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The Beatles were a magical band. Paul McCartney and John Lennon found it easy to write songs together in the early days, and those shared hits helped propel the band to international fame and a slew of No. 1 songs and albums. Still, One Direction set a record The Beatles never could with their debut album.

One Direction members (from left) Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan posing at a 2013 award show; Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison of The Beatles circa 1965.
(l-r) Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan of One Direction; Beatles members Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison | Larry Busacca/AMA2013/Getty Images for DCP; Bettmann/Contributor

One Direction set a record The Beatles never could by debuting at the top of the Billboard albums chart 

We won’t sit here and pretend One Direction had the same cultural impact as The Beatles. 

The Fab Four churned out dozens of top-100 songs during their short time together, tunes that still stand as some of the best ever. The boy band that gave Harry Styles his start never had a No. 1 hit; Liverpool’s most famous group had 20 chart-toppers.

Still, One Direction did something The Beatles never could by having their debut album start at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. 

Up All Night landed in the top spot to start its run on the charts. The album sold 176,000 copies in its first week, per Billboard. It spent just seven days in the top spot, but the 2012 record survived 105 weeks on the charts. One Direction pulled the same trick — starting at the top — with their subsequent albums Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), and FOUR (2014).

Still, One Direction wasn’t the first English group to have a debut album reach No. 1 in the United States. That record belongs to…

Spice Girls bested The Beatles and One Direction with their first album

Another manufactured group from England set a record neither The Beatles nor One Direction could. Spice Girls’ first album, Spice, became the first debut album by a British band to top the Billboard charts.

Led Zeppelin couldn’t do it. Neither could the Clash. The Beatles didn’t come close (Please Please Me topped out at 155 — in 2010). 

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That said, the music industry of the late 20th and early 21st centuries was vastly different from the one The Beatles operated in. 

MTV’s international reach helped groups become stars overnight. The video for the Spice Girls hit “Wannabe” was all over the airwaves in 1997. Spotify helped One Direction reach fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as soon as they debuted. That helped them set a record The Beatles never could by having a debut record start at the top. The only Fab Four release to enter the chart at No. 1 was (appropriately) 1, a collection of their hit singles. 

Spice Girls and One Direction outperformed The Beatles with their debut records, but that was the beginning and end of them dominating the Fab Four. 

Meet The Beatles!, their second US album, was their first to reach No. 1 . Once they reached the top, they hardly let it go. The Beatles Second Album (which, confusingly, was their third U.S. record), A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles ’65, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be all went to the top of the charts (among other compilations also going No. 1). 

It took a very specific set of circumstances and a different music industry landscape, but One Direction set a record The Beatles never could by immediately putting their debut album at the top of the Billboard charts. The Spice Girls also outdid the Fab Four by reaching No. 1 with their first record. But in terms of lasting legacy and cultural impact, no one will ever beat The Beatles.

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