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The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album returns to Number 1 on this week’s Official Albums Chart, setting a new UK chart record.

The Fab Four’s eleventh studio album reclaims the top spot thanks to a special edition release to celebrate its 50th anniversary featuring previously unheard material from the recording sessions.

Abbey Road sets a UK chart record as the album with the longest time between reaching Number 1 on the Official Chart, at 49 years and 252 days. Its initial 17-week run at the top came to end on January 31st 1970. View The Beatles' complete Official UK Chart history here.

The Beatles previously held the record with their Sgt Pepper’s album, which had a gap of 49 years and 125 days between topping the chart, when its anniversary re-release reached Number 1 in June 2017.

Celebrating the news, Sir Paul McCartney said: “It’s hard to believe that Abbey Road still holds up after all these years. But then again it’s a bloody cool album.”

Abbey Road is also this week’s best-selling album on vinyl, shifting just under 9,000 copies on wax.



MORE: 13 facts about The Beatles' Abbey Road album

Meanwhile, last week’s Number 1, Why Me? Why Not. by Liam Gallagher drops to 2, and Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent rebounds four places to Number 3 following his recent BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Symphony. The album is currently the UK’s biggest record released in 2019 with 423,000 chart sales to date.

South London collective D-Block Europe score a big entry with their PTSD mixtape, new at Number 4, and Swedish prog-metal group Opeth land their fifth UK Top 40 with their thirteenth collection In Cauda Venenum at Number 13.

US singer-songwriter Beth Hart is new at 19 with War In My Mind, North Carolina rapper Dababy opens at Number 24 with his second album Kirk, and Scouting For Girls land their seventh Top 40 album with The Trouble With Boys at 25.

Further down, Becky Hill’s Get To Know – a collection of her biggest tracks to date – is new at Number 33, and a new greatest hits by British rockers Thunder opens at Number 35.