Meat Loaf Tops UK’s Official Debut Albums Chart For National Album Day

Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell tops a newly-published chart of the UK’s biggest debut albums, in which landmark opening releases by Lady Gaga, the Spice Girls, Keane, and Sam Smith figure in the Top 10 of. The list, topped by, was compiled by the Official Charts Company to mark yesterday’s (15) National Album Day, which has debut albums as its 2022 theme, and broadcast in a special countdown by BBC Radio 2.

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The chart was calculated by UK sales and streams beginning in 1956. James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam is the highest-placed debut by a British male artist at No.2, and Leona Lewis’ Spirit the biggest by a UK female artist at No.3. Lady Gaga’s 2008 debut The Fame is at No.4 in the countdown, with the Spice Girls’ first album, 1996’s Spice, at No.6. Keane’s 2004 release Hopes and Fears is at No.7 and Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour (2014) at No.9. Twelve of the Top 20 titles are by UK artists.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI & BRIT Awards, and Kim Bayley, chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) – the two organisations behind National Album Day – said jointly: “Releasing a first album is a landmark early step in the career of every successful recording artist, so to rank among the 40 biggest debuts of all time is an astonishing achievement. Each of these albums captures a moment in time when the artists behind them were first finding their feet. For some, their debut represented the apex of their career, but for others it was the start of a journey to even greater success.”

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, added: “Congratulations to all of the artists on this special National Album Day chart. Any artist with an album successful enough to appear on this fantastic list, the Official Debut Albums Chart, will have come out of the traps at the beginning of their careers and truly hit the ground running. A debut album is, for many artists, the most personal album of their careers, the only album they spend their whole lives to that point making – so, to connect with the public in such an incredible way is truly impressive.”

The Top 20 of the Official Debut Albums Chart is:

Bat Out Of Hell – Meat Loaf (1977)
Back To Bedlam – James Blunt (2004)
Spirit – Leona Lewis (2007)
The Fame – Lady Gaga (2008)
No Angel – Dido (1999)
Spice – Spice Girls (1996)
Hopes And Fears – Keane (2004)
Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1994)
In The Lonely Hour – Sam Smith (2014)
Parachutes – Coldplay (2000)
Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield (1973)
Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (2004)
Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman (1988)
+ – Ed Sheeran (2011)
Come Away With Me – Norah Jones (2002)
19 – Adele (2008)
Appetite for Destruction – Guns N’ Roses (1987)
Our Version of Events – Emeli Sandé (2012)
Definitely Maybe – Oasis (1994)
Hot Fuss – The Killers (2004)