‘Glee’ Throws A Slushie At The Beatles, Beats Their Hot 100 Record
Chris Colfer’s performance of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on last night’s episode was not only wonderful, it was ironically-timed — today it was announced that the Glee cast has bested The Beatles’ record for most charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100. We can already hear Beatles fans around the world groaning in unison.
The Glee cast now holds the most appearances — 76 — by a non-solo act in the chart’s history, followed by The Beatles’ 71 entries. Most impressively, though, is that The Beatles racked up their Hot 100 titles between 1964 and 1996. Glee beat their record in less than a year and a half. And without having to write any of their own music!
Of course, The Beatles weren’t releasing five new songs every week, and many of Glee‘s singles fail to survive on the Hot 100 longer than the week they debut on the show. (Only 14 of those 76 songs have lasted more than one week, in fact.) Plus, 34 of The Beatles’ tracks entered the Top 10, while Glee has only had one song (“Don’t Stop Believin'”) do the same. So, take the news with a grain of salt, folks.
As far as solo and non-solo acts goes, the Glee kids are only surpassed by James Brown (91 songs charted) and Elvis Presley (108). And that’s likely to change, given that the show has only aired the third episode of its second season (out of the 500 seasons it will inevitably be picked up for).
One of those songs helping Glee nab this distinguished honor happens to be a Beatles song, “Hello Goodbye“, and Colfer’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand” will no doubt join the Hot 100 next week.
