What was the first song from a movie to debut at number one in the charts?
Some of the biggest-selling records of all time are soundtracks, like Whitney Houston’s album The Bodyguard, which stands at number three, just below AC/DC’s Back in Black and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Everyone knows ‘I Will Always Love You’, and it simply became a cultural phenomenon, defining the 1990s with Houston’s powerful vocals, which soar across the track and leave an indelible imprint on the listener.
From Saturday Night Fever and Dirty Dancing to Titanic, some soundtracks transcend their places as musical accompaniment to a film and become well-known collections of songs that are instantly recognisable, regardless of whether you’ve seen the movie they’re from. It certainly helps when a film has a huge soundtrack that can guarantee it chart success as well as box office security, with the endurance of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion definitely amplifying the widespread obsession with Titanic.
When many people hear that song, it’s enough to make them tear up at the sheer memory of Jack slipping away into the icy ocean or an elderly Rose dropping her blue heart necklace into the waves to be with him. Not only can music be used as a powerful emotional tool; it can also be a great marketing technique.
When Dion’s track was released on February 28th, 1998, it immediately hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It didn’t have to climb the ranks to get to the top spot; it just landed there straight away. That wasn’t the first instance of this happening, however, with the first song to ever debut at number one on the chart being Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’ back in 1995. In fact, it wasn’t the first time a song from a movie had landed straight at number one, either, where the track that hit this milestone first might surprise you.
What was the first song from a movie to debut at number one in the charts?
Houston won the title of the musician to become the first to see a song from a movie soundtrack debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, but not for her cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’. Rather, it was for her own ‘Exhale (Shoop Shoop)’, which was used in the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale, directed by Forest Whitaker, which she also starred in alongside Angela Bassett.
Sadly for Houston, this would be the last time she’d hit number one after ten previous chart-topping successes. Although the fact that she became the third person (following Jackson and Mariah Carey with ‘Fantasy’) to have a song debut directly at number one, perhaps, wasn’t the worst compromise.
The song was penned by producer and songwriter Babyface, who won ‘Best R&B Song’ at the Grammys for his work. Proving her dominance over American music with her masterful performance, the track was arguably more successful than the film, which received more mixed reviews from critics. Still, it proved popular with audiences, and Houston was able to walk away from the project with both a box office hit and a Billboard smash on her hands.
