Dave Hogan/Getty ImagesThirty years ago today, Whitney Houston set a record that may surprise you.
Whitney’s second album, simply called Whitney, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on June 27, 1987. What’s the big deal? It was the first album ever by a woman to do so.
The first album overall ever to debut at #1 was Elton John‘s Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and that was in 1975, so it took 12 years for a female artist to achieve the same feat.
Whitney’s self-titled 1986 debut album spent 14 weeks at #1. The Whitney album not only debuted at #1, but it also spun off four #1 hits, including “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “So Emotional,” “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” and “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.” She also was the first female artist to score four #1s from a single album.
When Whitney hit #1, it marked another milestone for the late diva: she became the first artist to reach #1 with their first two albums since The Monkees did it in 1966 and 1967.
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