Beach Boys Surpass the Beatles for Billboard 200 Record

Fifty years into their career, the Beach Boys are still making waves on Billboard charts.
 
This week, they best the Beatles for a Billboard 200 album chart record.

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As their reunion set, That's Why God Made the Radio (their first album of all-new material since 1992), bursts onto the chart at No. 3, the Beach Boys break a record by expanding their span of Billboard 200 top 10s to 49 years and one week. They first graced the top 10 with Surfin' U.S.A. the week of June 15, 1963.

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The Beach Boys' stretch between their first week in the Billboard 200 top 10 to their most recent is now the longest among groups, passing the Beatles, whose top 10 span covers 47 years, seven months and three weeks. The Fab Four first entered the top bracket when Meet the Beatles rocketed 92-3 on the Feb. 8, 1964, chart at the blastoff of Beatlemania. The group most recently appeared in the top 10 with 1 the week of Oct. 1, 2011.

The RIAA just today certified the Beach Boys' 2003 album Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys as triple platinum.

The Rolling Stones are pushed to third among groups with the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200. Their 45-year, six-month top 10 span ranges from the week of Dec. 12, 1964 ( 12 x 5), through June 12, 2010 ( Exile on Main St.).

Among all acts, Frank Sinatra boasts the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200: 52 years, two months and one week. Sinatra first entered the top tier with Songs for Swingin' Lovers! the week of April 7, 1956, and last ranked in the region on June 14, 2008, with Nothing But the Best.

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The Billboard 200 launched as a weekly chart in the pages of Billboard magazine the week of March 24, 1956.
 
Upon its arrival, Radio becomes the Beach Boys' highest-charting album since 1965's Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), which reached No. 2. The new release is their 14th top 10 and first since 1976's 15 Big Ones. The Beach Boys have topped the Billboard 200 with two titles: 1964's Beach Boys Concert (for four weeks) and 1974's Endless Summer (one).