Taylor Swift’s smash album 1989 celebrates a year in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, making it just the fifth album to spend its first 52 weeks of release in the chart’s upper reaches.
In its 52nd frame on the Nov. 7 Billboard 200, 1989 slips 6-9 with 37,000 equivalent-album units earned in the week ending Oct. 22, according to Nielsen Music. The set debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 14, 2014; spent 11 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list; and has yet to leave the top 10. The LP arrived Oct. 27, 2014 on Big Machine Records and has sold 5.4 million copies to date.
Since the Billboard 200 combined its earlier, separate mono and stereo album charts into one all-encompassing list on Aug. 17, 1963, 1989 is just the fifth album to rack up 52 weeks in the top 10 from its debut. The last album to spend its first year in the chart’s upper region was Adele’s 21, which spent 78 straight weeks in the top 10 between its debut on March 12, 2011 and Sept. 1, 2012. (It later returned to the top 10 for three more frames.)
Before that, Celine Dion’s Falling Into You tallied its first 59 weeks in the top 10 (March 30, 1996 through May 10, 1997). Like 21, Dion’s album returned to the top 10 later on (for two more weeks). The ’80s saw just one album manage the feat: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., which holds the record for the longest consecutive top 10 run from its debut: 84 weeks (June 23, 1984 through Jan. 25, 1986). Unlike Dion’s and Adele’s, once Springsteen’s album departed the top 10, it never returned. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was the first set to clock its first year (52 frames) in the top 10 from its start at No. 10 on Feb. 26, 1977 through the Feb. 18, 1978 chart. (Rumours also has yet to stage a top 10 return.)
To note: It wasn’t common for an album to debut in the top 10 before the Billboard 200 began using Nielsen Music’s point-of-sale data starting with the May 25, 1991 chart. Between Aug. 17, 1963 and May 18, 1991, just 59 albums debuted in the top 10. The first record to bow in the region during that span of time was The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which arrived at No. 8 on the chart dated June 24, 1967.