Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem made their first televised appearance on the pilot of The Muppet Show in 1975, and now, nearly a half-century after their on-screen debut, the musical Muppet band tops a Billboard chart for the first time.
The new LP The Muppets Mayhem: Music From the Disney+ Original Series, released May 10 via Disney+/Walt Disney Records, jumps from No. 13 to No. 1 on the Kid Albums chart, leading for the first time. The set is the companion soundtrack to the group’s new Disney+ comedy musical series The Muppets Mayhem, which also premiered May 10.
The album concurrently debuts at No. 10 on the Soundtracks chart, No. 23 on Top Current Album Sales and No. 29 on Top Album Sales. It earned 5,000 equivalent album units, nearly all from album sales, in the United States its first full tracking week (May 12-18), according to Luminate. Of its sales, 4,000 were on vinyl, and the set also starts at No. 10 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
The 22-track album includes 17 songs credited to Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, plus five scores by Mick Giacchino. While some songs are original compositions for the series, others are covers of classics by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Cyndi Lauper, Simon & Garfunkel, The Who and more.
Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem comprises Dr. Teeth (performed originally by Jim Henson, and now by Bill Barretta), Animal (Frank Oz, now Eric Jacobson), Floyd Pepper (Jerry Nelson, now Matt Vogel), Janice (Richard Hunt, now David Rudman), Lips (Steve Whitmire, now Peter Linz) and Zoot (Dave Goelz).
While this marks the group’s first foray onto Billboard’s charts under the Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem artist billing, the act has appeared on multiple Muppet-related albums that have charted. Here’s a recap of every Muppet-themed title that has hit the Billboard 200.
Title (peak position, year):
- The Muppet Show (No. 153, 1978)
- The Muppet Movie: Original Soundtrack Recording (No. 32, 1979)
- A Christmas Together (billed as John Denver & The Muppets) (No. 26, 1980)
- The Great Muppet Caper (No. 66, 1981)
- The Muppet Christmas Carol (No. 189, 1992)
- The Muppets (No. 38, 2011)
- Muppets: The Green Album (No. 8, 2011)
- Muppets Most Wanted (No. 68, 2014)
“We had the support of the frog, the pig, the bear and everybody else,” Pepper recently mused to Billboard of the band’s first stand-alone venture. “We knew we could deliver the goods.”
Added Animal, “ROCK AND ROLL!”
