The cast of the smash-hit US TV show Glee has beaten Elvis Presley‘s fifty-year old record on the UK charts by achieving twenty top 40 UK hits in the shortest space of time ever.
The ensemble landed the record yesterday (23rd Jan) when their cover of Britney Spears‘ ‘Toxic‘ landed at #40 on the UK Singles chart. That secured the Glee cast twenty top 40 hits over the course of 57 weeks, comfortably beating Elvis’ previous total of 88 weeks.
“This is a quite amazing achievement by the Glee cast to be in the same company as the likes of Elvis Presley, in fact beating his 50-year-old record,” said managing director of the Official Charts Company Martin Talbot.
Back in October, the Glee cast passed another legendary act, in this case The Beatles, to secure the most appearances from a non-solo act on the US’ Billboard Hot 100 in its history, when more Britney Spears covers, along with their take on Paramore’s ‘The Only Exception‘ were unleashed on the public, taking their total to 75 songs on the Hot 100.
The Glee cast are due to go up against Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, The National and The Temper Trap in the International Breakthrough category at this year’s Brit Awards.
Don’t tell me one is really attempting to compare Elvis’ achievements with this group of performers. Total hype. They will be forgotten about in 5 years time. Elvis is still everywhere some 34 years after his death. I do note that it is always Elvis’ achievements that current acts are attempting to emulate – he is still the template for success even now! One cannot compare current acts with those from other eras – the parameters are too different.
Elvis was truly ’sui generis’ and there will never be another like him.
The comparasins are rubbish – these are downloads against actual 45’s and CD’s. And remember only a singles few were realeased each year then. There is no comparasin except in the publisists minds.