Australian Charts: Barry Gibb 'Greenfields' Is Australia's No 1 Album

Barry Gibb scores his first ever solo No.1 Album in Australia this week with a collection of re-recorded Bee Gees tracks alongside multiple artists on “Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook 1′.

“Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook 1” becomes the 902nd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 752nd for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 539th to debut at No.1 (1976-2021), the first chart topping album for 2021, and the 25th No.1 album for the record label Capitol, who scored two #1’s in 2020 for 5SOS (April 6th) and Keith Urban (Sept 28th), and Keith is one of the many artists on this album performing duets alongside Barry Gibb (the fourth and final Bee Gees member staying alive), plus the album also comes in at the top of the English Albums chart this week too.

Further artists singing alongside Barry are Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow, Little Big Town, and more Aussie artists like Tommy Emmanuel and Olivia Newton-John. Most of the songs have a country tinge to them, with a second volume due later on, maybe with a dance feel to them.

As Barry Gibb is the only surviving member of The Bee Gees, and the bands founding member alongside his twin brother Maurice and Robin (with Andy later joining them in the 1970’s) I have bunched together both The Bee Gees and Barry’s No.1 tally, which means all together they have spent 15 weeks at No.1 in Australia, with “Spirit Having Flown” (5 weeks from March 1979), “Greatest Hits” (3 weeks from mid-Dec 1979) and their last was “One Night Only” (6 weeks from late March 1999), meaning the group (and Barry) move up to No.43 on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ (from #47) equal with Matchbox 20 (15 weeks from 4 #1s).

Three of the four words with the title of this week’s No.1 Album are first time venturers to the top spot, with ‘Greenfields’ (or even as separate words ‘Green’ or ‘Fields’) ‘Gibb’ and ‘Songbook’, but there has been one previous ‘Brothers’ at No.1, the longest running chart-topper of the 1980’s, Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms” (34 weeks from 27-May, 1985). As Barry Gibb is both Australian and English, he becomes the 251st Aussie act to hit No.1 locally, and the album is the 257th by a Solo Male Performer (local or overseas) to make it to the top here, of which there were eleven such artists in 2020.

The second album for American country singer Morgan Wallen called “Dangerous: The Double Album” debuts at No.2 this week, becoming his first Top 10 entry in Australia and his second overall entry, as his debut set “If I Know Me” made it to No.53 in May of 2018. This is followed by two place drops for last weeks top three albums in “evermore” by Taylor Swift (still No.1 in both America and Canada for a third week), “Fine Line” by Harry Styles and “F**k Love/Savage (EP)” for The Kid Laroi to No.3, No.4 and No.5 respectively.

The third and final Top 10 debut this week is the twelfth studio album for English singer/songwriter Passenger called “Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted”, which enters at No.6 and becomes his seventh Top 100 entry and now his sixth Top 10 placing in Australia, and it also becomes his first chart entry since 2018 ninth album “Runaway” (HP-7, Sept 2018).

Also dropping down this week are Pop Smoke with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” (5 to No.7), “Plastic Hearts” by Miley Cyrus (6 to No.9) and “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa (8 to No.10), with a returning-to-the-ten entry at No.8 (up three places) for Luke Combs’ second album “What You See is What You Get”, logging a sixteenth week within the Top 10.

UP:
TOP 20: One album rises within the Top 20 this week, The Weeknd’s “After Hours” is up four to No.17 thanks to a fourth single from the album in “Save Your Tears” entering at No.50 over on the singles chart this week.
TOP 30: Once again only one climber here too, but it’s a massive jump of twenty-five places to land at No.29 for The Arctic Monkeys last studio album “AM”, thanks to the album landing at No.2 on the vinyl sales chart this week.
TOP 40: Spacey Jane rebounds six spots to No.32 with “Sunlight”, while Halsey logs her 52nd week on the charts (1 year) with “Manic”, which is back up one spot to No.38. SZA scores her third overall Top 10 single this week, and that has helped her debut album “CTRL” (of which the new single is NOT on) to rebound eighteen places to land at a new peak of No.39, one place higher than the albums entry position from late June of 2017. After which is a second new peaking album of the week, Jack Harlow and his debut set “That’s What They All Say”, which is up four places to No.40.
TOP 50: Megan Thee Stallion is up one spot to No.42 with her latest set “Good News”, one place lower than it’s former peak of No.41 (Nov 30th, 2020), while climbing back up eight places to land at No.50 is the Green Day best of “God’s Favourite Band”.

DOWN:
TOP 20: Four albums leave the Top 10 this week, none as dramatic as last weeks Xmas fallouts, AC/DC’s “Power Up” (HP-1×4, WI10-8) falls seven to No.11, “folklore” for Taylor Swift (HP-1×4, WI10-20) dips five to No.12, Billie Eilish and her set “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (HP-1×8, WI10-77a) falls four to No.13, and also down four to No.14 is Ariana Grande with “Positions” (HP-2×2, WI10-6). Further four droppers are “÷ (Divide)” for Ed Sheeran, “Love Goes” by Sam Smith and “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac to No.18, No.19 and No.20 respectively.
TOP 30: Best of sets to fall in this region are for Elton John (18 to No.22), Maroon 5 (23 to No.24) and Eminem (26 to No.27), while the American rapper is back-to-back with himself this week, as his latest studio album “Music to Be Murdered by” falls nine spots to land at No.26.
TOP 40: Both falling six places apiece are the Queen biopic soundtrack ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and XXXTentacion set “?” to No.31 and No.35 respectively, while Taylor Swift has two albums within this chart region, “Lover” is stable at No.34 and “1989” dips five to No.36.
TOP 50: The INXS “Very Best of” tumbles eleven spots to No.43, the self-titled debut Harry Styles album dips eight places to No.44, while plummeting twenty-one chart rungs to No.49 is the latest Avalanches release “We Will Always Love You”.

NO FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 8th to the 14th of January, 2021.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

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