Along with America’s Billboard chart, Dylan’s Modern Times is hitting number one in plenty of other places:

It has also gone to number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, according to Columbia.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that fans have responded to it so enthusiastically by putting Bob at number one, which is where he belongs,” said Steve Barnett, the chairman of Dylan’s Columbia Records label.

The album made its debut at number three in the UK album chart - Kasabian went straight in at number one, while Snow Patrol slipped from top spot to number two.

Modern Times, Dylan’s first studio album in almost five years, has been hailed as a “masterwork”, “enchanting” and “full of prophecy” by impressed US critics.

Reader Michael M. points out something missing in this paragraph of trivia I quoted yesterday:

The three-decade interlude between chart-toppers is a Billboard record. Rod Stewart had a 25-year gap between number ones, Santana and the Isley Brothers both had 28-year spans, and Barry Manilow went 29 years between number ones. (Among defunct acts, the Beatles went 22 years and Elvis Presley 29 years between chart-toppers.)

I said that this was info worthy of “Theme Time Radio Hour.” He says that he suspects Dylan would know better and adds:

Let’s not forget Johnny Cash waiting between 1969 and 2006 (Elvis was deceased between his chart toppers), so that would take the prize in the last category.

Indeed, Johnny Cash’s American V hit number one in July.

Not to take anything from Cash, but his posthumous album managed to take the top spot with only 88,000 in weekly sales. Dylan’s album did the same this week with more than twice those sales — reportedly 192,000 units. So, there can be some pretty dramatic fluctuations in overall weekly album sales, obviously. Bob can be proud of facing down the awesome power of Jessica Simpson and still coming out on top.

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Addendum: Local-boy-made-good Bob Dylan will be playing in Rochester, Minnesota tonight. He still hasn’t played any of the new album’s songs live. Will his chart-topping achievement and the fact that he’s in his home state inspire him to pull one out?

We’ll see.

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Addendum 09/08/2006 8:33 am: No dice.

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