Grateful Dead has made the record for the most Top 40 albums to chart on the Billboard 200. As the publication notes, with the debut of archival release Dave’s Picks, Volume 49: Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA (4/27/85 & 4/28/85) at #25 of this week’s chart, the group have moved ahead of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, who they were previously tied with 58 albums apiece. Grateful Dead now have 59 total Top 40 entries on the chart.
Most of Grateful Dead’s Top 40 appearances have occurred long after the group disbanded in the wake of Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. As Billboard notes, 41 of their 59 entries into the Top 40 have happened since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the series of archival albums complied by David Lemieux. The latest Dave Picks volume earned 21,000 equivalent album units in the US, all those traditional CD sales sold through the band’s website.
Another volume in the Dave’s Picks series will be released in April, and it will document the band’s May 1977 shows at the Palladium in New York City.
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