Duke”) was even released.
The success of The Tortured Poets Department, on the other hand, was sustained through dozens of album variants that Taylor’s label trickled out in spurts over its first three months of availability. This marketing strategy took advantage of a very rabid fan base of Swifties who were willing to open their wallets for more than one version of the album to complete their collections of multi-colored vinyl and/or other unique versions (often with only one or two song differences). While Tortured may eventually be viewed as one of Swift’s most commercially successful releases, its chart success will always have the asterisk associated with its nearly three-dozen variations available on the market.
But thanks to Eminem, with help from ENHYPEN and Zach Bryan, we no longer have to compare and contrast the out-of-the-box success of Songs in the Key of Life with that of The Tortured Poets Department, because Stevie’s 48-year record of an album spending its first 13 weeks at No. 1 will live to see another day… until some other album comes along to challenge it.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog and on Meta’s Threads.
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