“Carnival” by Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign featuring Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti, which moves up to No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, has absolutely nothing in common with the Broadway cast album to Carnival, which topped the Billboard 200 in July 1961, except for having the same title and the fact that they both reached the top of Billboard’s flagship charts.
This is the 14th time that a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and a No. 1 song on the Hot 100 have shared a title – and nothing else. So, we’re not counting, say, “You Light Up My Life,” because Debby Boone’s No. 1 single by that name and LeAnn Rimes’ No. 1 album You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs are related. The title song of Rimes’ album is a cover of Boone’s smash.
Many of you have probably never even heard of Carnival, which starred Anna Maria Alberghetti. The show ran on Broadway for nearly two years, from 1961-63 (aka, the Kennedy years). Its best-known song is the melodic “Love Makes the World Go Round.” Even if you drew a blank on Carnival, I guarantee you that you’ve heard of songwriter Bob Merrill’s follow-up Broadway show – Funny Girl, which turned Barbra Streisand into a superstar. Here’s an oddity: the Funny Girl cast album peaked at No. 2, not quite following Carnival to the top of the ferris wheel.
Here are all the cases where a song that topped the Hot 100 had the exact same title as an unrelated album that topped the Billboard 200. We show the album, when it reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and how long it stayed on top. We also show the single, when it reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, and how long it stayed on top.
I’ll start off with 14 exact matches and, just for fun, follow it with a batch of 10 near-misses. The exact matches have the header “Shared Title:” The near-misses have the header “Near Miss:” Both groupings are arranged in alphabetical order.
Note: The Billboard 200 began as a weekly chart in March 1956. The Hot 100 originated in August 1958. This list doesn’t include songs that pre-dated the Hot 100 that would otherwise have made the list when coupled with like-titled No. 1 albums. That would have brought in “Because of You” (the title of a 1951 song by Tony Bennett and a 2007 album by Ne-Yo), “Cry” (the title of a 1951 song by Johnnie Ray & the Four Lads and a 2002 album by Faith Hill) and “Don’t Be Cruel” (the title of a 1956 smash by Elvis Presley and a 1989 album by Bobby Brown).
Additional research by Andrew Unterberger.
