The Beatles’ revered 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, has been named Britain’s favorite album of all time by The Official Charts Company, which has tracked U.K. album sales since 1969. Their list of Britain’s Top 40 all-time favorite albums was compiled using a metric incorporating album sales, downloads, and online streams, reports the Associated Press.
The list, which was revealed on Saturday in conjunction with the U.K.’s first-ever National Album Day, puts Sgt. Pepper in the top spot, followed by Adele‘s 21 in second place, Oasis‘ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in third place, Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon in fourth place, and Michael Jackson‘s Thriller rounding out the top five.
Notes The Official Charts Company in a release,
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (to give it it’s full name) is the only album from the Sixties to make the list, along with six albums from the Seventies, six from the Eighties and eight from the Nineties. The first decade of the new Millennium (2000s) claims most places, with 14 albums, while five albums from the current decade made the list.
The act with most albums in the Top 40 list is Coldplay, with A Rush Of Blood To The Head at 27, X&Y at 32 and Parachutes at 40. Five acts claim two albums in the list – Adele, Dido, Ed Sheeran, Michael Buble and Michael Jackson. In total 33 different acts are represented in the chart. …
Some 25 of the Top 40 are accounted for by British acts, 8 are by US artists, 4 by Canadian acts and 2 by Irish acts; the remaining album is by the US/UK band Fleetwood Mac.
Across the list, 18 are credited to bands, 12 to male artists and 10 to females.
You can see The Official Charts Company’s full list of the U.K.’s Top 40 favorite albums of all time here, and stream The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in celebration of its top spot on the list below via Spotify:
The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Full Album
[H/T Rolling Stone]