This is a list of the number one hits in the UK Albums Chart, from its inception in 1956 to the present. The sources are the Record Mirror chart from 1956 to the end of 1958, the Melody Maker chart from November 1958 to March 1960, the Record Retailer chart from March 1960 to March 1972 and the Music Week chart from then onwards. In January 1989 the compilation album chart started, and compilation albums were excluded from the main chart.
The first number one album was Frank Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers!.[1] For its first few years the chart was usually topped by a musical soundtrack or original cast recording, but rock albums steadily gained ground. Rock was dominant after the release of The Beatles first LP, Please Please Me, in 1963, except for the two-and-a-half-year spell later in the 1960s when the soundtrack of The Sound of Music went to the top of the charts repeatedly. As of the week ending 1 December 2013, Robbie Williams' tenth studio album Swings Both Ways became the 1,000th album to become number 1.[1]