Soundtracks With Three or More Billboard Hot 100 Top 10s

In the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, many blockbuster movies were practically synonymous with the music featured in them or on their star-packed soundtracks. For some films, music was woven into their plots, making for a natural fit, such as the dance floor odes Saturday Night Fever and Footloose.

In other cases, musical superstars segued to on-screen starring roles — and did double duty by supplying memorable songs, such as Prince with Purple Rain and Whitney Houston with The Bodyguard and Waiting To Exhale.

Meanwhile, Dirty Dancing became a vehicle for star Patrick Swayze to make his chart debut as a recording artist. Other soundtracks, such as two entries in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, largely became collections of smash songs, regardless of their cinematic ties.

Not only did soundtrack songs enhance moviegoers’ experiences, but many became big hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with multiple soundtracks generating three or more top 10s.

By the 2000s, the flow of soundtracks packed with hits had stalled. A Billboard story in 2004 outlined various reasons for their decline, from oversaturation to filmmakers attempting to make songs work in storylines and rising artist fees.

Now, after a drought of 28 years, a soundtrack has generated three Hot 100 top 10s once again: Netflix’s animated KPop Demon Hunters. The set slays with HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” which hit No. 1 on the Aug. 16 chart, and Saja Boys’ “Your Idol” and “Soda Pop.”

The set also joins only Saturday Night Fever and Waiting To Exhale in having boasted three Hot 100 top 10s simultaneously.

“It’s so thrilling that people are hearing the songs in two ways,” KPop Demon Hunters executive music producer Ian Eisendrath recently told Billboard. “Some are loving the film, and the film is making the songs hits … and then some people are just encountering the songs, and the songs are making the film hit.”

Popcorn and pop hits: Here’s a look at soundtracks that have spun off three or more Hot 100 top 10s.

(Small print, like the credits at the end of a movie: Only soundtracks with three or more Hot 100 top 10s released from them as singles are included below. So, no Help! by the Beatles, as the title track and “Ticket To Ride” were released from the 1965 album’s U.S. version but third No. 1 “Yesterday” was not on its American tracklist. Plus, 1985’s Miami Vice TV soundtrack houses three top 10s, but Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me” was released as a single from her album Private Dancer and became a hit a year earlier. Meanwhile, 1998’s City of Angels includes three songs that became top 10s on the Radio Songs chart, but Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited” was not released as a commercial single and never hit the Hot 100.)