After it was pointed out that Britney Spears has had 5 #2 albums in the UK chart without a #1 album (including her Greatest Hits collections), is she the artist who's had the most albums to chart at this position without ever hitting the top spot?

I’m shocked her debut or second album didn’t top the chart

Baby One More Time started slow and it eventually peaked almost 1 year after release, didn't make it to #1 but stayed in the top 20 forever

Album 2 was a bit unlucky, was released same week as Whitney - Greatest Hits, which was a huge seller, on week 2 Whitney's album even beat Eminem's The Marshall Matters 1st week. Just checked and Oops did 88k in the UK in week 1.

 

But sure Britney was always more popular in the US. Oops did 500k in day 1 alone, with over 1,3 million in week 1, which was a record for a female until Adele came along.

 

No clue if Britney holds the record for #2s... I can only think of A-ha and Sheryl Crow with 3 #2s... A-ha with their first 3 albums, which is really unlucky...

 

 

I didn't know this, Britney being the UK Album equivalent of Sash!

They do have 5 #1 albums too so a moot point for this thread but always found it interesting that Bon Jovi have had 7 #2 albums since they last topped the chart (though their last couple of albums only got #3 and #5 so missing out on updating that curious stat). Jon Bon Jovi as a solo artist also has 2 #2 albums and nothing else.

Britney was very unlucky with Oops! I Did It Again. It was leading the midweeks but ended up losing out by 1.2k to Whitney as bjork pointed out.

 

Her 2004 Greatest Hits sold 115k on debut week and was again midweek #1, but Eminem released Encore on the Friday and sold 122k in two days.

 

Blackout was up against the Eagles' comeback album, their first album of new material in 28 years.

^oh and it the US, Blackout missed cos Billboard did a last minute rule change and allowed the Eagles in the charts (the Eagles album was exclusive to Walmart, and up to that moment, exclusive albums were not allowed in the charts), otherwise Blackout was gonna be #1... so Britney has been always a bit unlucky :)