Adele’s ’21’ Now Aiming To Match ‘Purple Rain’ Reign At #1

Expect Prince to let out a high-pitched scream that would make James Brown proud. Just one week after its one-year anniversary, Adele’s Grammy-winning 21 has sold another 297,000 copies and holds onto the #1 position on Billboard‘s Top 200 for a 22nd non-consecutive frame, thus passing the 21-week stretch of MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em back in 1990. This now marks the longest run at the top since Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack, which produced such hits as “When Doves Cry” and “I Would Die 4 U”, racked up 24 weeks between 1984 and 1985.

Meanwhile, Whitney Houston’s Whitney – The Greatest Hits (174,000) stays put at #2 for a second week, while the soundtrack to The Bodyguard flies up 32 positions to #6 and Whitney Houston barrels 28 spots to #9. Billboard notes that this is due to record shops replenishing their stock of the late singer’s physical CDs following her death earlier this month.

Elsewhere, fun.’s wave of success continues in the wake of their hit single “We Are Young”, as sophomore LP Some Night (70,000) debuts at #3.

The chart has two other new entries this week: “Rack City” hit-maker Tyga’s second album Careless World: Rise Of The Last King (61,000) at #4 and Chiddy Bang’s debut LP Breakfast (31,000) at #8.

The Top 10 Of Billboard’s Top 200 Chart

1. Adele, 21 *22 weeks* 2. Whitney Houston, Whitney – The Greatest Hits 3. fun., Some Nights *new* 4. Tyga, Careless World: Rise Of The Last King *new* 5. Various, Now 41 6. Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard 7. Adele, 19 8. Chiddy Bang, Breakfast *new* 9. Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston 10. Various, 2012 Grammy Nominees