The studio albums in the American Idol compilation series are compilations of songs by American Idol contestants normally released every year towards the end of the season or after the season has ended. For the first 5 seasons, the albums consist of cover songs from all the finalists of the season, and is released as CDs before the last episode by RCA Records. After Season 5, such compilations were released only sporadically. Compilations for individual contestants were released digitally starting Season 6. No compilations were released in Season 7.
Starting Season 10, compilation albums are released for sales on iTunes straight after the contestants' performances during the season.
Contents |
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | American Idol: Greatest Moments | 4 (Billboard 200)[1] | 643,000[2] |
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.
In addition to the compilation album by Season 2 contestants, a Christmas album American Idol: The Great Holiday Classics was released later in the year featuring recordings of Christmas songs by contestants from both Season 1 and Season 2. Both compilation albums were certified gold.[3]
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | American Idol Season 2: All-Time Classic American Love Songs | 2 (Billboard 200)[1] | 648,000.[2] |
| American Idol: The Great Holiday Classics | 28 (Billboard 200)[1] |
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)
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | American Idol Season 3: Greatest Soul Classics | 10 (Billboard 200)[1] | 266,000[2] |
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."
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | American Idol Season 4: The Showstoppers | 6 (Billboard 200)[1] | 332,000 [2] |
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.
| Year | Album Title | Chart Position | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | American Idol Season 5: Encores | 3 (Billboard 200)[1] | 381,075[4] |
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").
For the first time, the compilation album was made available as digital downloads only. Compilations of individual finalist's performances were also released. 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". Compilations for other contestants were released to iTunes later a few weeks later, and it was also possible to download all the recordings this season as a collector's edition.
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | American Idol Season 6: Greatest Hits | ||
| Jordin Sparks EP | 2 (Digital Albums)[5] | 49,000[6] | |
| Blake Lewis EP | 3 (Digital Albums)[5] | 46,000[6] | |
| Melinda Doolittle EP | 3,400[6] | ||
| Chris Richardson EP | 900[6] | ||
| LaKisha Jones EP | 700[6] | ||
| Sanjaya Malakar EP | 600[6] | ||
| Phil Stacey EP | 500[6] | ||
| Haley Scarnato EP | 100[6] |
Both Jordin and Blake 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".
After season 8, an album was released exclusively to Wal-Mart which contained songs from the show from various top ten finalists. The album included both Kris Allen's and Adam Lambert's version of "No Boundaries." Another Wal-Mart exclusive a 5-track EP was also later released with songs from the Top 4 finalists: Kris Allen and Danny Gokey's Renegade, Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert's Slow Ride, as well as Adam's Whole Lotta Love, Danny's What Hurts the Most and Kris' Ain't No Sunshine. On iTunes, digital albums of recordings from the two finalists were released.
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | American Idol Season 8 | 34 (Billboard 200)[7] | 77,616[8] |
| American Idol Season 8: The 5 Song EP | 17 (Billboard 200)[1] | 57,176[8] | |
| Kris Allen, Season 8 Favorite Performances | 50 (Billboard 200) | 16,000[9] | |
| Adam Lambert, Season 8 Favorite Performances | 33 (Billboard 200) | 37,514[10] |
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | American Idol Season 9 | 77 (Billboard 200)[1] | 21,000[11] |
| Lee DeWyze, Season 9 Favorite Performances | 9 (Heatseekers Albums)[12] | 5,000[13] | |
| Crystal Bowersox, Season 9 Favorite Performances | 6 (Heatseekers Albums)[14] | 5,000[13] |
In this season compilation albums of studio recordings of all contestants' songs were released digitally after the performances every week apart from Top 3 and Top 2. After the Top 2 performances, compilations of 14 selected songs from the season by each of the two finalists were released. Special 5-song EPs from each of the Top 4 finalist were released for sale in Wal-Mart in June 28, 2011.
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | American Idol Top 13 | ||
| American Idol Top 12 | |||
| American Idol Top 11 | |||
| American Idol Top 11 Redux | |||
| American Idol Top 9 | 9 (iTunes top albums)[15] | ||
| American Idol Top 8 | |||
| American Idol Top 7 | |||
| American Idol Top 6 | |||
| American Idol Top 5 | |||
| American Idol Top 4 | |||
| American Idol Season 10: Lauren Alaina | 42 (Billboard 200)[16] | 17,000[17] | |
| American Idol Season 10: Scotty McCreery | 12 (Billboard 200)[16] | 42,000[18] | |
| American Idol Season 10 Highlights EP: James Durbin | 31 (Billboard 200)[19] | 60,000[20] | |
| American Idol Season 10 Highlights EP: Haley Reinhart | 37 (Billboard 200)[19] | 59,000[20] | |
| American Idol Season 10 Highlights EP: Lauren Alaina | 24 (Billboard 200)[19] | 85,000[21] |
|
| American Idol Season 10 Highlights EP: Scotty McCreery | 10 (Billboard 200) [19] | 191,000[21] |
| Year | Album Title | Chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | American Idol 10th Anniversary – The Hits: Volume 1 | 136 (Billboard 200) | 7,000[22] |
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.
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