Prince’s vault has yielded another victory. The virtuoso’s posthumous album, Timeless, has debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.
Amid a slate of new arrivals, Timeless is the only new entry on this week’s chart, which remains led by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The Purple One’s latest offering is his 16th visit to the top 10 and his first since the super deluxe reissue of Diamonds And Pearls peaked at No. 10 in 2023. It’s worth noting the R&B Albums chart was officially launched in 2012.
Here is an overview of Prince’s top 10s on Billboard’s R&B Albums chart, ranked in order by peak and year:
- ART OFFICIAL AGE, No. 1 (2014)
- Purple Rain (Soundtrack), No. 1 (2017)
- Piano & A Microphone 1983, No. 1 (2018)
- Welcome 2 America, No. 1 (2021)
- HITnRUN: Phase One, No. 2 (2015)
- Originals, No. 2 (2019)
- Sign ‘O’ The Times, No. 2 (2020)
- 4ever, No. 3 (2016)
- HITNRUN: Phase Two, No. 3 (2016)
- Prince And The Revolution: Live, No. 3 (2022)
- Timeless, No. 5 (2026)
- The Truth, No. 6 (2021)
- The Gold Experience, No. 6 (2022)
- The Very Best Of Prince, No. 8 (2017)
- 1999, No. 9 (2019)
- Diamonds And Pearls, No. 10 (2023)
Elsewhere on Billboard, Timeless debuts at No. 8 on Vinyl Albums, No. 9 on Top Album Sales, No. 9 on Top Digital Albums, No. 12 on Indie Store Albums, No. 14 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 59 on the Billboard 200.
Released Aug. 28, Timeless is a 10-track collection of songs from the Prince Vault, with recordings spanning 1977 to 2016. L. Londell McMillan, co-manager of the Prince Estate, said, “Timeless describes Prince in many ways, even beyond his musical genius. Prince was indeed one of only one, a legendary artist and master musician with unprecedented style, faith, courage, dignity and brilliance. His overall essence and spirit remains timeless.”
Compilation Producer of Timeless, Charles F. Spicer Jr, said, “One of the goals behind Timeless was to capture the extraordinary breadth of Prince’s creativity and artistry across nearly four decades.”
Timeless garnered mixed reactions from some hardcore fans and critics alike. NPR praised it for “the incredible range and stylistic rule-breaking,” while Rolling Stone said, “It’s not even all that interesting as a collection of outtakes.” One track in particular, “Calabama,” recorded in 2003, drew criticism and questions from fans who suspected it was tweaked after the fact.
NPG Records and Prince’s management team released a joint statement offering context and clarity. “At the bridge of ‘Calabama,’ Prince’s vocal calls out twice for ‘horns,’ but the archived multitrack featured a synthesizer filling that space, which horn players later dubbed. Consistent with Prince’s songwriting and production approach on numerous previous recordings, a group of horn players who played with Prince were assembled to overdub Prince’s synthesizer track with the intended horn line, and this version was released on Timeless,” the statement read.
It continued, “All of Prince’s original recorded parts remain intact, with trombone, saxophone, and trumpet added by Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield, and Lynn Grissett. These musicians had close ties to Prince and were credited on the album packaging, despite some claims to the contrary. Except for ‘Calabama,’ no overdubs were used on any other recording for Timeless, posthumously. Of course, no AI was used on any Prince music.”
