Bob Dylan’s Rough And Rowdy Ways album hits number one

Bob Dylan’s new Rough And Rowdy Ways has become his ninth number one album.

The singer and songwriter, 79, has also broke two chart records after becoming the oldest male solo artist to secure a number one on the albums chart and the oldest artist to land a number album one of new and original material. 

This is Dylan’s 39th album, it was released on 19 June, and it has already had 34,000 chart sales with 29,000 purchased on CD.

Amazing: Bob Dylan’s new Rough And Rowdy Ways has become his ninth number one album (pictured in 2012) 

Rough And Rowdy Ways has beaten Neil Young’s, 74, album Homegrown, which was released on the same day, and was in second place. 

Dylan has also surpassed Paul Simon whose album Stranger To Stranger became number one in 2016 at the age of 74.  

The legendary singer now joins the likes of Queen and Abba with the achievement of nine number one albums in the UK, reports the Official Charts Company. 

The late Dame Vera Lynn, who tragically passed away on 18 June, is still the oldest artist of all time to secure a number one after her We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn came in top when she was aged 92.

Wow: The singer and songwriter, 79, has also broke two chart records after becoming the oldest male solo artist to secure a number one on the albums chart and the oldest artist to land a number album one of new and original material (pictured in 1978) 

The forces’ sweetheart’s album Vera Lynn 100 has come in at number 19 following her death last week. 

Dylan’s new album has beaten the likes of Lady Gaga, Lewis Capaldi and Harry Styles for the top spot with their latest music coming in at third, fourth and fifth respectively in the UK’s top 100 official albums chart. 

Rough And Rowdy Ways is his first full-length release since 2017’s triple album of cover songs, aptly named Triplicate, and his first album of original songs since 2012’s Tempest.

In April, he had his first number one Billboard hit with the advance single Murder Most Foul, which references the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the American culture shaped in the wake of that tragedy. 

The nearly 17-minute song is his longest to date, eclipsing 1997’s Highlands by 25 seconds.

Tragic: The late Dame Vera Lynn, who tragically passed away on 18 June, is still the oldest artist of all time to secure a number one after her We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn came in top when she was aged 92 (pictured in 2010) 

Though the song referenced major events of the 20th Century, Dylan saw it as tethered to events at hand.  

Earlier this month, the singer weighed in on the police killing of George Floyd in a rare interview.

The 79-year-old Nobel laureate said he was ‘sickened’ to see ‘George tortured to death like that’ in a conversation with The New York Times.

He also expressed fear that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could be ‘a forerunner of something else to come,’ though the one-time born-again Christian doubted it was a biblical plague.

Impressive: This is Dylan’s 39th album, it was released on 19 June, and it has already had 34,000 chart sales with 29,000 purchased on CD (pictured in 2004)