Spice Girls Album No. 1 On Charts

You can still count the number of girl groups with No. 1 albums on the fingers of one hand, even with the inevitable advance of Spice Girls to the top of The Billboard 200.

In its 14th chart week, “Spice” rises from No. 3 to No. 1 this week, making it the first girl group album to hit pole position since “Beauty And The Beat” by the Go-Go’s held sway for six weeks, beginning March 6, 1982.

The only other female outfit to lead the list in the rock era was Diana Ross & the Supremes. That Motown trio had three No. 1 albums, starting with “The Supremes A’ Go-Go” in 1966. A greatest-hits collection topped the chart the following year, and the TV soundtrack “TCB,” recorded with the Temptations, had a single week at the summit in February 1969.

That easily makes Spice Girls the only British female group to ascend to No. 1 on the album chart.

Bananarama, the London-based trio with a No. 1 single to its credit (“Venus”), managed to climb to only No. 15 on The Billboard 200 with “True Confessions” in 1986.

Spice Girls are the only British group with a debut album going to No. 1 that is made up of artists who have never charted before.