HSM 3 soundtrack is best of the series

There was nowhere to go for the cast of the High School Musical (HSM) series but to graduate from high school and they finally do so in High School Musical Senior Year. Unfortunately, what was meant to also be the graduation of the popular franchise to big screen feature failed miserably and the resulting movie turned out to be a badly written mix in search of a rewrite or at least drastic editing.

Despite this though, HSM3 produced the most engaging songs and spirited musical numbers. Maybe it was because fans showed a penchant for singing along and dancing to the choreography of HSM that the movie-makers concentrated their efforts on fine tuning these aspects. And they succeeded big time. So for story content, turn back to the two earlier made for TV films. The third is but a rehash of those. But for the songs and the dances, you can relish what HSM3 has to offer.

The great thing here is that although the musical numbers are truly enjoyable, the songs manage to stand alone. I can see kids revving up for school programs or sports fests to the tune of Now or Never, The Boys are Back or the High School Musical theme or groups doing like Sharpay and Ryan to the tune of I Want It All or aspiring divas making like Gabriella with Walk Away, and not to mention moving smoothly across the floor to the rhythm of Can I Have This Dance by Troy and Gabriella.

HSM has produced three great soundtrack albums. Now this is a great accomplishment. It is not easy to produce a big selling movie soundtrack because it is often difficult to reconcile commercial value with the demands of the movie. But the times when this happens turn out to be landmark events and you get magical film music that lasts for years and years as movie-goers replay and replay their favorite scenes in their heads while the soundtrack plays.

2008 turned out to be an excellent year for soundtracks. Two of the most successful come from the Disney camp, HSM3 and Camp Rock, the soundtrack to the Disney TV movie that stars Demi Lovato and the triple threat heartthrob band of the Jonas Brothers. Then this was also the year when people rediscovered the music of Abba, thanks to the blockbuster motion picture version of the stage musical Mamma Mia! which has Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan in the lead roles and singing ABBA songs.

As of this writing the No. 1 selling album in the US is the soundtrack of the much-awaited film version of the big-selling novel Twilight starring Robert Pattinson and Stefanie Meyer. The picture has music by Elmer Bernstein and songs by bands Linkin Park, Collective Soul, Muse, Blue Foundation, The Black Ghosts and the best of the lot, Paramore with two cuts Decode and I Caught Myself.

Meanwhile, just in case you are interested, here are the Top 10 titles in the top-selling soundtrack albums of all time as culled from various sources. Leading the pack is The Bodyguard from 1992 with Whitney Houston at her best and songs like I’ll Always Love You and Queen of the Night. Next are Saturday Night Fever with the music of the Bee Gees like How Deep is Your Love and the very danceable Disco Inferno by The Trammps and then there is Purple Rain with songs by Prince.

Other musts for soundtrack lovers are: Forrest Gump and the hits of three decades of American music from Presley’s Hound Dog to Aquarius from Hair; Dirty Dancing with the hit I Had the Time of My Life by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley; Titanic with Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On; The Lion King with Elton John’s Can You Feel the Love Tonight; Top Gun with You Take My Breath Away by Berlin; Grease, the musical with Hopelessly Devoted to You by Olivia Newton-John and the theme song by Frankie Valli; Footloose, a hitfilled collection led by Kenny Loggins’ title track and Deniece Williams Let’s Hear It for the Boy; and Waiting to Exhale starring Whitney again with songs written and produced by Babyface like Waiting to Exhale (Shoop Shoop).