James Taylor Reaches No. 1 After 45 Years, But You’ll Stop Cheering When You Hear Why

Everyone cheer for James Taylor! After 45 long years in the music business, he’s finally released an album that’s made it to No. 1 on the charts.

Now, promptly stop cheering, because Taylor’s achievement is actually kind of pointless and he’ll probably drop off the chart next week, according to experts at The Atlantic. Simply put, being No. 1 doesn’t mean what it used to.

But before we burst James’ bubble, let’s celebrate this moment and acknowledge that what he’s done is actually pretty cool.

Late-blooming musicians — and you can’t really called James a late-bloomer — aren’t uncommon. Plenty of artists have either earned this achievement late in their career, or avoided it all together, but still remained both popular and successful.

Take Tony Bennett for instance. After debuting his velvet pipes in 1957, a No. 1 album evaded him until 2011 with “Duets II.” He holds the record, Variety reported. But Taylor did beat Black Sabbath on the “longest wait for a No. 1 album” race. The band spent 43 years chasing the top spot without reaching it, Billboard added.

Sting, The Who, 311, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Kiss, and Sheryl Crow are also very familiar with the top 10, but that’s it.

James’ 45-year spree, however, has now come to an end. He released “Sweet Baby James” in 1970, which was his biggest record and reached number three on the charts. He’s since put out 11 more records that edged into the top 10.

“Before This World,” released June 16, will officially be No. 1 on July 4. Taylor has edged out young whipper-snappers Taylor Swift, Adam Lambert, Hilary Duff, and Nate Ruess to get first place.

And for that, everyone should shake his hand. Now it’s time to burst his bubble.

The truth of the matter is, “Before This World” sold only 96,000 copies. Back in “the day,” 100,000 wouldn’t even get you close, The Atlantic reported.

Here are some other late arrivals to No. 1: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Weird Al Yankovic, Cake, the Decemberists. They all made it there because the music industry has changed. Until 2014, Billboard still counted only physical records in calculating its charts. But people don’t really buy whole albums anymore, now they buy tracks, or, most commonly, stream music.

So even if the Decemberists are a cool band, they weren’t actually the most popular at the time, and they swiftly fell from their brief glory. Now, Billboard counts streams and track sales when it calculates their chart so it’ll be more relevant.

More to the point, a pretty small (older, white, male) group actually still buys albums anymore. Boomers and their hipster kids mostly do, and their interest is enough to nudge their faves up the charts — but briefly.

So sorry, James Taylor. It’s good to be at the top, but enjoy it while you can.

[Photo Courtesy Cindy Ord/Getty Images]