Katy Perry's Teenage Dream scores 4 #1s

Tomorrow, Katy Perry's "E.T." will reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming the fourth single from her album Teenage Dream to top #1, following last year's "California Gurls" (6 wks), "Teenage Dream" (2 wks) and "Firework" (4 wks). Billboard is reporting that it's only the ninth album to generate four #1 singles. There's a bit of a caveat on this one, which is that the version of the song that is #1 is not the album version, but that's a small caveat in my opinion (there is a bigger one--see Usher). Here's a rundown of the first eight albums to achieve this amazing feat.

Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (1977). Soundtracks weren't a major force in pop music until this set came along and redefined how to cross market a movie on the pop charts--something many films would succeed at in the next couple decades. The compilation is often associated with the Bee Gees, who contributed about half the songs on it, including three of its #1 hits: "How Deep Is Your Love" (1977, 3 wks), "Stayin' Alive" (1978, 4 wks), and "Night Fever" (1978, 8 wks). The fourth, "If I Can't Have You" (1978, 1 wk) was written by the Bee Gees but recorded by Yvonne Elliman.

Michael Jackson - Bad (1987). There would be a 10 year wait for the next album to score at least four #1 hits, and it would do one better and break the record by scoring five. Although Thriller is widely regarded as Jackson's biggest album, Bad was his album with the most #1 hits. They were all consecutive releases too starting with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (1 wk) and "Bad" (2 wks) in 1987, and then followed in 1988 by "The Way You Make Me Feel" (1 wk), "Man in the Mirror" (2 wks) and "Dirty Diana" (1 wk). Bad is the only album to have sent five singles to the top of the Hot 100.

Whitney Houston - Whitney (1987). The late '80s and 1990 were the heyday of albums with lots of #1 hits. Six of the nine albums to achieve this feat come from this period. The second was Whitney Houston's second album, Whitney, which achieved its four #1 hits consecutively starting in 1987 with "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (1987, 2 wks) and "Didn't We Almost Have It All" (2 wks) and continuing in 1988 with "So Emotional" (1 wk) and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" (2 wks). The four #1 hits continued Houston's streak of #1s from her first album, giving her 7 consecutive #1 hits in a row.

George Michael - Faith (1987). Faith's first single stalled at #2, but after that it scored four consecutive #1 hits starting with "Faith" (4 wks) in 1987 and continuing in 1988 with "Father Figure" (2 wks), "One More Try" (3 wks) and "Monkey" (2 wks).

Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl (1988). Abdul had her first #1 hit in early 1989 with "Straight Up" (3 wks) followed by "Forever Your Girl" (2 wks) and "Cold Hearted" (1 wk). The album's first single broke her string of #1s when it peaked at #3, but the album's final single, "Opposites Attract" spent 3 weeks at #1 in 1990.

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). Rhythm Nation is the only album with seven top 5 hits, but it's also among this set of albums with four #1, probably spread out the most timewise, starting in 1989 with "Miss You Much" (4 weeks), then in 1990 "Escapade" (3 wks) and "Black Cat" (1 wk), and finishing in 1991 with "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" (1 wk). The run was not consecutive, but it's pretty cool that an album's sixth and seventh singles could both be #1 hits.

Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey (1990). The songbird's first album, like Teenage Dream, scored four consecutive #1 hits. Carey was the last female artist to score four #1 hits from an album and, after Abdul, the second artist to do so with their debut. Unlike Abdul, Carey's #1 hits were consecutive, starting with 1990's "Vision of Love" (4 wks) and "Love Takes Time" (3 wks) and followed in 1991 by "Someday" (2 wks) and "I Don't Wanna Cry" ( 2ks).

Usher - Confessions (2004). During the mid and late '90s, major acts tended to release fewer singles from the albums, so there's a big gap before the next album would score four #1 hits. That album was Confessions, Usher's fourth album. The album's first three singles dominated the #1 spot in rapid fire, with only 1 week between February 28 and July 31 where the #1 spot was not held by Usher. First up with "Yeah!" (12 wks), then "Burn" (8 wks) and "Confessions Part II" (2 wks). The album's fourth single, "My Boo," (6 wks) hit #1 in late October, however, "My Boo" was not included on Confessions when first released but added for the special edition re-release. So, while still impressive, I don't think Confessions deserves to be on this list as much as the other albums.