When Drake brags about breaking records in the future, he may very well be adding a very impressive boast to his repertoire. His latest song, “No Guidance” with longtime frenemy Chris Brown, just became his 34th single to reach the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. That means he’s officially tied with The Beatles for second-most top 10s ever — and that he’s almost certainly going to pass them up, relegating the British rock band to third as he slowly but surely closes in on Madonna’s record 38.
While fans of the Liverpool quartet may be miffed to hear it, Drake’s already got them beat in terms of time taken to reach such lofty heights. His first top 10 single came along less than a full decade ago, while it took The Beatles nearly 32 years to get their 34th top 10. Their first 32 were in only two years, four months, and one week, but then they broke up as a band and those last two came along relatively recently. Meanwhile, Madonna’s 38 top 10s took 16 years, seven months, and two weeks.
Drake was certainly helped along by certain format changes; “No Guidance” was his 12th top 10 as a featured artist, while both Madonna and The Beatles were credited as leads on all of theirs. Billboard also accounts for streams now, a technology that didn’t even exist while half The Beatles were still alive. Madonna put out 10 albums before Spotify even came into being in 2006. So while Drake has plenty of reason to pat himself on the back, he also has to thank his lucky stars he came along when he did, or the competition for that top spot would have been much fiercer.
