Robbie Williams has proven he makes music for the masses as he achieves the 15th No 1 album of his career, matching a record set by The Beatles.
The British pop star, 50, topped the charts in the UK this week with the original soundtrack to his critically acclaimed biopic, Better Man, in which he is portrayed as an anthropomorphic chimpanzee (brought to life through CGI by actor Jonno Davies).
Better Man depicts how Williams – who shot to fame as a teenager when he joined the boyband Take That – went through a series of personal struggles including depression and substance abuse, while achieving huge success as a solo artist with hits such as “She’s the One” and “Let Me Entertain You”.
The Official Charts Company reports that the Better Man soundtrack out-sold the rest of the Top 5 combined as it became the Stoke-born singer’s latest chart-topper, following records including 1997’s Life Thru a Lens, 2013’s Swings Both Ways, and 2016’s The Heavy Entertainment Show.
Featured on the album are updated versions of classic tracks, from “Rock DJ” and “Angels” to Take That’s “Relight My Fire”, as well as a new original song, “Forbidden Road”.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported the album and the movie,” Williams told the Official Charts Company.
“What a huge honour it is to get my 15th UK No 1 album. A special thank you to all my fans, whose support I never take for granted.
“I’m so proud of the film Better Man, so to have the soundtrack reach No 1 makes it even more special.”
He celebrated the occasion by sharing a photo with his No 1 trophy while wearing a T-shirt that reads “John & Paul & Ringo & George & Robbie”, in reference to his accomplishment equalling The Beatles.
The achievement will be welcome news to Williams as Better Man continues to bomb at the box office in both the UK and the US, in spite of glowing reviews from critics.
Made on a budget of around $115m and released in the UK over the Christmas holidays, it had earnt just $4.7m (£3.7m) by 15 January.
In the US, it fared even worse, taking just $1m in its opening weekend.
David A Gross, of the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, told Variety that the film was likely doomed by its high production costs.
“Robbie Williams played by a digitally animated chimpanzee [is] an outlandish choice,” said Gross.
“For anyone complaining that the industry plays it too safe, this is your movie. The risk-taking is excellent, but $110m is not realistic for the genre and for this musical artist. $25m to $30m would have made more sense.”
Other critics have theorised that the box office flop is due to the fact that Williams has made less of a cultural impact in the US as he has in the UK, having failed to crack the Billboard Top 50 as a solo artist.
The pop singer addressed his failed attempts to “break America” in his 2023 Netflix docuseries Robbie Williams, ultimately concluding that his anonymity in the States turned out to be a blessing when he moved to Los Angeles in 2001.
In a four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey wrote of Better Man: “If Superman made us believe a man can fly, then Better Man makes us believe a CGI chimp can convincingly convey the agony and ecstasy of pop star Robbie Williams.
“Initially, it reads as little more than a self-deprecating joke – when The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey first spoke to Williams about putting his life up on screen, the latter remarked that he’d always seen himself as a kind of ‘performing monkey’. But it works. Not despite the gimmick, but because of it.”
