Little Mix's Glory Days sets UK chart record as the longest-reigning Top 40 girl group album ever

Little Mix have asserted their dominance on the Official Chart with the news that they have a new chart record under their belt.

Their fourth album Glory Days, originally released in November 2016, has notched up the most weeks in the Official Albums Chart Top 40 of *any* girlband in chart history – yep, that's right. They have overtaken legends like Spice Girls and the Supremes to take their place at the top of the all-time rundown of weeks spent in the Top 40, notching up an incredible 69 weeks to date.

Upon release, Glory Days went straight in at Number 1 to become the band's first chart-topping album, spending five non-consecutive weeks there over the next few weeks. It's notched up an incredible 29 weeks in the Top 20, and spent a year straight in the Top 40 before dropping out for just one week before zooming back into the Top 10. See where all of Little Mix's hit singles and albums have charted in the UK.

Tying on 63 weeks are two huge Nineties girlbands, Spice Girls and Eternal. Spice Girls' debut Spice was a true phenomenon, spending 15 weeks at the top over six months and managing 63 consecutive weeks in the Top 40, the most for any girlband ever, with all singles going to Number 1. Its follow-up Spiceworld also had a lengthy run – 48 weeks to land in seventh.

Eternal's debut Always & Forever, shockingly, was denied the Number 1 spot, but still managed to spend almost six months in the Official Albums Chart Top 10, and rack up 63 total weeks in the Top 40. Look back at Eternal's complete Official Chart history here.

The oldest album on our countdown comes next, and is something of a chart curiosity – it's the hits retrospective from Motown icons Diana Ross and the Supremes. This greatest hits album spent three weeks at Number 1 after its release in January 1968 and lined up 57 straight weeks in the Top 40, but a quirk of the chart which saw it reduced to a Top 15 and fluctuate in length for much of 1969 means it's officially shown as dropping out of the top flight and reappearing only a couple of times before the Official Albums Chart was established and became more standardised, giving its total weeks as 60.

Another Nineties debut, from All Saints, is next. The self-titled album also didn't reach Number 1 – a travesty! – but it did rack up 23 weeks in the Top 10, 48 consecutive weeks in the Top 40 and amassed a total of 58 across its chart run, spawning three Number 1 singles along the way. Rounding off the Top 5? Little Mix again! Third album Get Weird from 2015 has notched up 55 weeks in the Top 40.

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Destiny's Child's The Writing's on the Wall was the band's second album and, incredibly, peaked at Number 10, spending a solitary week there, but it's still manged to notch up 50 weeks on the Top 40. Also flying the flag for the US is Pussycat Dolls' debut PCD, on 47 weeks in ninth place, while our very own Sugababes' sophomore effort, 2002's Angels With Dirty Faces, racked up 35.

The longest weeks spent in the Official Albums Chart Top 40 by girl groups:

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