Pharrell breaks 36-year-old NZ chart record

Pharrell Williams’ Happy has officially spent the most weeks at #1 in New Zealand chart history, after spending its 15th non-consecutive week in peak position.

The record had stood for 36 years: in 1978, Boney M’s double A-side Rivers Of Babylon/Brown Girl In The Ring stayed in the top slot for 14 weeks.

Happy broke chart records in Australia, too, spending 12 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles charts, which put the track equal with Eminem’s Lose Yourself as the second longest-running #1 in ARIA chart history (with the longest run this decade). Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise currently holds the record, sitting on top for 13 weeks, back in the halcyon days of 1995.

Other chart records Happy has broken include being the most successful single of all time in the Dutch Top 40, and the first track to sell 4-million copies in the US this year. Williams is also the second artist, after The Beatles, to have three million-selling UK singles within a year, Blurred Lines and Get Lucky being the other two.

Happy reached the #1 position in 25 countries.