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Let’s open the latest mailbag.

That’s a Long ‘Time’

Dear Gary,

As of last week’s charts (dated June 3), Morgan Wallen spent an eighth week topping the Billboard 200 albums chart and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart simultaneously with his latest LP, One Thing at a Time, and its biggest song, “Last Night,” respectively.

Do those eight weeks mark a record for an album and any of its songs ruling the two charts simultaneously? Or has anyone – maybe Michael Jackson, with Thriller, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” in 1983 – had longer such runs?

Thanks,

Raditya Gunardisurya
Serpong, Indonesia

Hi Raditya,

Both Wallen and Taylor Swift have recently logged notable double dominations atop Billboard’s premier album and song charts.

Wallen has amassed the longest such rule since Drake’s Views and its smash “One Dance” simultaneously topped the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, respectively, for nine weeks in 2016.

Overall, Wallen claims the sixth-most impressive such run. Here’s a recap, since the Billboard 200 became a weekly chart measuring both stereo and mono albums in August 1963, after the Hot 100 had begun in August 1958.

As noted above, Jackson’s Thriller and its two Hot 100 No. 1s combine to place third on the ranking below.

Most Weeks for Albums & Their Songs Topping the Billboard 200 & Hot 100 Simultaneously:

13: Soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever; “Stayin’ Alive” (4; Bee Gees), “Night Fever” (8; Bee Gees), “If I Can’t Have You” (1; Yvonne Elliman), 1978

12: Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard soundtrack; “I Will Always Love You,” 1992-93

10: Michael Jackson, Thriller; “Billie Jean” (7), “Beat It” (3), 1983

9: Drake, Views; “One Dance,” feat. WizKid & Kyla, 2016
9: Usher, Confessions; “Yeah!” (5; feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris), “Burn” (4), 2004                            

8: Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time; “Last Night,” 2023

7: Taylor Swift, 1989; “Shake It Off” (2), “Blank Space” (5), 2014-15
7: Adele, 21; “Rolling in the Deep” (4), “Someone Like You” (1), “Set Fire to the Rain” (2), 2011-12

6: Adele, 25: “Hello,” 2015-16
6: 50 Cent, The Massacre; “Candy Shop” (feat. Olivia), 2005
6: Mariah Carey, Daydream: “Fantasy” (3), “One Sweet Day” (3; with Boyz II Men), 1995-96
6: The Police, Synchronicity; “Every Breath You Take,” 1983

5: Taylor Swift, Midnights, “Anti-Hero,” 2022
5: Soundtrack, Encanto; “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast, 2022
5: Drake, Scorpion; “Nice for What” (1), “In My Feelings” (4), 2018                         
5: Janet Jackson, janet.; “That’s the Way Love Goes,” 1993
5: George Michael, Faith; “Father Figure” (2), “One More Try” (3), 1988
5: John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy: “(Just Like) Starting Over” (John Lennon), 1980-81
5: Donna Summer, Bad Girls: “Hot Stuff” (1), “Bad Girls” (4), 1979
5: Carole King, Tapestry; “It’s Too Late”/“I Feel the Earth Move,” 1971
5: Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water; “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” 1970
5: The Beatles, Meet The Beatles!; “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” 1964

Clearly, some of the most prominent names in pop music history have earned their way onto the above list, starting with The Beatles.

Meanwhile, of all the acts with an album to have topped the Billboard 200 while any of its songs concurrently led the Hot 100 for at least five weeks, Wallen is the first country artist to achieve the feat – although a shoutout to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” written by Dolly Parton.

Notably, two soundtracks top the recap of the 22 albums above: Saturday Night Fever and the Houston-centric The Bodyguard. (The only other soundtrack also included: Encanto.)

Plus, the only acts with multiple albums above? Adele, Drake and Swift, each with two.

Swift’s Midnights, meanwhile, nearly moved up the tally above this week. The set led the Billboard 200 for five weeks as its lead single “Anti-Hero” topped the Hot 100 late last year. With new versions of the LP released May 26, along with a remix of its current single, “Karma,” adding Ice Spice, the set returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated June 10, while the song surges 27-2 on the Hot 100.

Speaking (now) of Swift …

How about a review of Swift’s show at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., May 21, the third of three nights of her New England stop of the Eras Tour?

This recap is courtesy of the most avid Swiftie I know, and to whom I happen to be related. Having luckily made it through to buy tickets as soon as they went on-sale (leaving her brother to figure out a less expensive, though less impressive, birthday present), Molly Trust has written up her second review of a Swift show at the venue, following her Billboard.com debut … fittingly, 13 years ago.

Back then, as 16-year-old Justin Bieber was one of the night’s openers (and Tom Brady, who then called Gillette home, was three Super Bowl wins down with three more to go as a Patriot), Swift drew the following praise: “After hearing her sing live for just a few minutes, it’s obvious: The 20-year-old is one of the most talented female musicians today. Her songs are beautifully written, her voice unique and pure, and she is a phenomenal performer. In concert, she exudes seemingly inhuman energy.”

In 2023, the above could be said about the Eras Tour, although Swift’s songs have 13 more years of meaning behind them.

‘A Journey Through Every One of Our Personal Eras’

“There’s nothing like this,” Taylor Swift sings in her opening song of the Eras Tour, “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.” No, there certainly is not. There is nothing like attending the Eras Tour.

I attended my first Taylor Swift concert at Gillette Stadium in 2010 – a stop on her Fearless tour, at the tender age of 20. Yes, I, too, was born in 1989. I could talk for hours about the night I realized my favorite singer was also the best performer I’d ever seen, but for now I will simply say it was without a doubt the best night of my life.

Thirteen years later, I returned to Gillette to spend the night with my girl Tay again. Her 10 studio albums have guided me through every heartbreak. Somehow she knew I hadn’t quite cried enough. [Editor’s note: big hug.]

My best friend and I showed up at Gillette Stadium on the sunny afternoon of May 21 in our carefully-crafted outfits (mine a combination of Lover and 1989 and hers strictly Lover) with the tickets I will never forget: section 111, row 5, seats 17 and 18. Some people can rattle of their social security numbers without thinking; I can rattle off my Eras Tour seat numbers.

When her tour kicked off in March, I vowed to do the unimaginable: avoid obtaining any details of the concert by avoiding TikTok and Instagram until the day of my show. I knew no matter what, the show would be worth the large percentage of my monthly mortgage I spent on tickets, but the memory of that first night at Gillette with Taylor so many years ago kept creeping into my mind, and I wanted to hold onto some of the magic of seeing her for the first time. And to do that, I realized I needed the entire show to be a surprise to me.

Despite a few photos spoiling her costumes, I entered the stadium knowing nothing of what I was about to see, prepared to sing and dance and have no voice for at least 48 hours.

I will say, my discipline between the start of her tour and my show on May 21 (yes, I narrowly escaped the “rainiest rain show that ever rain showed,”) paid off. Her opening music, a dreamy mashup of all of her album title tracks folded into “Miss American and the Heartbreak Prince,” is meant to be heard for the first time live.

As the night unfolded, I realized very quickly how this show would be different than the last time I saw her. Like every fan who had first heard Taylor’s music as a child and attended the Eras Tour as an adult, I was sneakily being guided through a therapy session. I danced to “You Belong With Me” with the freedom and innocence of my college-aged self, screamed the lyrics to “I Knew You Were Trouble.” as though I were confronting every bad boy I’d met, and even shed a tear while swaying to “Cardigan.”

“Don’t Blame Me” even provided me with a religious experience in which I was able to release some of my deepest inner demons. I highly suggest throwing your head back and screaming, “don’t blame me, love made me crazy,” into the sky along with 70,000 other people and the woman who wrote the lyrics to relieve yourself of any guilt you may have lingering in your subconscious.

Did I succeed in trying to recreate my first flawless experience seeing Taylor Swift sing live? Truthfully, the Eras Tour, much like Taylor herself, isn’t a recreation of anything, but rather its own entity. It’s so much more than a moment in time, as most concerts are. Because a journey through Taylor’s musical eras is also a journey through every one of our personal eras, whatever those may be.