Yes, congratulations are due to Tony Bennett for his first # 1 album at the age of 85 and also for beating out Bob Dylan to become the oldest person to get to # 1. Even if Duets II wasn't all that (I gave it a B).
Or does he?
Remember in the 1990s when all those baseball records were being knocked off like ducks in a barrel. Then they figured out everybody was on steroids.
What's happening on the charts is similar without the nefariousness.
Duets II sold 175,000 copies. OK, nothing great. Essentially fans plus interested bystanders for who he was dueting with it. So why is it # 1? Because we live in the post album era. Everything is being sold digitally and record sales are irrevocably sinking. It's a problem and it will get worse. I was raised buying music and I don't any more. I subscribe to Spotify and augment what is missing on Itunes. I went from $150 – $200 a week to $10 for Spotify and maybe another $20 on ITunes a month. Coming up is a generation who will get all their music on Youtube and $10 a month will be too much.
Meanwhile the Tony Bennetts of the world, any artist with a 50+ audience, will break every record in the book (except for hard sales of course) because their audience will actually pony up.
My suggestion is all these records have an asterisks by their name to note this is the Digital age and therefore a no fair comparison. Or maybe make all the records tied into real sales.