Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.


TWICE IS NICE, TWICE, FOR ADELE

Dear Gary,

During the chart weeks of May 21 through June 4, 2011, and again the week of June 25, Adele sat atop the Billboard 200 album chart with "21" while "Rolling In the Deep" was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs survey.

Last week, it appears that "Someone Like You" spent its final (fifth) frame atop the Hot 100 while "21" made its way back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a 13th week.

I was wondering: have any other artists simultaneously led the Hot 100 with two songs from the same album while that album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

Thanks, as always, for your weekly notes on the charts.

Sincerely,

Brandon Meyers
Lansing, Michigan


Hi Brandon,

While Adele descends on both surveys this week, she has attached her name to yet more chart history. (Notably, "Someone Like You" is the first No. 1 ballad sporting only vocals and piano accompaniment of the Hot 100's 1,009 leaders, while "Rolling in the Deep" last week became one of just 10 songs in the history of the Adult Contemporary chart to tally at least 19 weeks at No. 1).

To answer your insightful question, Adele is just the 11th act to send two songs to the Hot 100 summit while reigning on the Billboard 200 with a parent album, dating to the Aug. 17, 1963, premiere of the first Billboard 200 that consolidated stereo and mono album sales.

Here is the full list (artist, album, No. 1 songs/dates):

Bee Gees
"Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack
Feb. 4-25, 1978, "Stayin' Alive"
March 18-May 6, 1978, "Night Fever"


Donna Summer
"Bad Girls"
June 16, 1979, "Hot Stuff"
July 14-Aug. 4, 1979, "Bad Girls"


Michael Jackson
"Thriller"
March 5-April 16, 1983, "Billie Jean"

April 30-May 14, 1983, "Beat It"


Prince and the Revolution
"Purple Rain" soundtrack
Aug. 4, 1984, "When Doves Cry"
Sept. 29-Oct. 6, 1984, "Let's Go Crazy"


Phil Collins
"No Jacket Required"
March 30-April 6, 1985, "One More Night"
July 6, 1985, "Sussudio"


George Michael
"Faith"
Feb. 27-March 5, 1988, "Father Figure"

May 28-June 11, 1988, "One More Try"


Milli Vanilli
"Girl You Know It's True"
Sept. 23-30, 1989, "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"
Nov. 25-Dec. 2, 1989, "Blame It on the Rain"


Mariah Carey
"Daydream"
Oct. 21-Nov. 4, 1995, "Fantasy"
Dec. 30-Jan. 13, 1996, "One Sweet Day," with Boyz II Men


Nelly
"Nellyville"
July 13-27, 2002, "Hot in Herre"

Aug. 31, 2002, "Dilemma," featuring Kelly Rowland


Usher
"Confessions"
April 10-May 8, 2004, "Yeah!," featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
May 22-June 5; June 19, 2004, "Burn"


Adele
"21"
May 21-June 4; June 25, 2011, "Rolling in the Deep"
Nov. 5, 2011, "Someone Like You"


Adele is clearly in elite company, as all the acts above - except for Milli Vanilli - have sustained lengthy careers in the pop culture spotlight. The feat also reinforces Adele's standing as an album act capabale of selling more than just singles.

As reported in last week's "Weekly Notes" Chart Beat column, Columbia will release "Rumour Has It" as the next single from "21" to adult pop (Nov. 22), pop and adult contemporary radio. The uptempo song topped the adult alternative Triple A chart in August.

Should "Rumour" reach the Hot 100's apex and "21" concurrently return to the top of the Billboard 200, Adele would become the first artist to simultaneously top the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 with three singles from the same album.