Which album held the US number one spot the longest?

(Ccredits: Far Out)

Thu 14 August 2025 21:00, UK

In the age of streaming, the importance of an album hitting number one on the charts can feel like a relic from a bygone era. But when looking at the raw sales people raked in during the golden age of vinyl and CDs, it’s insane to see records find a permanent spot at the top of the hit parade.

Considering how much tastes changed every decade, it was anyone’s guess as to what would be on the charts for years. There were always going to be those singers that blew everyone away from the moment they heard them, like Adele, but since the metric used to be on the raw record sales before the Internet started taking effect, seeing bands like Slipknot find their way to the top of the rock charts with an album as brutal as Iowa is one of the most singular strange entries in the charts to this day.

In the era of MTV, though, everything that reached the top of the charts needed to sound larger than life. If you were into metal, the hair was big; if you were into R&B, the production was big; and for anyone who put on a little too much spandex back in the day, the regret was big when they saw themselves on camera.

That said, MTV didn’t seem to have a real identity for a long time. It was considered an art project for many rock acts that wanted a different approach to showcasing their music, but that was only one facet of the industry. There had to be more to the channel than a few performance spots, and when Michael Jackson debuted, the 1980s had the kind of artist that most people hadn’t seen since Elvis Presley.

Everyone was at least aware of Jackson singing with the Jackson 5 since he was little, but after Thriller lit up the charts, he ascended to another plane of celebrity. Off the Wall had set the stage for what genuinely great pop music could sound like, but this is where Jackson and Quincy Jones hit their stride, which threw everyone for a loop when the videos for the title track and ‘Billie Jean’ graced everyone’s television screens.

In fact, saying that Thriller spent the most weeks at number one almost feels like a given at this point. Outside of the fact that it spent 37 weeks holding the top spot, every single song on the record was either a single or had the potential to be anyone else’s hit. Romantic ballad? ‘Human Nature’ has you covered. Saccharine Beatlesque song? ‘The Girl is Mine’ is accounted for as well. Traditional R&B banger? ‘Baby Be Mine’ feels like it was made for that qualifier.

If anything, Jackson’s only problem was following up on the album’s success. His magnum opus is still considered one of the greatest records of all time, and given how many copies it sold, Jackson may have been a little over his head when he sought to sell 100million copies of the next album, Bad. But, really, all of the accolades that Thriller has received over the years have made it feel less like an album at this point.

This is a time capsule of the days when pop stars seemed larger than life. While we still have pop musicians who can light up the stage, no one has been able to lock both the star power and the song’s impact in like this. And whereas most 1980s albums feel like a product of their time, Thriller refuses to date because it’s still the gold standard of what every pop musician should strive to make in their lifetime. 

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