Summit Entertainment/Chop Shop/Atlantic 515923
Executive producer: Livia Tortella
Track listing: Supermassive Black Hole [Muse] / Decode [Paramore] / Full Moon [Black Ghosts] / Leave Out All the Rest [Linkin Park] / Spotlight (Twilight Mix) [Mute Math] / Go All the Way (Into the Twilight) [Perry Farrell] / Tremble for My Beloved [Collective Soul] / I Caught Myself [Paramore] / Eyes on Fire [Blue Foundation] / Never Think [Rob Pattinson] / Flightless Bird, American Mouth [Iron & Wine] / Bella’s Lullaby [Carter Burwell]
November 22, 2008
1 week
Twilight certainly wasn’t the first vampire flick to draft hot acts to create a hit soundtrack, but it’s the highest charting. The album, featuring such hit acts as Paramore, Muse, and Linkin Park alongside indie favorites Iron & Wine, sold 165,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, ending the two-week reign of AC/DC’s Black Ice. Following Juno and Mamma Mia!, it’s the third soundtrack to hit the top in 2008 and it’s the first vampire film soundtrack to achieve the feat.
In 1987, the soundtrack to Joel Schumacher’s Lost Boys featured Echo & the Bunnymen covering the Doors’ “People Are Strange” and “Good Times,” a collaborative effort between fellow Aussies Jimmy Barnes and INXS. The song climbed to number three on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, yet the album stalled at number 15.
Nearly a decade later, in 1995, the mostly score soundtrack to Neil Jordan’s film adaption of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire rocked with a cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” by Guns N’ Roses. That recording made the top 10 of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, but the soundtrack was dead on arrival on The Billboard 200 where it peaked at a lowly number 118.
Queen of the Damned, 2002’s entry, proved to be the more successful. That album, which featured a who’s who of modern metal performing songs composed by Korn king Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs, hit the summit of the Top Soundtracks chart, but only reached number 28 on The Billboard 200.
The popularity of the Twilight soundtrack, which was released prior to the film’s November 21 theatrical debut in the U.S., can undoubtedly be traced to the success of author Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling book series, but it can also be attributed to the artists on the soundtrack, some of which received shout-outs from Meyer for inspiring her writing.
Tennessee-spawned pop-punk act Paramore made the leap from an indie Fueled By Ramen to Atlantic Records, which issued its sophomore effort, Riot! in 2007. That album reached number 15. “Decode” and “I Caught Myself,” featured on Twilight, are the band’s first new material since the release of Riot! The band even shot a video for the former track. Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell also contributed a new song, “Go All the Way (Into the Twilight),” which was written specifically for the movie. Brit neo-prog rockers Muse scored its U.S. chart high in 2006 with Black Holes and Revelations, which included the track “Super Massive Black Hole,” chosen to lead off the Twilight soundtrack. Linkin Park, the most popular of the bunch, was coming off three-consecutive chart-topping albums with 2004’s Collision Course and Meteora, and 2007’s Minutes to Midnight. For Twilight, the band contributed “Leave Out All The Rest,” a Modern Rock hit that also appeared on Minutes to Midnight.
Aside from the usual suspects, the Twilight soundtrack also features actor Rob Pattinson, who portrays teen vampire Edward Cullen in the film, warbling “Never Think.” That combined with the hysteria surrounding the film’s release and the popularity of the acts on the soundtrack, was enough to drive Twilight to the top of the chart. Vampires everywhere rejoiced.
THE TOP FIVE
The week of November 22, 2008
1. Twilight, Soundtrack
2. Black Ice, AC/DC
3. High School Musical 3, Soundtrack
4. Take It to the Limit, Hinder
5. Funhouse, Pink