Adele’s 21 smashes Official Albums Chart records, again!

Adele’s 14-times platinum album, '21', returns to the Number 1 spot on today’s Official Albums Chart, and in doing so becomes the longest chart-topping album release in nearly 42 years, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

'21', which is the biggest selling album of the 21st Century as revealed by theofficialcharts.com back in December having accumulated a massive 3.81m sales to date, today spends its 19th non-consecutive week at Number 1 since its release less than a year ago in January 2011.  The previous longest chart topper is Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 classic 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', which has amassed 33 non-consecutive weeks in the top spot since its release. 

The album is also currently the longest running Number 1 album for a solo artist in UK chart history, and the sixth longest-running Number 1 album overall; a record surpassed only by Simon & Garfunkel mentioned above, and The Beatles’ records 'Please Please Me', 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band', 'With The Beatles' and 'A Hard Day’s Night'. (Please note this data excludes original soundtracks)

The Official Charts Company this week also confirmed '21' as being as the biggest selling album of 2011, having shifted a staggering 3.77m copies across the calendar year, outselling the Number 2 album Michael Buble’s 'Christmas', by nearly three copies to one. See full Top 20 biggest selling albums of 2011 click here.

If Adele can hold on to the summit for just one more week after today, the 23 year old ex-Brit School student will join the ranks of UK music legends Queen and Oasis, equalling them in terms of number of career weeks spent at Number 1 in the Official Albums Chart.  Though of course Adele has managed to notch up this impressive tally across only her first two albums, whereas Queen and Oasis took nine and eight albums respectively to hit their totals of 21 weeks apiece at the top spot.

New mum Beyonce, who is reported to have given birth to baby girl Blue Ivy Carter in New York last night, has double reason to be smiling today as her album '4', which was also one of 2011’s Top 20 biggest sellers, re-enters the Top 10, bouncing up six places to Number 6.

US superstar DJ and producer Skrillex makes a lone new entry into the Top 40 with fourth EP release 'Bangarang'. Off the back of an impressive breakthrough year in America that saw the 23 year old dubstepper nominated for no less than five Grammy Awards, Skrillex aka Sonny Moore was this week crowned one of 2012’s brightest young music hopefuls by coming fourth in the BBC’s Sound of 2012 list. 'Bangarang 'debuts today at Number 36 on the Official Albums Chart.

Today’s highest climber comes courtesy of Dutch jazz singer Caro Emerald’s 'Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor', climbing 44 places to 25.

To see the full Top 100, click here.

Adele - Someone Like You on MUZU.