Recommendations of the Editorial team
Paul McCartney’s new solo album “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” has appeared here, there and everywhere on the current Billboard charts – especially at number one. The album, which includes the singles “Days We Left Behind” and “Home to Us,” debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, which calculates an album’s popularity based on a combination of sales and so-called album equivalent streaming units, but according to the industry publication, it landed at the same time at number one on the Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales charts.
McCartney achieved this achievement with 63,000 album equivalent units in the US for the week ending June 4, Billboard reports. The pure sales figures amounted to 59,500 units, 32,000 of which were on vinyl.
This is not uncommon for the former Beatle – he has experienced the development of the album charts first hand in over five decades as an artist. The Boys of Dungeon Lane is Macca’s 22nd album to reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including Wings LPs. His first solo Top 10 album was McCartney, which debuted at number one 56 years ago. There are also 32 Beatles albums that reached the same heights. The Beatles’ first top 10 album, “Meet the Beatles!”, was released 62 years ago.
McCartney beats the Stones
In a list of the most Billboard 200 top 10s, the Billboard report lists the Rolling Stones as having 38 albums. However, if you add up McCartney’s solo, Wings and Beatles top 10s, he surpasses his friends with a total of 54 entries.
In his native Great Britain, McCartney’s new album was received even more enthusiastically. According to the Official UK Charts Company, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is the number one album in England – and also tops the UK Albums Sales Chart, the Physical Albums Chart, the Vinyl Albums Chart and the Record Store Chart. It also reached number one in Scotland, but only reached number eight in Ireland – notable since McCartney’s family originally comes from Ireland and emigrated to Liverpool via Scotland. The album took second place in the country’s download charts.
In its review, ROLLING STONE gave it an outstanding four and a half out of five stars and described the album as a “warm, nostalgic late work masterpiece”. “Several songs are about McCartney’s early years in Liverpool, including a duet with his old friend Ringo Starr about the good old days; the album title refers to a street in the neighborhood where both he and George Harrison grew up,” the review reads. “Overall, the album conveys the image of a legend who looks back on a fulfilled life.”
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Why does Campino think that sometimes it’s good to just keep your mouth shut? Why does he sometimes feel like a drinks delivery man? He provides the answer in our cover story about the Toten Hosen’s big farewell, exclusively in issue 06/26. And that’s not all: the magazine includes the world exclusive 7-inch single “Always just loved” – on which Sven Regener from Element of Crime also contributed. You can easily order the ROLLING STONE edition here.