Robbie Williams scores 16th UK No 1 album, surpassing the Beatles

Robbie Williams has scored his 16th UK No 1 album, surpassing a tally set by the Beatles in 2000 to become the all-time chart record holder. His new album, Britpop, went straight to No 1 in its first week of release. All but one of Williams’s studio albums have now reached the top, the exception being 2009’s Reality Killed the Video Star, which was kept off the top by boy band JLS.

The total also includes three greatest-hits compilations and his soundtrack to the biopic Better Man; it does not count two No 1 albums Williams recorded as a member of Take That. Williams moved Britpop’s release date after concluding it would compete with Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, delaying it from an intended October date, then lining it up for 6 February before bringing it forward to the week of 16 January.

He has described Britpop as "the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995". The Guardian’s chief pop critic Alexis Petridis praised it, writing: "There’s a swagger and sparkle to the melodies that shift these songs past the realm of pastiche, and the results are hugely enjoyable." The Beatles set the previous record with their greatest hits album 1, one of four chart-topping albums released since the band split; they have reached No 2 or No 3 on a further 10 occasions.

Williams reached his record in 29 years compared with the Beatles’ 37.

Key Topics

Culture, Robbie Williams, Britpop, The Beatles, Take That, Taylor Swift