Chart Revisionism At Its Worst

Last week Soft Airplane, the former #1 album by Chad VanGaalen resurfaced on the campus chart for a 21st week. It is the first album in over a year to hit this illustrious mark and the first album in the ChartAttack 2.0 era. The intrepid chart staff (a.k.a. moi) did some digging and noticed how quicker it is with the new chart structure to do a more thorough investigation of the top 50 charts.

Weekly charts based on contributing Canadian campus radio charts have been compiled since April 19, 1996. In almost 13 years of top 50 charts only 22 albums have reached the lofty pinnacle of remaining on this chart for 20 or more weeks.

The first album to reach this achievement was Sloan's One Chord To Another. It was on the chart from June 22 to December 12 (22 Weeks). But under further investigation it was found that One Chord resurfaced a month later and remained the chart for an additional 4 weeks. Since New Pornographers' 25-week success of Mass Romantic in May 2001, it was believed that this album held the record for most time spent on the charts. But Mass Romantic needs to take a backseat to One Chord To Another that has logged 26 weeks on the top 50 chart.

The controversy doesn't end there. Originally we have been citing that Bran Van 3000's Glee spent 21 weeks on the chart between May and September 1997.  Six months later, the album was re-released on Capitol (with a few extra tracks added and a few questionable samples and French language removed) the new Glee spent five weeks on the chart between March and May 1998, totaling 26 weeks on the chart too. Of the 22 albums, only two aren't Canadian, TV On The Radio's Return From Cookie Mountain (21 weeks) and The (International) Noise Conspiracy's A New Morning, Changing Weather (20 weeks). Also, only one band has more that one album on the list. The New Pornographers' Electric Version also topped the 20-week mark, lasting 23 weeks during the middle of 2003.

Here is the complete list of the 26 albums (dates indicate week entering and exiting chart):

26 Weeks
Sloan — One Chord To Another    (6/22/96  to  2/20/97)
Bran Van 3000 — Glee    (9/25/97 to 5/8/97 and 3/12/98 to 5/7/98)
25 Weeks
New Pornographers — Mass Romantic    (11/2/00 to 5/24/01)

24 Weeks 
Royal City — Alone At The Microphone    11/15/01 to 5/16/02)
Hot Hot Heat — Knock Knock Knock EP    4/11/02 to 9/19/02)
Said The Whale — Islands Disappear (8/10/09 to 28/03/10, 18/04/10)

23 Weeks
New Pornographers — Electric Version    (5/1/03 to 10/9/03)
Joel Plaskett — Three    (05/04/09 to 22/11/09) and (01/09/10)

22 Weeks
Weakerthans — Left And Leaving    (7/13/00 to 12/14/00)
Arcade Fire — Funeral    (9/9/04 to 3/10/05)
Stars — Set Yourself On Fire    (11/4/04 to 4/14/05)
Emily Haines/Soft Skeleton — Knives Don't Have Your Back   (9/7/06 to 2/22/07)
Julie Doiron — I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (3/8/09 to 8/23/09) and(01/09/10)


21 Weeks
Death From Above 1979 — You're A Woman, I'm A Machine    (9/2/04 to 2/10/05)
Broken Social Scene — Broken Social Scene    (10/20/05 to 3/30/06)
Hidden Cameras — Awoo    (8/24/06 to 2/1/07)
TV On The Radio — Return To Cookie Mountain    (9/7/06 to 2/22/07)
Caribou — Andorra    (8/23/07 to 1/24/08)
Chad VanGaalen — Soft Airplane    (8/30/08 to 2/22/09)

20 Weeks
Julie Doiron — Loneliest In The Morning   (9/18/97 to 2/6/98)
Constantines — Constantines    (6/7/01 to 2/14/02)
(International) Noise Conspiracy — A New Morning, Changing Weather   (10/1/01 to 2/21/02)
The Organ — Grab That Gun    (5/20/04 to 10/7/04)
Tokyo Police Club — A Lesson In Crime EP    (5/4/06 to 9/14/06)
Shout Out Out Out Out — Not Saying/Just Saying    (7/27/06 to 1/11/07)
Metric — Fantasies  (4/19/09 to 22/11/09)