The music from Glee’s much-anticipated Michael Jackson tribute episode dominated the digital sales chart with all 10 tracks in the top 100 this week. The Glee cast’s versions of the “King of Pop’s” greatest hits, including “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Black or White,” and “Bad”, set a new milestone for the third season with nearly half a million songs downloaded this week alone. The cast’s electrifying version of “Smooth Criminal” featuring 2CELLOS is the third highest debut song of this season with 108,000 downloads, following the widely praised mash-up of Adele’s “Rumour Has It/Someone Like You” (160,000 downloads first week) and their version of Fun.’s “We Are Young” (137,000 downloads first week). The ‘Michael’ episode became the most-watched episode of Glee’s third season with an astounding 9.1 million total viewers tuning in and was the #1 program on Tuesday night among Adults 18-49.
Glee triumphantly returned on January 17th with the cast’s version of “Without You” by David Guetta featuring Usher shooting to #1 on the digital chart. This is the third single to achieve this feat along with the mash-up of Adele’s “Rumour Has It/Someone Like You” and their version of Fun.’s “We Are Young.” this season. On a high note, 28 tracks from season three have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, bringing the Glee cast total entries to 183 and blowing away records previously held by The Beatles and Elvis Presley. From the anthem hit “Don’t Stop Believin’” to the iconic rendition of “Vogue” to the pop phenomenon “Teenage Dream,” Glee has sold more than 40 million songs and over 12.3 million albums worldwide.
Glee scored three consecutive #1 releases with Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers, Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna and Glee: The Music, Journey To Regionals. The RIAA has certified Glee: The Music, Volume 1 and Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Platinum (sales in excess of 1 million units) as well as Glee: The Music, Volume 2, Glee: The Music, Volume 3 and Glee: The Music, Volume 4 Gold (sales in excess of 500,000 units). Glee: The Music, Volume 4 received a Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.