Little Mix's Glory Days sets UK chart record as the longest-reigning Top 40 girl group album ever

Plus, we reveal which girl group albums have spent the longest in the Official Albums Chart Top 40.
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Little Mix have asserted their dominance on the Official Chart with the news that they have a new chart record under their belt.

Their fourth album Glory Days, originally released in November 2016, has notched up the most weeks in the Official Albums Chart Top 40 of *any* girlband in chart history – yep, that's right. They have overtaken legends like Spice Girls and the Supremes to take their place at the top of the all-time rundown of weeks spent in the Top 40, notching up an incredible 69 weeks to date.

Upon release, Glory Days went straight in at Number 1 to become the band's first chart-topping album, spending five non-consecutive weeks there over the next few weeks. It's notched up an incredible 29 weeks in the Top 20, and spent a year straight in the Top 40 before dropping out for just one week before zooming back into the Top 10. See where all of Little Mix's hit singles and albums have charted in the UK.

Tying on 63 weeks are two huge Nineties girlbands, Spice Girls and Eternal. Spice Girls' debut Spice was a true phenomenon, spending 15 weeks at the top over six months and managing 63 consecutive weeks in the Top 40, the most for any girlband ever, with all singles going to Number 1. Its follow-up Spiceworld also had a lengthy run – 48 weeks to land in seventh.

Eternal's debut Always & Forever, shockingly, was denied the Number 1 spot, but still managed to spend almost six months in the Official Albums Chart Top 10, and rack up 63 total weeks in the Top 40. Look back at Eternal's complete Official Chart history here.

The oldest album on our countdown comes next, and is something of a chart curiosity – it's the hits retrospective from Motown icons Diana Ross and the Supremes. This greatest hits album spent three weeks at Number 1 after its release in January 1968 and lined up 57 straight weeks in the Top 40, but a quirk of the chart which saw it reduced to a Top 15 and fluctuate in length for much of 1969 means it's officially shown as dropping out of the top flight and reappearing only a couple of times before the Official Albums Chart was established and became more standardised, giving its total weeks as 60.

Another Nineties debut, from All Saints, is next. The self-titled album also didn't reach Number 1 – a travesty! – but it did rack up 23 weeks in the Top 10, 48 consecutive weeks in the Top 40 and amassed a total of 58 across its chart run, spawning three Number 1 singles along the way. Rounding off the Top 5? Little Mix again! Third album Get Weird from 2015 has notched up 55 weeks in the Top 40.

MORE: 

Destiny's Child's The Writing's on the Wall was the band's second album and, incredibly, peaked at Number 10, spending a solitary week there, but it's still manged to notch up 50 weeks on the Top 40. Also flying the flag for the US is Pussycat Dolls' debut PCD, on 47 weeks in ninth place, while our very own Sugababes' sophomore effort, 2002's Angels With Dirty Faces, racked up 35.

The longest weeks spent in the Official Albums Chart Top 40 by girl groups:

  TITLE ARTIST WEEKS YEAR
1 GLORY DAYS LITTLE MIX 69 2016
2 SPICE SPICE GIRLS 63 1996
3 ALWAYS & FOREVER ETERNAL 63 1993
4 DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES GREATEST HITS SUPREMES 44 1968
5 ALL SAINTS ALL SAINTS 58 1997
6 GET WEIRD LITTLE MIX 55 2015
7 THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL DESTINY'S CHILD 50 1999
8 SPICEWORLD SPICE GIRLS 48 1997
9 PCD PUSSYCAT DOLLS 47 2005
10 ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES SUGABABES 35 2002

©2018 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

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etin

1

little mix needs 1000 weeks to reach spice girls' sales

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Sunshine Gal

0

oh and i do recall cleopatra having a minor splash over here back in the day with 'i want you back'.

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Sunshine Gal

0

i don't recall the all saints too much over here...other than little mix, the spice girls and banarama, i can't think of any other uk female groups that have done anything over here. what are the all saints' biggest uk hits?

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Sunshine Gal

0

well, don't the uk charts allow streaming as a chart component? but good for them...who the are sugababes and eternal? never heard of either group. over here, that destiny's child album is still their biggest seller @ 8x plat. their debut album didn't make much of a splash from what i can recall...but i def. recall their 2nd album's singles on the hot 100 back then.

here in the states, i don't know which girl group's album spent the longest time in the top 10...i'm gonna guess tlc's 'crazysexycool' or the spice girls' debut album.

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Tigg Scholessinger

0

But how many different editions of Glory Days has been released?

B

Bunny

1

Little Mix only has fans in the UK. Spice Girls had fans across the globe, and their first 2 albums charted at number 1 in 3 dozen countries combined.

ML

Mick Lynch

-1

Yes agree fully Lee. Was about to write that. You cant compare them with each other. If its not a level playing field you cant compare re-packaged albums with ones that weren't. Im guessing the people writing these articles werent around when 'Spice' was huge. They are only looking at stats from the 90s.

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Mr0011011 .

0

Of course you can compare them. I guess you can't compare the Spice Girls to the Supremes either because they were 30 years previous? Glory Days had spend a whole year consecutively in the top 40 before it got repackaged. No one is denying that the Spice Girl were huge.

LM

Lee Moore

-1

Only because it was repackaged

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Zoltán Oskovits

-1

Exactly!!!!!

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Mr0011011 .

2

Not really. Their previous album has spent 55 weeks there and it was never repackaged and wasn't as big.

LM

Lee Moore

-1

I disagree. The album fell 31-46 on its 53rd week and without a current hit at the time or further hit singles to promote from the album, it’s unlikely it would have returned to the top 40, prior to it being repackaged. This would have placed it 7th on the OCC list. Their previous album’s performance is irrelevant.

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Raja AHH

0

But it's fallin' so hard since they promote their repackage, means that their fans are waiting for the new one. If it's just because of the repackage, why that repackage album still on top 40 or 20 ? It's already more than 3 months after it re-released.

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MusicStan_1997

1

Little Mix are unstoppable. Can't wait for their next album, hope it does even better than Glory Days.