January 1969 Album Charts

January 1969, 50 years ago!  Wow.
I've been listening to my "Top 40 Hots of 1969" playlist the last couple of days, and marvelling at what a good year it was musically.  So, I decided to look at the album charts, and see what was popular during this month (January) of 1969.

Looking at the average chart position over the 4 Saturdays of the month, here's the top 20 albums:

• The Beatles [White Album]  -  The Beatles - 1.0
• Wichita Lineman  -  Glen Campbell - 3.8 (peaked at #2)
• Fool On The Hill  -  Sergio Mendes - 3.8 (peaked at #3)
• Diana Ross and The Supremes Join The Temptations  -  Diana Ross and The Supremes - 4.0
• The Second  -  Steppenwolf - 6.8 (peaked at #3)
• Beggars Banquet  -  The Rolling Stones - 6.8 (peaked at #5)
• Cheap Thrills  -  Big Brother And The Holding Company - 7.0
• Wildflowers  -  Judy Collins - 8.5
• In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida  -  Iron Butterfly - 9.5
• Time Peace/The Rascals' Greatest Hits  -  The Rascals - 10.3
• Electric Ladyland  -  The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 11.0
• Funny Girl (Soundtrack)  -  Barbra Streisand - 13.5
• Feliciano!  -  Jose Feliciano - 13.8
• Gentle On My Mind  -  Glen Campbell - 14.3
• Love Child  -  The Supremes - 15.3
• Aretha In Paris  -  Aretha Franklin - 16.0
• TCB  -  Diana Ross & The Supremes - 17.0
• Wheels Of Fire  -  Cream - 18.5
• Traffic  -  Traffic - 20.5
• 200 M.P.H.  -  Bill Cosby - 21.5

Several intereing things to notice.  First, The Beatles dominated, holding #1 for all 4 weeks.  It reached the top on the last chart of 1968, and would sit at #9 for a total of 9 weeks.  And not drop out of the Top 10 until April.

Next is the presence of 3 different Supremes records in the Too 20 of the month.  They had a total of 5 albums in the Top 100 during the month.  That's pretty darn impressive!

Glen Campbell only managed 2 albums in the Top 20, but also had 6 albums in the Top 100. Also impressive!

There were 9 Soundtrack albums in the Top 100, including Funny Girl (12), The Graduate (25), Doctor Zhivago (52), The Sound Of Music (53), 2001: A Space Odyssey (72), Camelot (77), Wild In The Streets (90), Star! (98) and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (99).  That's almost 10% of the Top 100.  [Note, the nimbers represent the peak for the month, not overall)

The only odd inclusion for me is Sergio Mendes.  I wasn't familiar with him, and listening to the album on Spotify (as I type), it's pretty decent, but decidedly  Jazz / Easy Listening.   It does inckude two hits:  a cover of Beatles' Fool On The Hill (#6) and a cover of Simon and Garfunkels' Scarborough Fair (#16).  Pleasant enough, but hard to imagine the album at #3.