I hate the term comeback, but sometimes it's the only way to describe the situation when an artiste bounces back into the charts after a "lean" period.
Kylie did it in spectactular style with Spinning Around;a classic record that restored Kylie not only to the number one spot but also pointed the way to another decade of major chart success for her.
what have been your most memorable chart comebacks ?

The two hat stick out for me are Madonna's Confessions era and Britney's Circus era. Both albums restored these artists to the top.

Blondie. After the way they broke up, it never seemed possible they'd perform again.

However, when they did it, they did it properly, and not just for a money spinning greatest hits tour. They released a new album, and they've been going strong ever since, with several albums along the way.

Mariah's emancipation era

Glitter and Charmbracelet pretty much killed her career. Plus she had a nervous breakdown and lost her father. It really all went wrong for her personally and professionally.

But she made a stunning comeback with The Emancipiation of Mimi. It would go on to sell over 12 million copies. 6 of which were in the US alone. It gave her a 14 week number 1 hit called We belong together. The era earned her 10 grammy nominations and she walked away with three of them.

Fall Out Boy's return with 'Save Rock and Roll' was pretty damn awesome.

I agree. That album was a spectacular comeback. I think she should have actually got more than three grammy's.

Agreed, a fantastic comeback. It's a shame 10 years on she almost needs another comeback because her work in the past decade has been great IMO. I've loved so many of her post-Emancipation songs.

Agree that she deserved more Grammys but then 10 years earlier she was completely snubbed by them so it's no great surprise is it?

Agreed on Mariah and the emancipation!

Was Madonna's confessions seen as a comeback?

After releasing her pop album named Twisted Angel in 2002, I love the country comeback hit in early 2005 from LeAnn Rimes named "Nothing About Love Makes Sense".

God bless you and her always!!!

Holly (a day one fan of LeAnn)

Even though it was eventually revealed that they'd become evil in their absence, Take That's comeback was pretty astonishing for it's level of success

Maria was the their first single since War Child in '82 and became their 6th UK number one!

Confessions was sort of a comeback. Her previous album American Life didn't set the charts alight.

Blackout was hardly a failure. It peaked at #2 and sold one milion copies in the U.S. and three million copies worldwide. Gimme More and Piece of Me were worldwide hits.

At the time, Blackout was considered a failure. But now several years later, it isn't. It's sold more copies than Femme Fetale and Britney Jean.

Iron Maiden.

One of the biggest bands on the planet in the 80's releasing 7 highly rated albums. Then the 90's happened and the 4 albums they released in this decade are poor, sold badly and the band started to become the butt of jokes - Adrian Smith walked out at the start of the decade, Dickenson followed later (replaced by Blaze Bayley - for two mostly crap albums). Then at the start of the millennium Adrian and Bruce return and it's been a hugely impressive turn around - Maiden are loved again and are back to being one of the biggest bands on the planet.

Well i certainly never saw it as a "comeback" ... seeing as all the previous singles had charted and the previous album had made number one.

I wouldn't have said confessions was a come back, she was still successful on its release. The Madonna comeback was Ray Of Light and what a comeback it was.

Black Sabbath

Kate Bush. Hounds of Love and Aerial.

Incorrect

I explained in great detail that Charmbraclet and Glitter did not sell well. They were hated by the public and killed her career.

Glitter peaked at number 7 and barely sold 500k
Four singles were released. Three of which failed to chart, while the lead single Loverboy did rather well. The flop of this album led to her actually being dropped from her 100 million 5 album deal with the label.

Charmbracelet peaked at number 3 and barely sold a million copies
Three singles were released. The lead single peaked at 81 while the two other singles failed to chart

Emancipation Of Mimi was a huge huge comeback from her, and it's heavily documented it was.

Blur seem to be doing well.

Has to be 'Ray of Light' - the biggest comeback ever.

I love how 'Frozen' was the first single, so dark and weird and a totally new direction. Then came with mesmeric 'Ray of Light' that after 17 years still sounds fresh and trendy.

I can't think of anyone who had a bigger comeback than that. Perhaps Take That in the UK, but none on a worldwide scale.

An old-timer who made a fairly successful comeback was Alberta Hunter. She was fairly popular in the 1920's, she sang with such artists as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Clarence Williams and other jazz bands from that era. She went into nursing in the mid 1930's but started performing again in the late 70's when she was in her early 80's. She wrote the song The Love I Have For You and the soundtrack songs for the movie Remember My Name. Ive got one of her albums recorded when she was 83 years old and she still sounded pretty good.

This ^^

Brilliant song.