At the end of last season my family started watching Glee, and we have been fans ever since. I wouldn’t call us ‘Gleeks’ since we miss episodes here and there and will watch other things in the same time slot on occasion – but we enjoy the show and look forward to it each week.
This week’s episode was particularly good for a few reasons: it touched on homosexuality in a sensitive way, also looking at bullies and bullying, preconceived notions based on appearance, and other stuff. Oh, and there was the normal wall-to-wall array of high-energy songs and dance numbers!
For me that is the big thing – I remember my kids being into High School Musical and as a result the whole family enjoyed it for a while. The thing for me was the return to an appreciation of singing and dancing – this in an era where so-called reality shows had come to dominate pretty much everything. So it is nice to see song and dance – and people with some actual TALENT – brought back as a solid form of entertainment.
The feature number from this week’s show was Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. I had reviewed that a couple of months ago, noting that while Ms. Perry didn’t have the most prodigious vocal talents, she did well with what she had and was smart at gathering up catchy songs to record. I thought it would be interesting to see how her hit song translated into a song & dance number.
So let’s start by watching the official video of the original version:
I loved how the backing vocals achieved an organic yet synthetic sound all at once during the chorus, and the dancing and all of the energy, and of course how it flowed into the storyline going on at the moment.
Apparently tons of folks not only enjoyed that moment in the show, they loved the song itself. The cover version is reportedly on track to top the ‘Billboard digital’ charts:
The “Glee” cast’s take on Katy Perry’s No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single — with lead vocals by guest star Darren Criss — is on its way to possibly the single-best sales week for a “Glee” single.
The track was released on Tuesday and is on course to sell perhaps 150,000 to 175,000 downloads by week’s end on November 14, according to industry prognosticators.
According to Columbia Records, which releases “Glee’s” music, the track did gangbusters on its first day, racking up 55,000 in sales via iTunes — marking the highest first-day sales for any “Glee” track.
So what do you think? Have you been watching Glee at all or plan to? Do you like song and dance in shows? Add your thoughts in the comments!