American Idol compilation series

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The studio albums in the American Idol compilation series are annual television soundtracks for the television show American Idol. One compilation album is released every year after the season ends. Each of the albums usually includes cover songs from all the finalists of the season, and is released sometime before the last episode by RCA Records.

The maxi CD singles in the American Idol series are released during the same time, and may feature the top two or three finalists of the season, which contains one cover song and one original song. The singles are released by Sony BMG.

Both the compilation album and the singles are recorded sometime during the last month of the season.

Contents

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

For charting data, see the single's article.

[edit] Season 1

After Idol's debut season, the top four finalists (Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini, Nikki McKibbin, Tamyra Gray) each recorded a version of the song in the event that they won; but only the winner (Clarkson) released it as a single. The single was included in Clarkson's debut album Thankful.

[edit] Season 2

After season two, the winner (Ruben Studdard) and runner-up (Clay Aiken) each released simultaneously a single containing two songs of one original and one cover. The originals are "This is the Night" (Aiken) and "Flying Without Wings" (Studdard); and the covers are "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Aiken) and "Superstar" (Studdard).

[edit] Season 3

After season three, the winner (Fantasia Barrino) and runner-up (Diana DeGarmo) each released a single containing three songs of which one was a rendition of "I Believe." Barrino's debut album, Free Yourself, included "I Believe" and "Summertime." DeGarmo's debut album, Blue Skies, included "Dreams" and "Don't Cry Out Loud."

[edit] Season 4

After season four, the winner (Carrie Underwood) and runner-up (Bo Bice) each released a single for "Inside Your Heaven" and which included one cover song from the show, "Independence Day" (Underwood, also on Showstoppers) and "Vehicle" (Bice). Underwood's debut album Some Hearts also included "Inside Your Heaven" and achieved 7 times Platinum certification.

[edit] Season 5

After season five, the winner (Taylor Hicks) and runner-up (Katharine McPhee) each released a single with an original song and a cover rendition. The original songs are "Do I Make You Proud" (Hicks) and "My Destiny" (McPhee). The covers are "Takin' It to the Streets" (Hicks) and "Over the Rainbow" (McPhee, renamed to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow").

[edit] Season 6

On the day after the season six finale, the winner Jordin Sparks and runner-up Blake Lewis released 5-song EPs exclusively to iTunes. Sparks's contained the winner's single, "This Is My Now", as well as four songs she performed on Idol: "I (Who Have Nothing)", "A Broken Wing", "To Love Somebody" and "Wishing On a Star". Lewis's EP did not contain "This Is My Now", but instead all the songs on the EP were songs he performed on the show: "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Time Of The Season", "I Need To Know", "Love Song" and "When The Stars Go Blue". Both singers also released several other songs as singles. These studio-recorded tunes are available both on iTunes and americanidol.com. For Jordin Sparks, these singles were "If We Hold on Together", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Rhythm is Gonna Get You", "On a Clear Day", and "Hey Baby". For Blake Lewis, these singles were "You Should Be Dancing", "Mack the Knife", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Imagine", and "This Love".

[edit] Individual solo albums

After Idol, several finalists and winners released their own solo albums and singles. For a list of major-label studio albums by Idol recording artists, see American Idol contestants discography.

[edit] External links


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