It took nearly 37 years, but Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers can finally celebrate hitting the top of Billboard 200 chart.
The band’s new “Hypnotic Eye” hit No. 1 on the chart for selling 131,000 copies for the week ending Aug. 3, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
That makes it the best debut sales week for Petty since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, and his best sales number overall since 1994 when his solo album, “Wildflowers” sold 161,000 copies the week after Christmas.
Though this nearly four decade wait is awfully long, it’s not the longest period of time a musical star or group had to wait for its first No. 1 ranking on the chart. That “honor” goes to Tony Bennett, who had to wait 54 years for his first chart topper — “Duets II,” released in 2011. The singing legend’s first charted album was “Tony,” which was released in February, 1957.
