Kenny Rogers Is No. 1 on the Top Country Albums Chart for the First Time Since 1986

The late Kenny Rogers is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart for the first time since 1986, as The Best of Kenny Rogers: Through the Years debuts atop the tally. He was last on top with The Heart of the Matter, which reigned for six weeks between the charts dated Dec. 28, 1985, and Feb. 1, 1986.

Rogers died on March 20 at age 81.

The Best of Kenny Rogers: Through the Years was released in 2018 via Capitol Records Nashville, and enters at No. 1 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending March 26, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 10,000 were in album sales.

The Top Country Albums chart ranks the most popular country albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new April 4-dated chart, where The Best of Kenny Rogers bows at No. 1, will be posted in full on Billboard's website on March 31.

The Best of Kenny Rogers: Through the Years tallied 32,000 units, with 13,000 in SEA units (equaling 18.3 million on-demand streams for the set's 20 songs in the tracking week), 10,000 in album sales and 8,000 in TEA units.

The album also debuts at No. 9 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, his first top 10 and highest charting effort on that tally since 1983.

The greatest hits collection contains 16 of Rogers’ 21 No. 1s on the Hot Country Songs chart, including “The Gambler,” “Lucille” and “Lady.” It does not, however, include one of his most popular hits, the No. 1 “Islands in the Stream,” with Dolly Parton. The single was released on RCA Records in 1983 and spent two weeks at No. 1 on both Hot Country Songs and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In total, Rogers has now tallied 12 No. 1s on the Top Country Albums chart. He first led with his self-titled album, which spent two weeks at No. 1 in 1977.