The former No. 1 hasn’t been in the top 10 in over 50 years.
George Harrison’s former No. 1 album All Things Must Pass returns to the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart for the first time since 1971, as the set re-enters at No. 7 (on the Aug. 21-dated list) following its 50th anniversary reissue on Aug. 6.
The album was newly mixed and reissued in a variety of formats for its re-release. All versions of the album, including the original 1970 release, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 21, 2021-dated chart (where All Things Must Pass returns to the top 10) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Aug. 17. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
All together, the set earned 32,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Aug. 12 — up 1,401% (from about 2,000 in the week previous), according to MRC Data. Of its 32,000 units earned, album sales comprise 28,000, SEA units comprise 3,000 (equaling 3.96 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000.
The album, Harrison’s third solo studio effort and first No. 1 album, topped the Billboard 200 chart for seven consecutive weeks in 1971 (Jan. 2-Feb. 13, 1971-dated charts). It debuted at No. 5 on the Dec. 19, 1970 chart, and was last in the top 10 on the March 27, 1971-dated list, where it ranked at No. 9.
The album launched a pair of top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart: Harrison’s first No. 1, the double-sided hit “My Sweet Lord” / “Isn’t It a Pity,” and the No. 10 hit “What Is Life.” (Harrison of course racked up numerous earlier No. 1s on both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts as a member of The Beatles.)
With All Things Must Pass’ return to the top 10 on the Billboard 200, it marks Harrison’s first time in the region since 1988, when Cloud Nine peaked at No. 8. It’s also Harrison’s highest rank since Dark Horse galloped to No. 4 on Jan. 25, 1975. (Harrison died in 2001.)
All Things Must Pass was reissued in a sizable number of formats for its anniversary. Among them: a standard 23-track set (available as either a digital album, a two-CD or a three-vinyl LP set) a deluxe edition (23 standard tracks, plus 17 demos, outtakes and jams, on a three-CD or five-vinyl LP set), a super deluxe edition (23 standard tracks plus 47 demos, outtakes and jams, on digital download, a five-CD-plus blu-ray set, or an eight-vinyl LP set) and even an uber deluxe edition (the same 23 standard tracks and 47 bonus tracks on the super deluxe — on five CDs, one blu-ray and eight vinyl LPs — but housed in a collectible wooden crate with memorabilia and two books documenting the making of the album). Pricing for the various editions ranged from about $13-$25 (for the standard album across its various formats) to $1,000-plus (depending on the retailer) for the uber deluxe edition.
