Hamilton: An American Musical this week becomes the first original cast album to log 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. The album debuted at No. 12 on the chart dated Oct. 17, 2015, which was the highest debut for a cast album in more than 50 years. It peaked at No. 2 in July 2020, which was the highest ranking for a cast album since Hair topped the chart for 13 weeks in 1969.
Hamilton logs its 500th week on the chart just one month after the album was elected to the National Recording Registry in its first year of eligibility.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for Hamilton, has been showered with honors for his masterwork. He won two Tonys (best original musical score and best book of a musical), a Grammy (best musical theatre album) and the Pulitzer Prize for literature. The show’s creative team (Miranda, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire and Andy Blankenbuehler) was even honored at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Miranda also won a Primetime Emmy (outstanding variety special, pre-recorded) in 2021 as a producer of a Disney TV adaptation.
To mark Hamilton’s 500-week chart achievement, we have prepared this list of the 10 cast albums with the most weeks on the Billboard 200 (which dates to March 1956). Hamilton is one of just two shows on the list where a solitary songwriter wrote both music and lyrics for the show. The other: The Music Man, written by Meredith Willson.
Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe are the only songwriter(s) with two albums in the top 10 – My Fair Lady and Camelot. Lady gave us such standards as “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” Camelot spawned “If Ever I Would Leave You” and “How to Handle a Woman.” Both shows had the same female lead – the incomparable Julie Andrews.
Here are the 10 cast albums with the most weeks on the Billboard 200.
Because of how the Billboard 200 chart is now compiled, where streaming activity is blended with album sales and track sales, albums tend to spend a longer time on the list thanks to continued streaming activity. The chart began utilizing streaming information in its methodology in December 2014. Previous to that, the chart was based solely on traditional album sales.
Also, a lengthy tracklist with multiple popular songs can help accrue large streaming totals, so albums like Hamilton (with 46 tracks) benefit from the continued weekly streams of their long tracklists.
Further, older albums (known as catalog albums; generally defined today as titles at least 18 months old), were mostly restricted from charting on the Billboard 200 from May 25, 1991-Nov. 28, 2009. Since then, catalog and current (new/recently released) albums chart together on the Billboard 200. As a result, older albums now regularly spend hundreds of weeks on the chart.
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Man of La Mancha, 167
Billboard 200 peak: No. 31, March 1967
Music & Lyrics: Mitch Leigh (music), Joe Darion (lyrics)
Label: Kapp
Key song: “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)”
Notes: Richard Kiley headlined this musical, an adaptation of Don Quixote. The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. More than any other show on this list, Man of La Mancha was known for just one classic song: “The Impossible Dream (The Quest),” a top 40 hit on the Hot 100 for Jack Jones and a 1966 Grammy nominee for song of the year.
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West Side Story, 186
Billboard 200 peak: No. 5 in June 1962
Music & Lyrics: Leonard Bernstein (music); Stephen Sondheim (music)
Label: Columbia
Key songs: “Tonight,” “Somewhere,” “Something’s Coming”
Notes: Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert and Chita Rivera starred in this musical, which was written by Leonard Bernstein and a young Stephen Sondheim. The cast album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in June 1962, after the film adaptation swept 10 Oscars – more than any other musical in history (a record it still holds). The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1991 and the National Recording Registry in 2008.
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Fiddler on the Roof, 206
Billboard 200 peak: No. 7, January 1965
Music & Lyrics: Jerry Bock (music); Sheldon Harnick (lyrics)
Label: RCA Victor
Key songs: “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker”
Notes: Zero Mostel headlined this landmark musical. The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and the National Recording Registry in 2019.
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The Music Man, 245
Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 12 weeks beginning in March 1958
Music & Lyrics: Meredith Willson (both)
Label: Capitol
Key songs: “Till There Was You,” “Seventy Six Trombones,” “Ya Got Trouble”
Notes: Robert Preston was the likable con man in this show, which also starred Barbara Cook. Preston also starred in the 1962 film adaptation. The gorgeous “Till There Was You” was later covered by The Beatles on Meet the Beatles!. The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
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The Phantom of the Opera, 255
Billboard 200 peak: No. 33 in March 1988
Music & Lyrics: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music); Charles Hart (lyrics)
Label: Polydor
Key songs: “All I Ask of You,” “Music of the Night,” “Masquerade”
Notes: Michael Crawford led the original London cast, which also included Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton. This was a double album, as is Hamilton.
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Camelot, 265
Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for six weeks beginning in June 1961
Music & Lyrics: Frederic Loewe (music); Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics)
Label: Columbia
Key songs: “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “How to Handle a Woman,” “Lusty Month of May.”
Notes: Five years after they first worked together on My Fair Lady, Andrews reteamed with Lerner and Loewe on this musical. Her co-stars were Richard Burton and Robert Goulet. The show became legendary when former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy told journalist Theodore White that the cast recording was a favorite of the recently assassinated President Kennedy. From that day forward, his “one brief shining moment” in the White House was referred to as Camelot. The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.
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The Sound of Music, 276
Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 16 weeks beginning in January 1960
Music & Lyrics: Richard Rodgers (music); Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics)
Label: Columbia
Key songs: “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Maria”
Notes: Mary Martin starred in this Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, but as we all know, she wasn’t cast in the 1965 film. Julie Andrews got the plum role instead. The cast album topped the Billboard 200 for 16 weeks — longer than any other cast album in the chart’s history.
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Highlights From The Phantom of the Opera, 331
Billboard 200 peak: No. 46 in January 1992
Music & Lyrics: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music); Charles Hart (lyrics)
Label: Polydor
Key songs: “All I Ask of You,” “Music of the Night,” “Masquerade”
Notes: This was a single-disk album of highlights from the original London cast album of The Phantom of the Opera. You might have expected it to cannibalize the sales of the full double album, but both did very well.
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My Fair Lady, 480
Billboard 200 peak: 15 weeks beginning in July 1956
Music & lyrics: Frederick Loewe (music); Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics)
Label: Columbia
Key songs: “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”
Notes: Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews headlined this Lerner and Loewe musical, an adaptation of Pygmalion. Harrison also starred in the 1964 film adaptation, though Audrey Hepburn played the role Andrews originated – a casting decision that created quite a furor at the time (and still seems unwise). The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977 and the National Recording Registry in 2007.
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Hamilton: An American Musical, 500
Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 in July 2020
Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda (both)
Label: Atlantic
Key songs: “My Shot,” “Alexander Hamilton,” “History Has Its Eyes on You,” “The Room Where It Happens,” “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)”
Notes: In addition to writing the book, music and lyrics, Lin-Manuel Miranda starred in this show, along with Leslie Odom, Jr. and Phillipa Soo. The double album initially peaked at No. 3 in June 2016. It reached a new peak of No. 2 in July 2020, following the release of the live stage film of the Broadway production. The album was voted into the National Recording Registry in 2025.
