With 43 years in the music business, Black Sabbath has a lot of numbers to its credit, except for No. 1.
Until today.
For the first time, Black Sabbath has claimed the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s album chart with “13,” selling 155,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s probably no coincidence that “13” is the band’s first studio album with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978’s “Never Say Die!” The closest the band has ever come to No. 1 in the U.S. is No. 8, with 1971’s “Master of Reality.” Ozzy has never had a No. 1 album as a solo artist, though seven of his albums have gone top 10.
Forty-three years is a really long time to wait, but surprisingly, not the longest. It took 54 years for Tony Bennett to get a No. 1 album, with “Duets II” (2011).
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