UK Albums Chart

The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case of The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums book only including this data. As of 2021, the OCC still only tracks how many UK Top 75s album hits and how many weeks in Top 75 albums chart each artist has achieved. 
To qualify for the Official Albums Chart, the album must be the correct length and price. It must be more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £3.75. Full details of the rules can be found on the OCC website.
According to the canon of the OCC, the official British albums chart was the "Record Mirror" chart from 22 July 1956 to 1 November 1958; the "Melody Maker" chart from 8 November 1958 to March 1960;
the "Record Retailer" chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official Albums Chart from 1969 on. For eight weeks in February and March 1971 no Official Albums Chart was compiled due to a postal strike - for this period, the OCC uses the chart compiled by "Melody Maker" instead.
In the 1970s the new album chart was revealed at 12:45 pm on Thursdays on BBC Radio 1, and then moved to 6:05 pm (later 6:30 pm) on Wednesday evenings during the Peter Powell and Bruno Brookes shows. In October 1987 it moved to Monday lunchtimes, during the Gary Davies show, and from April to October 1993 it briefly had its show from 7:00–8:00 pm on Sunday evenings, introduced by Lynn Parsons. Since October 1993 it has been included in "The Official Chart" show from 4:00 – 5:45 pm on Fridays (previously from 4:00 – 7:00 pm on Sundays). A weekly 'Album Chart' show was licensed out to BBC Radio 2 and presented by Simon Mayo, until it ended on 2 April 2007.
Though album sales tend to produce more revenue and, over time, act as a greater measure of an artist's success, this chart receives less media attention than the UK Singles Chart, because overall sales of an album are more important than its peak position. 2005 saw a record number of artist album sales with 126.2  million sold in the UK. In February 2015, it was announced that due to the falling sales of albums and rise in popularity of audio streaming, the Official Albums Chart would begin including streaming data from March 2015. Under the revised methodology, the Official Charts Company takes the 12 most streamed tracks from one album, with the top-two songs being down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams is divided by 1000 and added to the pure sales of the album. This calculation was designed to ensure that the chart rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles. The final number one album on the UK Albums Chart to be based purely on sales alone was "Smoke + Mirrors" by Imagine Dragons. On 1 March 2015, "In the Lonely Hour" by Sam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official Albums Chart.
The weekly Top 75 UK Albums Chart (albums described as hits in the case of British Hit Singles & Albums or The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums) were published in "Music Week" magazine until 2021. In 2018 Future (publisher of 'Louder Sound' publications such as "Metal Hammer" and "Classic Rock") acquired "Music Week" publisher NewBay Media. Future decided that the publication would go monthly from March 2021, and so a bespoke monthly Official Albums Chart Top 75 (similar to album charts used by "Top of the Pops" in the early 1990s and Absolute 80s on Sundays) started to be published from this date alongside monthly singles charts and specialist/genre charts. 
The first number one on the UK Albums Chart was "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" by Frank Sinatra for the week ending 22 July 1956. As of the week ending 6 May 2021, the UK Albums Chart has had 1237 different number one albums. The current number one album is "Surrounded by Time" by Tom Jones.
Record holders.
The most successful artists in the charts depend on the criteria used. As of February 2016, Queen albums have spent more time on the British album charts than any other musical act, followed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, U2 and ABBA. By most weeks at number one, The Beatles lead with a total of 176 weeks, and the most number one albums of all with 15, followed by The Rolling Stones with 13 number ones. Similar to the situation regarding Elvis Presley's record breaking tally of number ones on the singles chart, The Official Charts Company has classed re-issues of "Exile on Main Street" and "Goats Head Soup", as brand new hits/number 1s due to the amount of bonus material available, formats released and the fact that the issuing record label had changed. 
As of February 2021, Elvis Presley is still the male solo artist with the most weeks at number one with a total of 66 weeks and most top ten albums by any artist, charting 53 releases. Presley also holds the joint-record for the most number one albums by a solo artist with Robbie Williams, each charting 13 times at number one. Madonna has the most number one albums (12) by a female artist in the UK, though this includes the "Evita" film soundtrack which was a cast recording and not strictly a Madonna album. However, even if Evita is excluded in her tally, at 11 albums she would still be the female act with most UK No. 1 albums. Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks. Spice Girls are the female group with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 18 weeks for Spice (15 weeks) and Spiceworld (3 weeks). 
Queen's "Greatest Hits" is the best-selling album in UK chart history, with six million copies sold as of February 2014. Previous first-place holder The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is now in third-place after being supplanted by Queen and then by ABBA's "", however, "Sgt. Pepper" still remains the best-selling studio album in UK chart history. Both albums have sold in excess of 5.1 million copies. The longest-running number one album, both consecutively and non-consecutively, is the soundtrack of the film "South Pacific". It had a consecutive run of 70 weeks from November 1958 to March 1960, and had further runs at the top in 1960 and 1961, making a non-consecutive total of 115 weeks.
Eminem holds the record for the most consecutive number one albums in Official Albums Chart history, with ten consecutive UK number one albums.
The youngest artist to top the chart is Neil Reid, whose debut album topped the chart in 1972 when he was only 12 years old. The oldest living artist to top the charts is Vera Lynn at the age of 92 with "", released in 2009 (though the album only contains material she recorded between 1936 and 1959). Lynn also holds the record for the oldest living artist to have a chart album, with the 2017 release of "Vera Lynn 100", released to mark her 100th birthday (though again, this only contains material she recorded decades earlier). The album peaked at number 3.
The album which has spent the most weeks on the charts is Queen's "Greatest Hits", which has spent over 1000 weeks on the chart by January 2018. See List of albums which have spent the most weeks on the UK Albums Chart for full details.
In 1980, Kate Bush became the first British female artist to have a number-one album in the UK with "Never for Ever", as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at number 1. In August 2014 she became the first female artist to have eight albums in the Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart simultaneously, (altogether she had eleven albums in the Top 50 in one week). She is currently in fourth place for artists having the most simultaneous UK Top 40 albums, behind Elvis Presley and David Bowie who both tie for the most simultaneous Top 40 albums (twelve each, both immediately following their deaths in 1977 and 2016 respectively), and The Beatles who had eleven in 2009 when remastered versions of their albums were released.
The fastest selling album (first chart week sales) is "25" by Adele. Released in November 2015, it sold over 800,000 copies in its first week. However, the album "Be Here Now" by Oasis is a controversial second place, this is due to the fact its release date was irregular, being released on a Thursday instead of the usual Monday. The record was released in 21st August 1997 and sold around 813,000 in its first week which surpasses the current claimant to the title, though this topic is still highly contested.
The Rolling Stones are the first act to have reached number one in the album chart during six different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s and 2020s) though their number one in the 2020s was the reissue of "Goats Head Soup". For solo artists, Elvis Presley was the first artist to score UK number-one albums in five different decades (the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 2000s and 2010s). In 2020, Bruce Springsteen became the first solo artist to score UK number-one albums in five "consecutive" decades (the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s) with his twelfth number-one album "Letter to You". Also in 2020, Kylie Minogue became the first female solo artist to have UK number-one albums in five different decades (which also happened to be consecutively, the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s), with her eighth UK number-one album "Disco".
The longest number one by a group is Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which was number one for 33 weeks (13 of which were consecutive). The longest consecutive number one by a group was the Beatles' "Please Please Me", which held the top spot for a straight 30 weeks. The longest number one by a male solo artist was Elvis Presley with "G.I. Blues" which stayed at the top for 22 weeks (his "Blue Hawaii" album was also the longest consecutive number one album for a male artist with 17 weeks). Adele's album "21" has the most weeks at number one by a female solo artist (and by a solo artist of any gender) with 23 weeks, 11 of which were consecutive (which is also a record for a female artist).
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the year-end chart was "With the Beatles" by The Beatles in 1963 – they became the first group to achieve this feat. Elton John's "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player" in 1973, marks the first album by a male artist and solo act to do so. The first female solo artist to have the UK's year-end best seller was Barbra Streisand in 1982, with "Love Songs".
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the decade-end chart was "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles in the 1960s – they became the first group to achieve this. James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam", in the 2000s, marks the first album by a male artist and solo act to do it. Blunt was the only performer in history to top the decade chart with a debut album. The first female solo artist to achieve this feat was Adele in the 2010s, with "21".
Dua Lipa's "Future Nostalgia" holds the record for having the lowest one-week sales while at the top of the chart in the modern era, when it was number one the week beginning 15 May 2020 with sales of only 7,317. 
Debut albums.
The fastest-selling debut albums (first-week sales):
Sam Smith holds the record for most weeks spent in the Top 10 by a debut album with "In the Lonely Hour", with 76, surpassing a record previously held by Emeli Sandé.
Official Compilations Chart Top 100.
In January 1989 various artist compilation albums were removed from the Top 100 albums chart and given their own Top 20 chart (found in "Music Week" and "Record Mirror"). Currently the OCC publishes the Official Compilations Chart Top 100, which as well as listing the chart places of all the various "Now That's What I Call Music!", "Hits Albums" and "Ministry of Sound Annuals" that have been released, now include Motion Picture Cast Recordings such as "The Greatest Showman" or "A Star Is Born" and Original Broadway/West End cast albums such as "Hamilton", all three of which were included in the main artist albums chart before 2020.