Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s first collaborative album, Who Believes in Angels?, debuts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart dated April 19, marking the 22nd top 10 for John and fourth for Carlile.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
John earned his first Billboard 200 top 10 more than 54 years ago, with his self-titled album on the Jan. 30, 1971-dated chart. A living soloist last logged a longer top 10 span on the Oct. 16, 2021-dated survey, when Tony Bennett’s Love for Sale, with Lady Gaga, debuted at No. 8. It gave the then-95-year-old Bennett a 59-year top 10 stretch, dating to I Left My Heart in San Francisco in October 1962.
As for Carlile, she notched her first top 10 on the Billboard 200 in 2012 with Bear Creek, which debuted and peaked at No. 10 on the June 23, 2012-dated list.
Who Believes in Angels? earned 40,000 equivalent album units in the United States in its opening week (April 4-10), according to Luminate. The album’s sales (36,500) were bolstered by its availability across seven vinyl and five CD variants, including signed versions.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new April 19, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 15.
The new album also takes a bow atop both the Top Rock Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts, while also opening in the top 10 on Top Album Sales (No. 2), Indie Store Album Sales (No. 2) and Vinyl Albums (No. 3).
John and Carlile ushered in the release of the album with a flurry of media appearances, including CBS News Sunday Morning (CBS, March 30), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (April 3), Saturday Night Live (NBC, April 5) and the concert special An Evening With Elton John and Brandi Carlile (CBS and Paramount+, April 6), along with interviews with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, NPR and SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, among other outlets.
Meanwhile, the album’s title track extended John’s record for the most top 10s (43) in the history of the Adult Contemporary chart, where it rises to a new No. 9 high on the chart dated April 19.
“Nobody wants another Elton John album like the other 35 [I’ve made],” John recently told Billboard. “This one had to have energy, and it had to have a statement saying: ‘Listen, I’m nearly 78 and I’m gonna be really sounding powerful.’” Said Carlile, “I don’t think it’ll ever really catch up to how incredibly life-affirming this has been for me.”
54 Years of Top 10 Albums: John earned his first Billboard 200 top 10 a little over 54 years ago, when his self-titled album climbed 11-7 on the Jan. 30, 1971-dated chart; it peaked at No. 4 a week later (Feb. 6, 1971). Breaking down John’s 22 top 10s by decade: 13 in the 1970s, two in the 1990s, one in the 2000s, four in the 2010s and two in the 2020s. Who Believes in Angels? is John’s second album with shared artist billing to reach the top 10, following The Union, with Leon Russell, which reached No. 3 in 2010.
John continues to be among elite company of acts with at least 20 top 10-charting albums on the Billboard 200, from March 24, 1956, when the list began publishing on a regular, weekly basis, through the new, April 19, 2025-dated chart. Here’s an updated leaderboard:
Most Billboard 200 Top 10s:
38, The Rolling Stones
34, Barbra Streisand
33, Frank Sinatra
32, The Beatles
27, Elvis Presley
23, Bob Dylan
23, Madonna
22, Elton John
22, Bruce Springsteen
21, Paul McCartney/Wings
21, George Strait
20, Prince
Notably, the Kidz Bop Kids music brand has collected 24 top 10s, in 2005-16, with its series of kid-friendly covers of hit singles. The franchise’s early albums were performed mostly by anonymous studio singers, although later releases focused on branding named talent.
