GOSSIP: Cast of ‘Glee’ Now Bigger Than Elvis
Despite having first graced the Billboard Hot 100 song chart as recently as June 2009, the cast of the smash Fox TV series “Glee” rewrites the record for most charted songs by an act in the list’s 52-year archives.
The act passes music royalty on its way to chart history.
With six debuts on the Hot 100 to be released tomorrow (Feb. 17) on Billboard.com, the “Glee” cast has placed 113 songs on the chart, besting Elvis Presley’s 108 chart entries logged between the survey’s inception in 1958 and 2003.
(The King of Rock and Roll’s career predates the Hot 100’s launch; Presley scaled numerous Hot 100 predecessor song charts beginning in 1956).
The “Glee” cast’s record-shattering week contributes to an historic Hot 100. As previously reported, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” blasts in at No. 1 to become the survey’s 1,000th leading title.
Following the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series’ premiere May 19, 2009, the “Glee” ensemble arrived on the Hot 100 with its highest-charted title to-date (No. 4), a cover of Journey’s 1981 rock classic “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the week of June 6, 2009.
The act has been able to fast-track its way to Hot 100 history thanks to 20th Century Fox and Columbia Records having released multiple songs digitally following each new “Glee” episode.
A remake of Katy Perry’s recent Hot 100 No. 1 “Firework” represents the “Glee” cast’s highest debuting title this week (No. 34). The song premiered on the Feb. 8 episode, “Silly Love Longs.” With nine titles currently on the Hot 100, the “Glee” cast charts its most songs in a single week, besting the eight cuts it placed on the Dec. 18, 2010, chart.
Here’s updated look at the acts with the most charted titles since the Hot 100 premiered in the pages of Billboard magazine the week of Aug. 4, 1958.
Artists With the Most Hot 100 Hits
113 – “Glee” Cast
108 – Elvis Presley
91 – James Brown
74 – Ray Charles
73 – Aretha Franklin
67 – the Beatles
67 – Lil Wayne
63 – Stevie Wonder
62 – Jay-Z
57 – the Rolling Stones
