As previously reported, Pop Smoke’s Faith enters the Billboard 200 at No. 1 this week. In 1988, George Michael’s album of the same name topped the chart for 12 weeks, on its way to winning a Grammy for album of the year.
Faith is the 15th title to repeat at No. 1, with the exact same formatting and spelling, since the Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular weekly basis in March 1956. The repeaters include generic titles that you might expect to see repeat at No. 1 (Greatest Hits, Unplugged) and others that are such distinctive words that you might not (Kamikaze, Epiphany).
This phenomenon isn’t unique to albums. As Gary Trust reported in June 2020, 16 pairs of different songs with the exact same title that have reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 since its inception in August 1958. Actually, in one of those cases, it’s not a pair. Three different songs titled “My Love” have reached the top spot on the Hot 100 — by Petula Clark (1966), Paul McCartney & Wings (1973) and Justin Timberlake featuring T.I. (2006).
There is also one exact-match album title that has reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 three times: Greatest Hits. Elton John (1974), Bruce Springsteen (1995) and The Notorious B.I.G. (2007) have all topped the chart with collections that carried that simple and unadorned title.
Here is the full list of album titles that have repeated at No. 1, in alphabetical order, followed by some near-misses:
Believe
Disturbed, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Oct. 5, 2002, one week at No. 1
Justin Bieber, July 7, 2012, one week
Chapter V
Staind, Aug. 27, 2005, one week
Trey Songz, Sept. 8, 2012, one week
Epiphany
T-Pain, June 23, 2007, one week
Chrisette Michele, May 23, 2009, one week
Faith
George Michael, Jan. 16, 1988, 12 weeks
Pop Smoke, July 21, 2021, one week (so far)
4
Foreigner, Aug, 22, 1981, 10 weeks
Beyoncé, July 16, 2011, two weeks
Greatest Hits
Elton John, Nov. 30, 1974, 10 weeks
Bruce Springsteen, March 18, 1995, two weeks
The Notorious B.I.G., March 24, 2007, one week
Hello, Dolly!
Original cast (starring Carol Channing), June 6, 1964, one week
Louis Armstrong, June 13, 1964, six weeks
Kamikaze
Twista, Feb. 14, 2004, one week
Eminem, Sept. 15, 2018, one week
Music
Carole King, Jan. 1, 1972, three weeks
Madonna, Oct. 7, 2000, one week
Now
Maxwell, Sept. 8, 2001, one week
Shania Twain, Oct. 21, 2017, one week
Revival
Selena Gomez, Oct. 31, 2015, one week
Eminem, Jan. 3, 2018, one week
The Sound of Music
Original cast (starring Mary Martin), Jan. 25 1960, 16 weeks
Movie soundtrack (starring Julie Andrews), Nov. 13, 1965, two weeks
A Star Is Born
Movie soundtrack (Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson), Feb. 12, 1977, six weeks
Movie soundtrack (Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper), Oct. 20, 2018, four weeks
21
Omarion, Jan. 13, 2007, one week
Adele, March 12, 2011, 24 weeks
Unplugged
Eric Clapton, March 13, 1993, three weeks
Alicia Keys, Oct. 29, 2005, one week
Close Calls
Just for fun, here are some close calls, where the titles don’t quite match. The differences range from a punctuation mark or formatting choice (“and” or “&”) to the addition of a word or two. We’re only looking at pairs of albums by different artists, which omits many similar-titled albums by Chicago, The Beatles, Lil Wayne, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Migos, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. We made an exception to that rule so we could include a Madonna coupling that was too good to leave out (see last entry).
Here We Go Again!, The Kingston Trio, 1959; Here We Go Again, Demi Lovato, 2009
Black and Blue, The Rolling Stones, 1976; Black & Blue, Backstreet Boys, 2000
Frozen, movie soundtrack, 2014; Frozen II, movie soundtrack, 2019
High School Musical, TV soundtrack, 2006; High School Musical 2, TV soundtrack, 2007
Fore!, Huey Lewis & the News, 1986; IV, Godsmack, 2006; Four, One Direction, 2014; and the above-listed 4’s
Around the World in 80 Days, movie soundtrack, 1957; Around the World in a Day, Prince & the Revolution, 1985
The Breakthrough, Mary J. Blige, 2006; Breakthrough, Colbie Caillat, 2009
The Gift, Susan Boyle, 2010; The Gifted, Wale, 2013
Back Home Again, John Denver, 1974; Home Again, New Edition, 1996; Home, Dixie Chicks, 2002
Dangerous, Michael Jackson, 1991; Dangerous Minds movie soundtrack, 1995; Dangerous: The Double Album, Morgan Wallen, 2021
Double Fantasy, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1980; Double Live, Garth Brooks, 1998; Double Up, R. Kelly, 2007
American Pie, Don McLean, 1972; American Fool, John Cougar, 1982; American Life, Madonna, 2003; American Idiot, Green Day, 2004; American Gangster, Jay-Z, 2007; American Dream, LCD Soundsystem, 2017; American V: A Hundred Highways, Johnny Cash, 2006; American Beauty / American Psycho, Fall Out Boy, 2015
Untitled, Nas, 2008; untitled unremastered, Kendrick Lamar, 2016
Merry Christmas, Bing Crosby, 1957; Christmas, Michael Buble, 2011
Carnival, original cast, 1961; Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood, 2007
Purple Rain, Prince & the Revolution movie soundtrack, 1984; Purple, Stone Temple Pilots, 1994
Spirit, Leona Lewis, 2008; Free Spirit, Khalid, 2019
Ricky, Ricky Nelson, 1958; Ricky Martin, Ricky Martin, 1999
Hotel California, Eagles, 1977; California, Blink-182, 2016
1 – The Beatles, 2000; #1s, Destiny’s Child, 2005
Bad Girls, Donna Summer, 1979; Bad Boys II, movie soundtrack, 2003
Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968; Electric Youth, Debbie Gibson, 1989
Out of Time, R.E.M., 1991; Out of Exile, Audioslave, 2005
I Am…, Nas, 1999; I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé, 2008
Not Fragile, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 1974; The Fragile, Nine Inch Nails, 1999
True Blue, Madonna, 1986; Turn Blue, The Black Keys, 2014
The Wall, Pink Floyd, 1980; Walls, Kings of Leon, 2016
Like a Virgin, Madonna, 1985; Like a Prayer, Madonna, 1989
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