Continuing what will soon be known as The Summer Of Redbone, the soundtrack for Guardians Of The Galaxy is now the No. 1 album in the country, topping the Billboard charts. The achievement is especially notable because the Guardians album—subtitled Awesome Mix Vol. 1, after the sentimental mix-tape carried around by Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill—is composed entirely of ’60s and ’70s hits, making Guardians the first soundtrack that’s nothing but previously released material to ever hit No. 1. According to Billboard, some 109,000 copies were sold last week to people who appreciated someone else downloading all those old songs and putting them in a playlist for them.
Even director James Gunn seemed taken aback, posting on Facebook, “Haha! The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack is the NUMBER ONE record in the country! All those days as a child I spent locked in a room listening to AM radio were not wasted!” He also added, quite ominously, “Somewhere in a boardroom right now a movie executive is trying to give a film that’s not testing well the ‘Guardians soundtrack treatment but with a new twist’ – say, nineties grunge hits over a buddy action comedy. This is something you will not thank me for.” (Indeed, we will not. We prefer our buddy action comedies to have ’90s hip-hop hits.)
Confirming that most CD sales are made to people who don’t know how to use iTunes, the current No. 2 album is Now That’s What I Call Music! 51.