TV Soundtracks With the Most Weeks at No. 1 on the Top Soundtracks Chart

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: Nine

Billboard 200 peak: No. 5

TV premiere date: Aug. 25, 2006

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: The Cheetah Girls 2 was the sequel to the 2003 Disney Channel film The Cheetah Girls. Both projects starred The Cheetah Girls and Raven-Symoné. Directed by genre GOAT Kenny Ortega, the sequel is about the quartet taking a whirlwind tour of Spain to pursue their dreams of pop superstardom. Its premiere received the highest ratings of all Disney Channel Movies to that point, with more than 8.1 million viewers. The album spawned The Cheetah Girls’ Hot 100 hits “Strut” (No. 53) and “The Party’s Just Begun” (No. 85).

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: Nine

Billboard 200 peak: No. 4

TV premiere date: April 15, 2011

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Naomi Scott, Hayley Kiyoko and Blake Michael starred in this film, about five high school students who meet in detention and form a band. It was more dramatic and less purely escapist than most Disney Channel projects. The film, based on the 2007 novel of the same name, was directed by Patricia Riggen. The soundtrack spawned three Hot 100 hits: “Determinate” (No. 51), “Breakthrough” (No. 88) and “Somebody” (No. 89), the latter credited to Mendler.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 10

Billboard 200 peak: No. 3

TV premiere date: July 19, 2013

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: The title couldn’t have been more generic, but, hey, it worked! Jeffrey Hornaday directed the film, which starred Ross Lynch and Maia Mitchell. The album spawned the Hot 100 hit “Cruisin’ for a Brusin’” (featuring Lynch, Grace Phipps and Jason Evigan) (No. 82). A sequel, Teen Beach 2, premiered on June 26, 2015.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 11

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (one week)

TV premiere date: July 31, 2015

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: Ortega also directed and choreographed this musical fantasy film, which starred Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart and Cameron Boyce as the teenage children of Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar and Cruella de Vil, respectively. The film also starred Kathy Najimy and Kristin Chenoweth. The soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in August 2015. Cameron’s “If Only” reached No. 94 on the Hot 100. The soundtracks to two sequels also made the top 10 on the Billboard 200.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 11

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (one week)

TV premiere date: April 23, 2007

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: Long before “Wrecking Ball” and “Flowers” took her to the top of the Hot 100, Miley Cyrus played Miley Stewart on the weekly teen sitcom, Hannah Montana. As the title of this double album suggests, this was half Hannah Montana TV soundtrack and half Miley Cyrus studio album. This was the second Hannah Montana soundtrack in a row to enter the Billboard 200 at No. 1. Nine songs from the album made the Hot 100, six credited to Hannah Montana and three to Miley. The highest-charting and most notable of them was “See You Again,” a mainstream pop single, billed to Miley, that cracked the top 10. Miley was on her way, though who then could have guessed how big she would become?

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 11 (so far)

Billboard 200 peak: No. 13

TV premiere date: Jan. 18, 2024

Network: Amazon Prime Video

Notes: The music for Hazbin Hotel (Original Soundtrack) was composed by Andrew Underberg and Sam Haft. Several songs from the soundtrack have bubbled under the Hot 100, including “Poison,” “Stayed Gone,” “Loser, Baby” and “Hell’s Greatest Dad.” “Poison,” credited to Blake Roman, Sam Haft & Andrew Underberg, has climbed as high as No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot Rock and Alternative Songs.

As Billboard’s Xander Zellner detailed in January: “Roman is the vocalist on ‘Poison,’ and also a voice actor in the series, while Haft and Underberg are composers. Haft is also half of the electronic duo The Living Tombstone, which charted multiple songs on Billboard’s rankings in November from the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. Underberg has composed musical numbers for several children’s movies and TV shows.”

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 17

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)

TV premiere date: Aug. 17, 2007

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: This was the 70th Disney Channel original movie and immediately became the most successful. In the U.S., High School Musical 2 attracted 17 million viewers for its premiere broadcast, smashing the old record by more than 10 million. The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 for four weeks, one of only two albums to achieve that feat in 2007 (the other was Josh Groban’s Noel, which went on to log a fifth week on top in January 2008). Eight songs from the soundtrack made the Hot 100, topped by “What Time Is It,” which reached No. 6.

Like the first High School Musical from 2006, this was directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini. The final installment of the series, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, was released theatrically in October 2008.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 21

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)

TV premiere date: March 24, 2006

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: This soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in November 2006 (ahead of debuting albums by My Chemical Romance and John Legend) and remained on top the following week. Eight songs from the soundtrack made the Hot 100, topped by “If We Were a Movie,” which peaked at No. 47.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 26

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)

TV premiere date: Jan. 20, 2006

Network: The Disney Channel

Notes: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman starred in this film, which was directed by Ortega. The soundtrack logged two nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in March and April 2006. Nine songs from the soundtrack made the Hot 100, with “Breaking Free” by Efron and Hudgens reaching No. 4. In the U.S., High School Musical generated 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast, breaking the then-record for the highest premiere for the network.

Weeks at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks: 29

Billboard 200 peak: No. 6

TV premiere date: Dec. 9, 1965

Network: CBS

Notes:  A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first TV special based on Charles Schultz’s popular comic strip Peanuts, which originated in 1950. The program featured a jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi, previously best known for composing and performing the 1962 instrumental hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” The program’s somewhat downbeat tone, its slow pacing, the jazz score and the lack of a laugh track led many to think the show would fail to find an audience. Far from it: Both the TV special and the soundtrack album are classics. The program won an Emmy for outstanding children’s program and a Peabody Award, while the soundtrack was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 and the National Recording Registry in 2011.

Two of Guaraldi’s compositions have made the top 40 on the Hot 100. “Linus and Lucy (Peanuts Theme)” reached No. 37. “Christmas Time Is Here” hit No. 39. The album also included such outside compositions as Beethoven’s “Für Elise” and Ernst Anschütz’s “O Tannenbaum.” The only sad note in this story is that Guaraldi died at a relatively young age. He was 47 when he died of a sudden heart attack in 1976.