5 Years Ago ADELE AND A PIANO MADE CHART HISTORY Her single “Someone Like You” was the first of its kind to top the Billboard Hot A NUMBER OF PIANO BALLADS HAVE crested the Billboard Hot 100 since the chart’s 1958 inception, including Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997.” Those songs, however, featured other instruments. It wasn’t until 2011 though that Adele became the rst artist to hit No. 1 with a song that featured just her vocals accompanied by a piano. That song was “Someone Like You” from the English singer’s 21 album. Adele was 23 when the track reached the top spot on Sept. 17, 2011. CODA Dan Wilson, who co-wrote and co- produced the song with Adele, plays piano on the stark and intimate lost-love song that spent ve weeks at No. 1 and went on to win the Grammy Award for the best pop solo performance in 2012. Along with two other No. 1s — “Rolling in the Deep” and “Set Fire to the Rain” — “Someone Like You” propelled 21 to sales of 11.7 million in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. It’s the best-selling album of the 2010s and the 10th-best-selling LP since Nielsen began tracking sales in 1991. Adele’s follow-up, 25, sold a record 3.4 million copies in its rst week of release — and has sold 9 million to date. “I wanted to write a song that would Adele flipped the bird at be my song. I wanted to write something the BRIT Awards in that would last forever,” an emotional London after host James Adele told the audience at New York’s Corden cut short her acceptance speech when Radio City Music Hall in November 2015, won album of the year. just before singing “Someone Like You.” “Whether or not it will, I don’t know. But it’s denitely my song.” GARY TRUST Artist IMPIUNT PftOMOllOrt LABEL i Adele REWINDING @ XLCOLULIDIA THE • CHARTS Foster The People • G)O STAATIME/COlUMBIA • 3 • 3 © Copyright by Prometheus Global Media LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. BILLBOARD MAGAZINE (ISSN -; USPS -) is published weekly except for two issues in January, March, June and August; three issues in April, May, July, September, November and December; and four issues in October by Prometheus Global Media LLC, Madi- son Ave., Sixth Floor, New York, NY . Subscription rate: annual rate, continental U.S. Continental Europe . Billboard, Tower House, Sovereign Park, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England LE EF. Registered as a newspaper at the British Post Office. Japan ¥,. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send all UAA to CFS. Send non-postal and military facilities changes of address to Billboard, P.O. Box , Congers, NY -. Current and back copies of Billboard are available on microfilm from Kraus Microform, Route , Millwood, NY or Xerox University Microfilms, P.O. Box , Ann Arbor, MI ¢. For reprints, contact Wright’s Media, [email protected], ¢--. Under Canadian Publication Mail Agreement No. return undeliverable Canadian addresses to MSI PM¦, P.O. Box , Mississauga, ON LT A¢. Vol. ¢ Issue . Printed in the U.S.A. For subscription information, call ¢-¢-¢ (U.S. toll-free), ¢-- (international) or email [email protected]. For any other information, call --. PHOTOSHOT/RETNA 88 BILLBOARD SEPTEM BER 24, 2016.