Paul McCartney‘s latest solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, has landed here, there, and everywhere on Billboard‘s latest chart returns, mostly at Number One. While the LP, which contains the singles “Days We Left Behind” and “Home to Us,” bowed at Number Five on the Billboard 200, which tabulates an album’s popularity with a combination of sales and “album-equivalent” streaming units, the trade mag reports that it landed at Number One on its Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums, and Indie Store Album Sales charts.
McCartney managed this week’s feat by earning 63,000 album equivalent units in the U.S. for the week ending June 4, Billboard reports. The album’s sales, meanwhile, reached 59,500, of which 32,000 were vinyl records.
This sort of recognition is no rarity for the former Beatle, who has seen the world of album charts evolve greatly in his five-plus decades as a recording artist. The Boys of Dungeon Lane is Macca’s 22nd album to reach the Billboard 200’s Top 10, including Wings LPs. His first solo Top 10 was McCartney, which reached Number One, some 56 years ago. Meanwhile, 32 Beatles albums reached the same rare air. The Beatles’ first Top 10 album, Meet the Beatles!, came out 62 years ago.
Billboard’s report includes a list of the most Billboard 200 Top 10s, placing the Rolling Stones at the top, as they’ve scored 38 albums on the chart. But if you combine McCartney’s solo, Wings, and Beatles Top 10s, he surpasses his friends with 54 total.
McCartney’s latest solo album has received an even better reception in the U.K., though. The Official U.K. Charts Company reports that The Boys of Dungeon Lane is the Number One album in McCartney’s home country. It’s also Number One on the U.K.’s Albums Sales Chart, Physical Albums Chart, Vinyl Albums Chart, and Record Store Chart. It topped the chart in Scotland, but reached only Number Eight in Ireland, which is a shame since McCartney’s family originated in Ireland before emigrating to Liverpool via Scotland. The album was Number Two on the country’s Downloads Chart.
In a review, Rolling Stone awarded The Boys of Dungeon Lane a near-perfect score of four-and-a-half stars out of five, calling the album a “warm, nostalgic late-career masterpiece.” “There are several songs about his early years in Liverpool, including a good-old-days duet with his buddy Ringo Starr; the album’s title references a street in the neighborhood where both he and George Harrison grew up,” the review said. “Overall, there’s the sense of a legend looking back on a life well spent.”
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