‘Glee’ Breaks Record For Most Hits On Billboard Top 100 By Dethroning Lil’ Wayne
On March 20, 2015, a journey that started back on May 19, 2009, came to an emotional end. After six seasons, Glee took its final bow before retiring itself to the annals of television history. The Inquisitr reported the latest on the series coming to an end and what it meant to “Gleeks.” Prior to its airing, leaks of the series finale showed it would be a two-parter with flashbacks and time jumps. When aired, it truly brought closure, not only for Gleeks, but for all who worked to bring hope and joy through their hard work throughout its airing.
Now that Glee is officially over, the cast and crew are moving on to other endeavors such as Lea Michele and Ryan Murphy continuing their working relationship in the upcoming Scream Queens. However, there is one last honor Glee achieved before the final curtain call. Glee officially had more hits on the Billboard Top 100 than any other musical act in history. This is a big deal because they toppled big names in the music industry including Lil’ Wayne.
According to an article in Billboard, it reports that the cast of Glee stormed the Billboard Top 100 with a record-setting 207 hits, three of them earning the number one spot. Not only that, the total number of downloads sold sums up to 45 million. What truly stands out about this accomplishment is that first and foremost, Glee is a television show that so happens to utilize music. Yet, this is the template that helped propel their music to blaze the charts.
The very first appearance the Glee cast ever made on Billboard was on June 6, 2009, which isn’t that far behind the show’s debut. The show’s signature song, a cover of Don’t Stop Believin’ originally performed by Journey, would become iconic to the Glee cast’s characteristic of remaining positive in the face of underdog adversity. Within its first week of availability online, the song launched to the number four spot with sales of 177,000 as calculated by Nielsen Music. Presently, it is the series’ best selling song at 1.4 million downloads.
However, Glee breaking the record of having more entries on the Billboard Top 100 than any other act within its 56-year existence is huge. As mentioned earlier, they had to dethrone Lil’ Wayne who had 125 entries. Elvis Presley is behind him with 108. Now to be clear, solo acts done by a single cast member still count towards the Glee cast. That is one of the tricks on why the numbers have accumulated over the years.
Quite possibly, this honor was foreshadowed after Glee broke the record of having more hits on the Billboard Top 100 by a non-solo act, as reported by Examiner. Earning that honor meant dethroning the Beatles.
Though the template made by Glee has garnered much success, it does have its criticisms. First, almost all the songs are covers. Second, Glee songs only last about a week, two at most, on the Billboard Top 100 in which only three of them have reached the top 10. Finally, none of the songs have ever made it to the Radio Songs airplay chart and they never get played on radio stations. Despite these facts, the template had done what it was supposed to achieve. As a matter of fact, it is so tried and true, other shows like Nashville and Empire are trying to use it in their shows.
In conclusion, Glee has done what no musical act has ever been able to pull off. It is true that all records are meant to be broken, but it will take something quite innovative to outdo what was done by Glee.
