Adele Continues Historic Billboard Chart Reign

Adele has done it again. Her mega successful album '21' has tallied its 24th week on top of the Billboard 200 chart, marking the most total number of weeks an album has spent on top of the chart since Prince's 'Purple Rain' soundtrack did that in 1984 and 1985. That reign also matches the 24 weeks the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack spent at the apex back in 1978.

'21' moved 75,000 units last week to bow at the top of the latest Billboard chart, bringing its total sales for 2012 to just over 3.5 million, by far the biggest-selling album of the year (Lionel Richie's 'Tuskegee' runs a distant second with 862,000 units sold so far this year). Overall, '21' has sold 9.34 million copies, making it the 24th -- there's that number again -- top-selling disc since Soundscan began keeping track of such figures in 1991.

Only seven other albums have ever spent at least 24 weeks atop the Billboard 200 -- the 'West Side Story' soundtrack holds the overall record at 54 weeks, well above Michael Jackson's 37 weeks with 'Thriller' -- and, perhaps most remarkably, Adele hasn't dropped out of the Top 10 a single time during its 68-week chart run.

Obviously weak sales overall in the music industry as of late has helped her reign, but Adele still has something to be very proud of. Combine that with the armful of Grammys she's pictured holding above, and it's safe to say that '21' is one of the most successful albums so far this century -- both critically and commercially.