Adele's '21' deemed Billboard's greatest album of all time.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adele's Grammy-winning 2011 release "21" was deemed by Billboard magazine the greatest album of all time based on chart position and the soundtrack of the 1965 Julie Andrews movie "The Sound of Music" came in second.

The British singer racked up the most weeks - 24 - for an album by a woman atop the Billboard 200 album charts and saw 78 weeks in the top 10, Billboard said in a ranking released this week based on chart positions dating to 1963.

Adele's follow-up album, "25," is due to be released on Nov. 20. The first single "Hello" has already broken records for digital sales and music video views.

The Billboard rankings used a descending point system that awarded the highest value for weeks that an album spent at No. 1 with consideration for changes in chart-ranking methodology over the years.

Despite having a record 19 No. 1 hits, The Beatles placed only 54th on the all-time great album rankings with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which spent 15 straight weeks at the top in 1967.

But the Fab Four from Liverpool were named the top all-time act, followed by The Rolling Stones.




Full story at Yahoo News.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bill Trott)