Season 8 Favorite Performances is a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 by Adam Lambert

Adam Lambert

Adam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...

 based on his American Idol performances. The album was released digitally through iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 and consists of studio recordings made by Lambert during season 8

American Idol (season 8)

The eighth season of American Idol premiered on January 13, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2009. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson continued to judge the show's contestants, along with Ryan Seacrest as host. The season introduced Kara DioGuardi as the fourth judge on the Idol...

 of American Idol

American Idol

American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

. It does not include live performances at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. A similar album was also released through iTunes by season 8 winner Kris Allen

Kris Allen

Kristopher Neil "Kris" Allen is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol...

. It sold 16,000 on its first week, and has sold 35,000 by July 23, 2009.

Background

This digital-only album is a collection of studio recordings of songs performed on American Idol by Adam Lambert. Starting from Top 13 of the final rounds of the competition, each contestant recorded a studio version of the song that they had performed live on stage. These recordings were released immediately after the result show each week and made available for download exclusively via iTunes. No sales information however were released for the recordings so as not to prejudice the competition. At the end of the season, a collection of these recordings were made available as separate albums for both the winner and the runner-up, namely Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. These albums were made available immediately after the season finale on May 20, 2009.

This album contains studio versions of some live performances by Adam Lambert such as "Mad World", "Tracks of My Tears", and "Ring of Fire". Adam's version of "Mad World" is based on Gary Jules

Gary Jules

Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...

' interpretation of the Tears for Fears

Tears for Fears

Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...

' song from the film Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...

. Gary Jules himself praised Adam's performance of "Mad World", that he had delivered the song "in a unique and beautiful way". His "Ring of Fire" is a further elaboration of Dilana's version of the Johnny Cash song, while his "Feeling Good" was inspired by Muse

Muse (band)

Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

's version of the song.

Track listing

Charts

Chart (2009)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	33
U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums	4

Chart performance and sales of individual album tracks

No chart position and sales information were released during the competition, therefore these figures are only for sales and chart positions attained after the finale.

Single	Hot 100 Peak	Hot 100 Bubbling Under	Hot digital songs	Sales
"Mad World"	19	—	7	256,000
"A Change Is Gonna Come"	56	—	32	63,000
"One"	82	—	57	46,000
"Cryin'"	—	2	75	35,000
"The Tracks of My Tears"	—	17	102	26,000
"Feeling Good"	—	21	107	25,000
"Ring of Fire"	—	—	112	23,000
"Whole Lotta Love"	—	—	113	14,000
"Black or White"	—	—	141	11,000
"If I Can’t Have You"	—	—	145	11,000
"Born to Be Wild"	—	—	155	11,000
"Play That Funky Music"	—	—	186	9,000