'60s Rock Legends Made Chart History 43 Years After First No. 1 Album
In 2013, Black Sabbath made history after they soared to the top of the charts - a whopping 42 years and 8 months after they'd first reached the No. 1 position on the charts.
13, the heavy metal band's nineteenth and final studio album saw the British rockers take the top spot on the U.K. Official Albums Chart nearly 43 years after they had first earned the coveted position. In 1970, their second studio album, Paranoid, also reached No. 1 on the U.K. charts.
This achievement was a major milestone for the band, pushing Bob Dylanoff the top spot for the longest gap between No. 1 albums. Prior to Black Sabbath taking the crown, Dylan held a 38-year record between New Morning, released in 1970, and Together Through Life, released in 2009. Rod Stewartfollows closely behind with a 37-year gap between 1976's A Night on the Town and 2013's Time.
"It's great! But Rod's the same as us, we've got something other people haven't got," Ozzy Osbourne told NME, per Rolling Stone, at the time. "It's all manufactured bulls*** these days. But the likes of Rod, and Elton John and us have got something different. We know our craft."
13 was Black Sabbath's first album release in 18 years, following 1995's Forbidden. It was also the first album to feature the band's original frontman, Osbourne, and bassistGeezer Butlerin 35 years.
Per NME, the band named the album 13 to "piss off" the record label, who had asked them to record exactly 13 songs.
"Originally the record company wanted us to do 13 songs so that we'd have a choice. We'd get to ten and we'd go ‘OK, that's it, we're not writing any more,'" recalled Butler. "They'd say ‘no, we want 13′ so it was like, let's call the album '13' just to piss them off… and then we ended doing 16!"
In addition to their record-breaking No. 1 achievement on the U.K. charts, 13's lead single, "God Is Dead?" won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
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This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 10:57 AM.