Which band has had the longest gap between number one albums?
They often say trends come in cycles. That the clothes our parents wore and the music they listened to would eventually come back around and dominate our view of culture. Pop stars would look the same as before, and the charts would sound like they once did.
But while skinny jeans or middle partings make their way onto the aesthetic of pop stars with every new album campaign, they can’t seem to get away from accusations of pastiche. Maybe that’s simply because, through the ever-changing tides of music, the classics still remain at the very top of the charts.
The likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elton John are still very much part of the modern discourse when it comes to music, for better or worse. Of course, they provide crucial reference points for us to understand the greatness of modern work, but sometimes they’re like a festival welly, stuck in the mud. Preventing us from moving forward, these legacy acts headline festivals and sell out shows, never really allowing us to move on.
But ultimately, some of these records, particularly The Beatles’ are there for a reason. Classic records that continue to tap into the psyche of oncoming generations and forever act as perfect musical companions. No matter the year or decade, The Beatles are always somewhere in and around the top of the charts.
But other impactful legacy artists have faded away into chart obscurity, happily passing on the baton to new generations. One such band would undoubtedly be Black Sabbath. Whether they liked it or not, they were dubbed the inventors of heavy metal and, as such, happily watched a genre of metalheads flourish in the years that followed their chart dominance.
So, what happened when Black Sabbath returned in 2013?
During that year, though, Sabbath had decided to snatch the torch back into their firm grasp and deliver rock fans one last swansong record. With Rick Rubin at the helm and all the original lineup on board, they released their final album, 13, which was a full blooded crack and captured that raucous, snarling energy of their younger days.
Defying most expectations for a comeback record, the band achieved an overwhelming amount of success and broke a new chart record in the process. In the wake of 13, Black Sabbath established a new UK chart record for the longest gap between number one albums when their new release, 13, debuted at the top of the charts, 42 years and eight months after their second album, Paranoid, reached number one.
But it wasn’t just a perfect bookend to the band’s impactful career; it was a decent record in its own right. Sure, in the reflection of Paranoid, some of the songs drew out for too long, and the riffs lacked that same precise power, but this was a band in their 60s, operating in a completely different societal landscape. Plus most of these reunion efforts never bring an album with it, so before breaking the record, they achieved what most others didn’t and it might be a long time until anyone else does.
