Chart Watch: Glee Cast Wraps Up Record Breaking Year on Hot 100

     Katy Perry keeps the top slot this week with her Snoop Dogg assisted "California Gurls" [sic].  The song is inexplicably getting more popular as downloads are up 11% and radio airplay is up 18%.  What's more interesting however is what happened down at No. 37 where the Glee cover of "Faithfully" debuts.  "Faithfully" is one of seven Glee songs on the Hot 100 this week and marks the last hoorah for the show's first season.  Even with only one season, the show has make quite the impact on the Hot 100.

     Glee has an unfair advantage when it comes to chart achievements because new songs are released on a weekly basis after they are performed on each episode.  It's no surprise that one of their major achievements involves sheer quantity.  In just over a year, the cast of Glee landed more songs on the Hot 100 than the Beach Boys and the Temptations did their entire careers.  With this week's chart positions calculated into their final count, the cast of Glee has racked up 59 entries on the Hot 100, second only to the Beatles for non-solo acts.  Considering what they accomplished with season one, it's likely they will pass up the Beatles 71 total chart entries by next year.  The all-time leader in this category is Elvis Presley who has an incredible 151 entries on the chart.

Glee and Eclipse Crush Christina's Hopes of No. 1

     "Let us not forget who owns the throne," sings Christina Aguilera at the close of her Bionic album.  "You do mommy," her son Max answers.  Not so fast Max.  Mommy might have sold over 42 million records worldwide and won four Grammys, but the queen she is not.  A quick look at the Billboard 200 album chart makes this crystal clear.

     Her aforementioned album, Bionic, was released last week.  As her first studio album in four years, you'd expect this superstar comeback to easily top the charts.  Instead, Bionic debuted at a more moderate No. 3 selling a tepid 110,000 copies.  That's down from 2006's Back to Basics which sold 346,000 in its first week.  And don't blame the economy or the imploding record industry - Britney sold more copies of her 2008 Circus in its first week than 2007's Blackout.  Regardless, I'm more concerned with how the two albums above Aguilera managed to hit No. 1 and 2 than why Christina sucks (that's already been discussed by Chase).

     No. 1 on this week's Billboard 200 is Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals EP followed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse at No. 2.  What's interesting about these two albums is that they didn't have radio support to promote themselves (You could probably say the same thing for Aguilera after "Not Myself Tonight" peaked at an embarrassing No. 23, but I digress).  Instead, these two soundtracks relied on the the television and movie screens respectively as well as their established brands.

Chart Watch: The Black Eyed Peas Prove Invincible

The Black Eyed Peas notch a twelfth week at No. 1 with "I've Gotta Feelin'" (and twenty-fourth consecutive week at No. 1) as an appearance on Oprah and the NFL Kickoff Special spur a boost in sales. With only two No. 1 hits, the Peas have spent more time at the summit than Diana Ross and the Supremes did with their twelve chart toppers and George Michael who had ten.

The cast of Glee also has television to thank as their cover of Rihanna's "Rehab" debut's at No. 46 and their cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" reappears at No. 78. "Believing" initially debuted at No. 4 following the airing of show's pilot episode.

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Jay-Z remains at No. 4 with "Run This Town" featuring Kanye West & Rihanna. Blueprint 3's third single, "Empire State of Mind" featuring Alicia Keys debuts this week No. 50 and is expected to make a big jump next week thanks to the duo's performance at the Video Music Awards.

1. "I've Gotta Feelin'" - The Black Eyed Peas

2. "Down" - Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne

3. "Party In The USA" - Miley Cyrus

4. "Run This Town" - Jay-Z feat. Kanye West & Rihanna

5. "Use Somebody" - Kings of Leon

6. "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift

7. "Whatcha Say" - Jason DeRulo

8. "Obsessed" - Mariah Carey

9. "Hotel Room Service" - Pitbull

10. "Good Girls Go Bad" - Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester