Eighty-year-old Tom Jones becomes oldest man ever to score #1 album in the UK

Red Window Limited/S-Curve Records

It’s pretty rare for an 80-year-old artist to score a chart-topping album, but perhaps it’s not so unusual if that artist is Sir Tom Jones. The Welsh pop idol has made history in his U.K. homeland by becoming the oldest male artist ever to reach #1 on the country’s Official Albums Chart. Jones, who’s 10 months past his 80th birthday, tops the tally with his latest studio album, Surrounded by Time.

“I am thrilled beyond words with the reception for Surrounded by Time, and to now hold these UK chart records is tremendous, just unbelievable,” Jones says in a statement. “I am so proud of everyone who helped me create this music, I had a ball working with them and to get this result is just incredible. It’s wonderful that the public has allowed me to be musically expressive at my time of life and have shown their support. I am forever grateful.”

Bob Dylan previously held the record for the oldest male artist to have a chart-topping album in the U.K. He was 79 when his album Rough and Rowdy Ways reached #1 last year. The oldest person overall to top the Official Albums Chart was the late Dame Vera Lynn, who was 92 when her hits compilation, We’ll Meet Again — The Very Best Of, ascended to #1 in 2009.

Jones, however, is now the oldest artist ever to top the chart with a collection of new material. Surrounded by Time becomes the fourth #1 album Tom has had in the U.K. during his long career, and his first since 1999’s Reload.

New reissues of John Lennon‘s Plastic Ono Band and The Who‘s The Who Sell Out have also debuted on the U.K. albums tally.