The "Glee" cast will up their sum to 75 Hot 100 chart entries, surpassing the Beatles' 71 charted titles. The series' actor/singers bow with five covers of Britney Spears songs, as well as Paramore's "The Only Exception," as performed on last week's (Sept. 28) episode.
The cast's update of Spears' "Toxic" will arrive as the Hot 100's highest debut (No. 16), having sold 109,000 downloads in its first week of availability, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The song will also bow on the Digital Songs survey at No. 9. Collectively, the six tracks sold 406,000 downloads.
The Beatles tallied their 71 Hot 100 titles between 1964 and 1996. With Fox and Columbia Records having released multiple songs to digital retailers following each episode of "Glee," the series' cast will have passed the Fab Four's chart output in one year, four months and two weeks.
The "Glee" cast will claim the third-most appearances among all acts since the Hot 100 launched in August 1958 as the premier survey gauging songs' U.S. popularity. Only Elvis Presley (108 charted titles) and James Brown (91) rank ahead of the ensemble. The troupe will additionally pass the sums of Ray Charles (74) and Aretha Franklin (73).
The Beatles' songbook has aided the "Glee" cast's Hot 100 haul, with the latter act having peaked at No. 49 in May with a cover of the Beatles' 1967 No. 1, "Hello Goodbye." Another Beatles' remake will likely debut on the Hot 100 next week: the cast's cover of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which premiered on last night's (Oct. 5) episode.
The "Glee" cast has sold 11.5 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its remake of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," from the series' pilot episode, is its best-seller (992,000 downloads). The song has tallied the highest Hot 100 peak (No. 4) and spent the most weeks (seven) of any "Glee" cast charted title.
(Largely due to the availability of new releases accompanying each new episode, only 14 of the "Glee" cast's recordings through last week have spent more than one week on the Hot 100. Through the Oct. 16 ranking, the cast's titles have totaled 105 cumulative chart weeks. The Beatles' Hot 100 catalog amounts to a combined 617 chart weeks. The Beatles additionally boast 34 Hot 100 top 10s, compared to the "Glee" performers' one).
The "Glee" cast has sold 2.8 million albums, with three sets having topped the Billboard 200 album chart: "Glee: the Music, the Power of Madonna (EP)," "Glee: the Music, Volume 3: Showstoppers" and "Glee: the Music, Journey to Regionals."
Here is a recap of the acts with the most appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 through the chart dated Oct. 16:
108, Elvis Presley
91, James Brown
75, "Glee" Cast
74, Ray Charles
73, Aretha Franklin
71, the Beatles
67, Elton John
64, Lil Wayne
63, Stevie Wonder
61, Jay-Z
Source: billboard
