The Best-Selling Albums and Songs of 2001
A compilation of 1960s No. 1 singles was the biggest album in America — The Beatles’ 1 — while Destiny’s Child were artist of the year for the second year running.
Artists of the Year
Top 10 Albums of 2001 Billboard 200
- 11The Beatles
- 2Hot ShotShaggy
- 3Black & BlueBackstreet Boys
- 4Now That’s What I Call Music! 5Various Artists
- 5Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored WaterLimp Bizkit
- 6Hybrid TheoryLinkin Park
- 7Break the CycleStaind
- 8A Day Without RainEnya
- 9CelebrityNSYNC
- 10Country GrammarNelly
Top 10 Songs of 2001 Hot 100
- 1Hanging by a MomentLifehouse
- 2Fallin’Alicia Keys
- 3All for YouJanet Jackson
- 4Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)Train
- 5I’m Real (Murder Remix)Jennifer Lopez ft. Ja Rule
- 6If You’re GoneMatchbox Twenty
- 7Let Me Blow Ya MindEve ft. Gwen Stefani
- 8Thank YouDido
- 9AgainLenny Kravitz
- 10Independent Women Part IDestiny’s Child
What the 2001 Charts Show
- The year split: The Beatles led on albums while Destiny’s Child led on singles.
How the 2001 charts were compiled
Every position here is a chart placement — measured sales, radio airplay and, in the years Billboard counted it, streaming across its tracking year — not an editorial ranking. Albums come from the year-end Billboard 200, songs from the year-end Hot 100.
Billboard’s tracking year runs from roughly late October to mid-October rather than January to December, which is why a late-autumn release can win the following year and why a song can appear on two consecutive year-end lists.
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