How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, and a Scotsman ... grow up to be the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Top 200? The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton: An American Musical hit a new peak this week, some 250 weeks after it first debuted on the charts, in the wake of the premiere of the show on Disney+ on July 3.
Almost more incredible is the fact that Hamilton "has never left the tally since its debut at No. 12 on the Oct. 17, 2015-dated list," writes Billboard, noting that the 250 weeks marks "the longest run by any cast album since the highlights edition of the original London cast recording of The Phantom of the Opera, which has logged 331 weeks on the list between 1990 and 1996." As a consequence, though, Hamilton's No. 2 spot is also the slowest climb to the top two ever on the chart, in terms of weeks spent on the chart.
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