James Taylor Is Just The Fourth Musician To Chart A Top 10 Album In Six Decades

With another new collection to share with the world, James Taylor finds himself back inside the top 10 on the Billboard 200, the all-genre chart that ranks the most-consumed albums in the U.S. every week. The singer-songwriter’s latest studio effort American Standard, which sees the guitar player trying his hand at covering time-tested classics like “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” “Almost Like Being in Love” and “The Nearness of You,” debuts at No. 4 on the new ranking with over 80,000 equivalent units shifted, almost all of which were actual sales.

American Standard is Taylor’s thirteenth top 10 on the chart, and it has turned out to be a very lucky release indeed.

Now that he’s landed inside the top 10 with a new album in March 2020, Taylor has become just the fourth musician in U.S. history to find himself inside the uppermost area in six different decades. That’s an incredible sign that the American public still loves him like they did over half a century ago, and he joins a group that only includes a handful of the most successful musicians ever.

According to Billboard, Taylor now sits alongside Barbra Streisand, Santana and The Rolling Stones, who have all managed to climb to the top 10 in six different decades, though his accomplishment is different. Taylor first broke into the highest tier on the tally in 1970, so he has now appeared inside the arena in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, ‘10s and the ‘20s—a first among all musicians. The other three acts mentioned above started their successful runs in the ‘60s, and none of them have hit the top 10 yet this decade, though that’s not surprising given how early it still is.

When either Streisand, Santana or The Rolling Stones release a new project, there’s a fair chance they will send it straight into the top 10, becoming the first musical act to appear inside the loftiest region in seven different decades.

Gallery: The World’s 30 Top-Earning Musicians 2018

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