Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers

All solo parts of the album were performed by actor Darren Criss , who plays the role of Blaine Anderson in the series

The Dalton Private Men's Academy is a fictional educational institution in Westerville, Ohio , featured in the television series Chorus and first appeared in the episode " Never Been Kissed " of the second season ^[8] . In the same episode, actor Darren Criss made his debut as a guest star in the series, as the leading soloist of the choir and openly gay Blaine Anderson . During the first appearance, the choir performed a cover version of the song " Teenage Dream " by Katy Perry . The actors invited to the role of the rest of the choristers did not participate in the recording; all parts are performed by a real and cappella choir "Beelzebubs" from Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts ^[9] . According to the director of Beelzebubs, Eli Saydman, the creators of the series considered the option of his charges appearing in the series, but the flight of students from Massachusetts to California was too costly ^[9] .

Kurt Hummel , played by actor Chris Colfer , is transferred to Dalton in the episode " Special Education ", joins the choir and goes from a second-time participant to the second soloist in the song "Hey, Soul Sister", in the recording of which he took part ^{[10] [11]} . In addition, Kurt performed a duet with Blaine compositions "Animal" and "Candles" ^{[12] [13]} . The arrangements for the songs were made by Beelzebubs member Ed Boyer, all recorded at Q Division Studios in Somerville, except for Teenage Dream, which was recorded in New York ^{[14] [15] [3]} .

Darren Criss announced the upcoming release of the album on March 7, 2011, during his appearance on the Live with Regis and Kelly television show ^[16] . Details - the cover, title, track list and release date - were announced on March 23 in a press release ^[17] . The cover shows a part of a compulsory uniform for students at the Dalton Academy, along with a school patch and the Nightingale Choir badge attached to the collar ^[7] . Two cover versions were developed and released by Beelzebubs before their participation in the Choir: Destiny's Child cover version of Bills, Bills, Bills and When I Get You Alone by Robin Trike, which were included in the choir’s own albums Next (2001) and Pandemonium (2007), respectively ^[18] . Two tracks from the album did not sound in the series, but were included in the release: “What Kind of Fool” by Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb and “Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?” By Rod Stewart . The first was performed at the presentation of the Person of the Year Award “MusiCares” , and the second was recorded for the episode “Sexy”, but subsequently did not enter it ^{[7] [15]} . “Teenage Dream” was also included in the album Glee: The Music, Volume 4 , which was released in November 2010 ^[19] .

The album includes thirteen compositions, twelve of which were written with the participation of “Beelzebubs”. The cover version of "Blackbird", performed by Chris Colfer, was recorded with other backing vocalists ^{[15] [3]} . Although most of the tracks are in the genre of pop music, some cover versions are performed in the genres of pop rock , R&B and hip-hop , which was several times beaten in the series by hints of selectivity of “Nightingales” and their preference for songs from the Top 40 US charts , while McKinley's New Horizons more often chooses songs from classic American musicals ^[2] . Matt Diale of the Los Angeles Times described Chriss's “Teenage Dream” as “ The Killers in a Meeting with Sigur Rós and Jonas Brothers ” ^[5] . The cover version of Train ’s Hey, Soul Sister, which Dial described as “the average static song of Bruno Mars, ” includes an imitation of the mandolin sounds that were recorded. Other tracks were also recorded using pitch correction programs as well as multi-channel recording to create a sound more voluminous than eleven Beelzebubs members can perform live ^[20] . During the Glee Live! In Concert! , where the actors appeared in the image of their characters, the "live" versions of the composition were performed by the actors without the help of the Beelzebubs choristers, but with partial use of phonograms, while Darren Criss performed live vocals.

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and first on Billboard 's Soundtracks with 86,000 copies sold ^{[21] [22]} . Despite the fact that the album’s position in the charts was the highest for the albums of the second season of “Chora”, the starting sales figures turned out to be one of the lowest for the entire period of the broadcast of the television series at that time, along with the mini-album Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show . The record was broken after a few weeks - the album Glee: The Music, Volume 6 was sold in the amount of only 80,000 copies in the first week ^[21] . In the second week, 28,000 copies of Presents the Warblers were sold. ^[23] In Canada and Australia, the album debuted at the fifth and sixth lines, respectively ^{[24] [25]} , and in New Zealand - at number eleven ^[26] , and did not rise above the fortieth line in Mexico ^[27] . Meanwhile, sales of the Beelzebubs album with the release of Presents the Warblers increased by an average of four times in the first month ^[20] .

• Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers on GleeTheMusic.com
• Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers on the Allmusic website