By having 20 hit songs reach the U.K. top 40 in the shortest span of time, the cast of the popular television show Glee have broken a 50-year-old record held by Elvis Presley .
What took Presley 88 weeks, the members of the fictional glee club have done in only 57, as their recording of Toxic (originally by Britney Spears) entered the singles chart at number 40 last week.
Although Britney/Brittany, the show’s Britney Spears tribute episode, aired in North America last September, it only just hit the British airwaves this month.
With the episode’s airing came the usual digital downloads of the featured music, and U.K. fans drove the single, which is also available on Glee: The Music, Volume 4, into the top 40.
Among their 20 top 40 hits, the show has had three entries in the top ten, including their cover of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, featured heavily in the pilot episode, which reached number two in January 2010.
Glee premiered in 2009 and has gone on to great critical and commercial success. Now in its second season, it has become well-known for its covers of both pop and classic rock songs.