Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers

Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers is a soundtrack album by the cast of the American television series Glee. The album contains songs from the second half of the show's first season, except for the episodes "The Power of Madonna" and "Journey to Regionals", songs from which feature on the extended plays Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna and Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals respectively. The album was released on May 18, 2010. Two editions are available: a standard edition containing 14 songs, and a deluxe edition, featuring 20 songs. Showstoppers debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200, selling 136,000 copies in the first week. On November 21, 2010, it was announced that the album won Favorite Soundtrack of the Year at the American Music Awards.

The album debuted at number one on the American, Australian, Canadian, and Irish charts. It sold 136,000 copies in its first and 63,000 in its second week of release in the US, and saw the Glee cast beat the record previously set by The Beatles in 1966, for shortest span between first weeks at number one, just four weeks after they reached number one with the extended play Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna. In Canada, 14,000 copies were sold in the first week of release, and 9,400 in the second. The album has been certified platinum in Australia and Ireland, and gold in the United States.

Each of the songs included on the album were released as singles, available for digital download. The best-performing were "Gives You Hell", charting at the top position in Ireland, "Total Eclipse of the Heart", which charted at number 9 in the United Kingdom and number 16 in the US, and "Jessie's Girl" at number eight in Australia and number ten in Canada. 134,000 copies of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" were purchased in the US in its first week of release, making it the series' second best sales week ever to that point, with only the début single "Don't Stop Believin'" registering bigger sales in its first week. "Jessie's Girl" has been certified gold in Australia, the first single to have reached this certification since "Don't Stop Believin'". Comparing the singles' chart positions with prior charted versions, Billboard noted that by reaching number 26, the Glee cast version of "Dream On" surpassed the original Aerosmith version, which peaked at number 59 in 1973 (but was re-released in 1976 and reached number 6). The cast's cover of "Physical" saw Olivia Newton-John make her first Hot 100 appearance since her remake of "I Honestly Love You" reached number 99 in 1998.

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by Andrew Leahey

Showstoppers is Glee’s fourth record in six months, arriving two weeks after the Madonna EP and one month before the season one finale. That may seem like Glee overload -- and maybe it is -- but for those who love the show, this soundtrack delivers the musical equivalent of what we’ve come to expect from every episode: some cheesy moments (most of them purposely hokey), some slip-ups, and a handful of surprisingly poignant performances. Granted, Showstoppers is a bit heavy on the slip-ups; there’s a rather unnecessary version of “Safety Dance,” for example, and “I Dreamed a Dream” sounds too close to the Les Miserables original to be anything less than Broadway karaoke. For every lapse in judgment, though, there’s a song like “Lady Is a Tramp” (sung with jazzy swagger by Mark Salling), “Hello” (an expert duet between former Spring Awakening co-stars Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff), and “One” (another duet, this one featuring Cory Monteith’s ever-improving vocal chops). And speaking of duets, the Matthew Morrison/Neil Patrick Harris tag-team of “Dream On” is nothing short of ludicrously awesome, assuming your idea of “awesome” involves Dr. Doogie Howser howling high notes with almost medical accuracy. None of this negates the fact that Showstoppers is essentially a cash tie-in, but it’s still entertaining, assuming you’re willing to have as much fun as the cast. Glee: striking while the iron’s hot since 2009.