British singer Freddie Mercury (1946 – 1991) of rock band Queen in concert at Leeds Football Club, … [+] UK, 29th May 1982. Queen’s Greatest Hits rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart as it reaches 400 weeks spent on the tally. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Queen helped bring hard rock to the masses decades ago with a string of inescapable smash hits. While the music the band created might not be classified as “hard” if it was released today, the group’s work still fits under that designation on the Billboard charts–and that fact has helped the outfit manage some pretty incredible feats throughout the years.
Since Queen’s music is hard rock in the eyes of Billboard, the band usually finds a home on most, if not all, of the charts dedicated to that subgenre. They can often be found close to the top of these specific rankings, and sometimes, they even manage to beat everyone else in the space.
Queen’s Greatest Hits rises to No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart this frame. The band’s compilation lifts just one spot to earn another stay in the penthouse on the list of the most-consumed hard rock full-lengths in the U.S.
The set has now lived at No. 1 for an incredible 186 weeks. That’s one of the greatest accumulations of frames in charge of any Billboard tally, and it will surely add to that sum in the coming weeks, months, and years.
This period is meaningful to Queen–and especially their Greatest Hits–for more than just one reason. As it finds its way back to the summit, the title also reaches a special milestone. The compilation has now lived on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart for 400 weeks.
Queen’s Greatest Hits is far and away the legendary outfit’s longest-charting title on the Top Hard Rock Albums ranking. Another, similar offering, Greatest Hits I II & III: The Platinum Collection, is next up for the band, as it’s lived on the roster for 174 weeks. Their Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack, which is essentially another compilation of their most famous tracks, lands in third with 108 stays on the list.
Four hundred weeks on any chart is impressive, but Queen doesn’t claim the set with the most frames spent on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart at the moment. Several releases have spent even more time on the roster, with at least four more having already passed 400 weeks. At present, AC/DC’s Back in Black is the currently-charting effort with the biggest number of weeks on the tally, as it just passed 500 turns somewhere on the list.
