FOX Image Collection via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Five years ago today, we said goodbye for good to Rachel, Kurt, Blaine, Artie, Santana, Mercedes, Tina and all the rest of the McKinley High alumni, as Glee aired its final episode. But while the show may be best remembered for ensuring that every young person in the U.S. could sing along to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” star Matthew “Mr. Schue”Morrison says its legacy goes deeper than that.
“The legacy, I think for me is really about the social impact it made, talking about school bullying, about being gay in high school, teenage pregnancy, all these amazing issues that we tackled and really forced people at home to have a conversation about,” he tells ABC Audio.
Still, the show will always be remembered for its music: During its run, the cast released sixteen soundtrack albums, six compilation albums and 11 EPs, and more than 400 singles, from oldies like “Sweet Caroline,” to then-current hits like “Teenage Dream,” to Broadway classics like “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
“The younger audience was exposed to all that [older] music and all the Broadway music and stuff, but also, the older audience that watched was exposed to all this newer music…as well,” says Morrison.
In fact, until this week, when Drake passed them, the Glee cast held the all-time record for number of Billboard Hot 100 entries, with 207 charting singles.
“It was a big deal for us, I remember, ’cause we got more than the Beatles, that was who held it before we did,” Morrison recalls of setting the chart record. However, he doesn’t feel like it was 100% deserved.
“It was such an achievement. But we were covering songs,” he explains. “These [other artists] were all having originals…so I don’t really put them in the same category.”
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