Jagger and co reach milestone against former rivals with 15th No 1 LP
The Rolling Stones have pulled level with The Beatles for number one records after landing their 15th chart-topping album, according to the Official Charts Company.
The 14-track record – titled Foreign Tongues – follows their 2023 release Hackney Diamonds and has been widely praised by critics as a late-career peak.
The record was released on Friday and has shot to the top of the charts, meaning the Grammy-winning group has achieved the same number of No 1 albums as The Beatles.
The Stones, widely regarded as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, are led by singer Sir Mick Jagger and guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.
The rivalry between The Beatles and the Stones was largely created by their fans and the two groups have enjoyed mostly friendly competition and occasionally worked together.
In 1967, Paul McCartney and John Lennon sang backing vocals on the Stones single We Love You.
In that same year, the Stones’ Brian Jones played saxophone on a Beatles track that ultimately became the B-side You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).
In 2021, the rivalry comments were renewed by fans after Sir Paul jokingly said of the Stones: “They’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”
Just a few weeks later, however, Sir Mick responded in a tongue-in-cheek manner at a Los Angeles concert, telling the crowd that Sir Paul was in the audience and would “join us in a blues cover”.
The official albums chart has also seen December 10 secure the highest-charting debut for a British boy band in six years with On Your Side – which is at No 5.
The English-Irish pop group were formed by Simon Cowell in 2025 as part of his Netflix documentary The Next Act, which saw him on the hunt for the next hit boy band.
Elsewhere on the official albums chart, US rock band My Chemical Romance sits at No 2 with a remastered version of their 2010 record Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.
Following at No 3 is Olivia Rodrigo with her chart-topping album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love – which landed her the biggest opening week of her career after its release last month.
Michael Jackson’s compilation album The Essential is at No 4, amid an ongoing resurgence of the late singer prompted by the release of a biopic depicting his life.
Over on the UK singles chart, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s award-winning hit Rein Me In is enjoying a 17th non-consecutive week at the summit.
The track has overtaken Bryan Adams’ long-running No 1 (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, which sat at the top of the charts for 16 consecutive weeks in 1991.
It is one week away from equalling Frankie Laine’s 1953 hit I Believe in enjoying the most weeks at No 1 ever and was recently crowned the longest-running No 1 single of all time by a British act.
Oasis’s Wonderwall, which had been adopted by England fans throughout the World Cup as an unofficial anthem, sits at No 2.
