Image Credit: Justin Lubin/Fox
Glee‘s rendition of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” has sold 214,000 digital copies, which bests the cast’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” Columbia Records announced, which puts it at the top of the digital-track sales this week. Glee also now has the second-most entries ever on the Hot 100 list: Including this week’s new entries, the show has 93 songs that have made the cut. Only Elvis Presley, with 108 tracks, has more.
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TV Finale Highlights
Five days at a glance*
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Tuesday, May 1
- The Biggest Loser NBC, 8-9PM
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Friday, May 4
- In Plain Sight USA, 10-11PM
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Sunday, May 6
- The Amazing Race CBS, 8-10PM
- GCB NBC, 10-11PM
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Monday, May 7
- Two Broke Girls CBS, 8-9PM
- Castle ABC, 10-11PM
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Tuesday, May 8
- Last Man Standing ABC, 8-8:30PM
- The Voice NBC, 8-10PM
- New Girl FOX, 9-9:31PM
- Unforgettable CBS, 10-11PM
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Wednesday, May 9
- CSI CBS, 10-11PM
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Thursday, May 10
- The Big Bang Theory CBS, 8-8:31PM
- The Vampire Diaries The CW, 8-9PM
- The Office NBC, 9-9:30PM
- The Secret Circle The CW, 9-10PM
- Parks and Recreation NBC, 9:30-10PM
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Friday, May 11
- The Finder FOX, 8-9PM
- Undercover Boss CBS, 8-9PM
- Fringe FOX, 9-10PM
- CSI: NY CBS, 9-10PM
- Blue Bloods CBS, 10-11PM
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Sunday, May 13
- Once Upon A Time ABC, 8-9PM
- Survivor: One World CBS, 8-10PM
- Desperate Housewives ABC, 9-11PM, SERIES FINALE
- American Dad FOX, 9:30-10PM
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Monday, May 14
- Bones FOX, 8-9PM
- How I Met Your Mother CBS, 8-9PM
- Gossip Girl The CW, 8-9PM
- Two and a Half Men CBS, 9-9:30PM
- Hart of Dixie The CW, 9-10PM
- Mike & Molly CBS, 9:30-10PM
- Hawaii Five-0 CBS, 10-11PM
- Smash NBC, 10-11PM
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Tuesday, May 15
- 90210 The CW, 8-9PM
- Cougar Town ABC, 8-9PM
- NCIS CBS, 8-9PM
- NCIS: Los Angeles CBS, 9-11PM
- Fashion Star NBC, 10-11PM
- Private Practice ABC, 10-11PM
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Wednesday, May 16
- Suburgatory ABC, 8:30-9PM
- Criminal Minds CBS, 9-11PM
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Thursday, May 17
- Missing ABC, 8-9PM
- Community NBC, 8-8:30PM, 9-10PM
- 30 Rock NBC, 8:30-9PM
- Rules of Engagement CBS, 8:30-9PM
- Awake NBC, 9-11PM
- Grey's Anatomy ABC, 9-10PM
- Person of Interest CBS, 9-10PM
- The Mentalist CBS, 10-11PM
- Scandal ABC, 10-11PM
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Friday, May 18
- Nikita The CW, 8-9PM
- Shark Tank ABC, 8-9PM
- Who Do You Think You Are NBC, 8-9PM
- Grimm NBC, 9-10PM
- Supernatural The CW, 9-10PM
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Saturday, May 19
- Saturday Night Live NBC, 11:29PM-1AM
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Sunday, May 20
- America's Funniest Home Videos ABC, 7-8PM
- The Cleveland Show FOX, 7:30-8PM
- Harry's Law NBC, 8-9PM
- The Simpsons FOX, 8-8:30PM
- Bob's Burgers FOX, 8:30-9PM
- Celebrity Apprentice NBC, 9-11PM
- Family Guy FOX, 9-10PM
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Monday, May 21
- Dancing With the Stars (Performance) ABC, 8-9PM
- House FOX, 8-10PM, SERIES FINALE
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Tuesday, May 22
- American Idol (Performance) FOX, 8-9PM
- Dancing With the Stars (Results) ABC, 9-11PM
- Glee FOX, 9-10PM
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Wednesday, May 23
- The Middle ABC, 8-8:30PM
- American Idol (Results) FOX, 8-10:07PM
- Modern Family ABC, 9-9:30PM
- Don't Trust the B— ABC, 9:30-10PM
- Revenge ABC, 10-11PM
- Law & Order: SVU NBC, 10-11PM
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Thursday, May 24
- Awake NBC, 10-11PM
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Tuesday, May 29
- Cougar Town ABC, 8-9PM
- The L.A. Complex The CW, 9-10PM
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Wednesday, May 30
- America's Next Top Model: British Invasion The CW, 9-10PM
*Times are Eastern Daylight and subject to change
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This is no surprise. Their version is 1000x better than Katy Perry’s.
I’m glad someone else agrees!
I agree. The only Katy Perry song I like is Hot and Cold. Glee actually made me like Teenage Dream when all I wanted to do was turn the station when it came on the radio.
I agree with everything you said, Chris.
Totally agreed. Katy Perry’s only good song is “Hot and Cold.” “Teenage Dream” was written for Darren Criss to sing it! …plus, he is HOT!
I agree. I’ve liked some of Katy Perry’s music, but I never thought much of this song. Darren Criss did a great job with it.
I agree. Before hearing the song on Glee, I never thought that song had so much potential.
This success proves once again that average singers make a good song sound good while great vocalists make a good song sound great. Incredibly great.
I agree!
i agree. i actually really like almost all of katy perry’s music. but this version of teenage dream tops hers.
It’s amazing how someone with actual vocal talent can improve a song. Now if only someone could do something about Ke$ha…
That’s because Criss actually sang it, rather than turn the vocal into auto-tune sausage.
And Glee’s version is the one with Tuft University’s acapella group Beelzebubs, right? That’s their backup vocals? SOO much better than Katy Perry’s.
Yes, the Beelzebubs provided the arrangement and backup vocals.
Oh the Bubs! What I wouldn’t give to see a live version of Teenage Dream starring Darren Criss and the Tufts Bubs; their harmonizing is all kinds of dreamy.
While 93 Hot 100 hits is certainly an incredible feat, Elvis achieved his success with ORIGINAL content.
Not just original content but by just ONE artist. I dont understand why these songs from Glee are all credited as one.
Thank you! Aside from everybody agreeing about how great this song is, let’s look at the real question here, that being “Why are these songs even being held up against Elvis?”. They aren’t a professional group or act, it is a TV show, thus Billboard or whoever needs to relegate this novelty fluff in the “Soundtracks” category only and not place it agianst legends like Elvis.
Elvis’s songs are all original? Uh, try again.
Many Elvis songs were covers of songs sung by black artists. This was common back then. Record companies would take a popular “black” song and have a white artist sing it for the white masses or a black artist cover a “white” song for a black audience.
I do agree that it is a bigger feat for a single artist or band to hit these numbers then a TV show with a many singer that can change from week to week. They also release a lot more music then a traditional artist is able to. 4-8 songs an episode.
absolutely. Also, it’s a pretty big feat for Glee songs to stay on top for more than a week, because they don’t get played on the radio. They’re only officially aired once.
I wish I could get paid loads for singing other people’s songs. What a dream job.
You mean the way Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Elvis, and Mariah Carey do? If you think more than 1% of the world’s most popular singers wrote their own music, you are a fool.
For the record, Mariah Carey writes most of her own music, actually, if you check the writing credits on a lot of her songs.
yes, mariah writes her music. do some research before you make comments on something you obviously know nothing about.
Elvis “wrote” his own material too. Both him and Mariah do “co-writes”… But I’m betting it’s the other person on the song doing 95% of the work…
Elvis did it what what? Original content? That’s laughable. What Elvis did was no different than what Glee does because each and every one of his songs were hits by r&b soul artists prior to him singing them. So no, Elvis is no different than Glee.
That’s right, except Elvis was very talented.
Of course it tops the charts, because it’s completely devoid of Lea Michelle’s bleating.
Lea Michelle is the most talented singer on that show by a long shot. That’s saying something because there are a lot of good singers.
I saw Amber Riley is the most talented singer.
She has given me chills and I feel like she sings more from her soul when compared to Lea.
I actually think Naya Rivera is up there with Amber Riley. Lea is beautiful and a good singer, but @Rush is right, she does bleat. It has gotten worse in the past couple of seasons. I loved her in the first season but it went down hill from there.
How exactly has Lea’s “bleating” gotten worse in “the past couple of seasons” when this is only the second season of Glee?
Lea sounds NOTHING like a sheep or goat. So I would say your usage of the word “bleat” is not correct. Lea has a beautiful voice, and she is very talented.
If you look at the top 10 sellers for Glee, Lea Michele is prominently featured on 7 of them (according to Billboard). Amber and Naya can sing, but sound just like so many others who try to overs-sing and Mariah their way through mediocrity. I’d buy anything Lea Michele sings, the others, not so much.
do the singers get a cut from the profits?
Great question!!! Where does that money go? My guess is that the singers get very little of it. They probably signed contracts that provided for very little revenue from music sales and were happy just to land the gig.
You’re probably right. Most of the money would go to the publisher and songwriters etc.
The song is #1 on Billboard’s Digital Songs chart, but only #8 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Downloaded it last night. Love it.
This article is very misleading as “Teenage Dream” by the Glee cast is not #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s #1 on the Digital Sales, but, on the Hot 100. It’s something like #8 or #9 on the Hot 100. That song about a G6 is #1.
That’s really depressing, because that G6 song might be one of the worst I’ve ever heard.
I totally agree with you. That song is awful
I loved the EW review of the G6 single. “a great song for people who find the music of the Black Eyed Peas too dense and inaccessible.” I paraphrase, but totally agree.
i’m thinkin i’d rather have the number one in sales over the overall chart itself. i don’t even think the hot 100 is needed anymore. it’s been so lop-sided since around 2006 or 7 it doesn’t even matter anymore. just separate a slaes chart from an airplay chart and be done with it. record companies spend large amounts of money to radio stations to have their song played so it’s not what we lie anyway. it’s such a mess.
While I am completely obsessed with this song and love Glee, I have a hard time putting their songs in the same categories as artists like The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Not too long ago there was an article about how Glee surpassed the Beatles for number of singles ever on the chart but the Beatles did not have digital downloads; everything they accomplished was done so without a computer, so comparing Glee (which is basically all digital stuff) to the Beatles just doesn’t seem right.
Also, the Beatles wrote most of their own songs (they also did covers). Their original songs had never been heard before they were released and they had to capture an audience. The “Glee” songs are familiar to most listeners, although they do have value when they are done well, as is the case with “Teenage Dream.”
I’m totally with you on that. Glee is amazing, but it’s very hard to compare anything to the Beatles and what they meant to music. I were there was some time of “inflation” adjustment for sales too.
I agree. It is comparing apples and oranges.
Also most of the Beatles’ big songs don’t even count in this tally. “Strawberry Fields Forever”… “Penny Lane”… “With A Little Help From My Friends”… “Back In The USSR”… “Here Comes The Sun”… None of them were released as actual singles so they were ineligible to chart. In this iTunes age, any track from any album is technically a “single” if enough people are downloading it.
I wonder do the actors get paid? And not the shows stars I mean like when Gywnelth Paltrow comes on there as a guest and sings Cee-lo and Rihanna’s songs? To get her to guest star I can only imagine she would get a cut.
Yes, of course the actors get paid – probably pretty well. That’s what their agents are for. They also get paid for appearing on Letterman, morning talk shows, and even for appearing at certain red carpet events. It’s a business.
While Darren Criss did a great job with the lead, the Tufts Beelzabubs deserve a TON of credit for their arrangement of the song and the backup vocals.
I’m definitely going to second that! The Bubs made this song fantastic, imho.
Yes, I hope the song is credited to the Bubs and not “glee cast.”
YES YES YES! Thank you for bringing this up – I’ve been spouting off this information to everyone I see! they really should have been credited.
ITA! It’s the OTT choral arrangement that made this performance sooo sugar-coatedly enjoyable. They pulled out just about every choir trick in the book to turn that song into a guilty pleasure.
The bubs rock hard!
This is a great cover…but to act like it expands upon the Katy Perry version is crazy. She defintiely puts more emotion and raw vocal power into the song–the success with Darren Criss is almost entirely due to the novelty appeal of an all male vocal track for a song that’s BLATANTLY from the perspective of a girl.
wait, seriously? did you just use the phrase “raw vocal power” to describe katy perry’s “teenage dream?” while i agree that katy has a sweet and enjoyable voice, on that track she is entirely neutered by the unnecessary and excessive processing of her vocals. the glee version, though also processed, at least lets the singers true voices be heard.
Katy’s best song was I Kissed A Girl, where her “raw vocal power & emotion”, as well as her intonation & phrasing, really did justice to the song. Teenage Dream is a much more subtle song in its melody & lyrics. It’s actually more of an Adult Contemporary song than a Pop song. And Katy’s lack of that understanding is evident in her totally drowning out the song. I could never even tell what the song was about when I heard her version. Glee’s Teenage Dream treads more lightly. While their choral arrangement is totally OTT, their subtler vocals still place the melody & lyrics front and center, thus showcasing the song’s bittersweetness (i.e. we are not young anymore, but you still make me feel like we were).
That’s odd, I’ve never EVER heard anyone describe an auto-tuned-to-death song as “pure emotion.”
Not the Hot 100, the Digital Sales Chart!
I cannot get Teenage Dream (the Glee version) out of my head–which is not a bad thing . . .
Loved it!