TWISTERS: SOUNDTRACK ATTAINS VELOCITY

Twisters was a box-office hit, scoring $80.5 million in its opening weekend, and its chart-topping soundtrack (Atlantic) has whipped up some excitement on its own.

Music supervisor Mike Knobloch, president of Music & Publishing at NBCU, co-supervised with Rachel Levy; they are also credited as co-producers alongside Atlantic President, West Coast Kevin Weaver, EVP/Co-Head of A&R Brandon Davis, the label's Joe Khoury and Ian Cripps and the film’s director, Lee Isaac Chung.

Coming off the success of last year’s Barbie: The Album, the team worked with an array of country artists to commission songs for each scene in a way that felt, as Knobloch put it, “organic and authentic to where the story takes place, which is in Oklahoma.” In fact, nearly all of the 29 tracks on Twisters: The Album were written expressly to underscore key moments in the film.

The resulting set has an even starrier cast than the movie: Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Thomas Rhett, Kane Brown, Megan Moroney, Bailey Zimmerman, Tyler Childers, Shania Twain, Tucker Wetmore, The Red Clay Strays, Conner Smith, Benson Boone, Warren Zeiders, BRELAND, Leon Bridges, Wyatt Flores and more.

Combs’ “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” released as the lead single back in May, was followed by every track on the album leading up to its release on 7/19, the same day the film opened. This unusual strategy was devised to create anticipation for the picture, and it clearly worked.

Meanwhile, "Oklahoma" debuted at #24 on the Country radio chart (hitting #1 two weeks ago), and the soundtrack is setting records; Twisters: The Album had the biggest first week for a soundtrack since Barbie: The Album, debuting at #1 on the Country chart and #7 on the album chart, becoming the first country soundtrack to make the all-genre Top 10 in 13 years. And Twisters’ chart success is not an exclusively American phenomenon—the album hit #1 in the U.K., made the Top 10 in Australia and Canada and also charted in New Zealand and Hungary.

Just as the film’s success led to a late-summer theatrical re-release, the soundtrack is getting renewed attention as Grammy buzz ramps up. Its creators are hoping it’ll be a contender for Album of the Year and Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (the latter won by Barbie: The Album earlier this year). Cuts by Luke, Lainey, Jelly, Miranda and Benson could variously contend for Record of the Year, Song Written for Visual Media, Country Performance, Music Video and Rock Song.

The success of Twisters: The Album has been a glowing reminder that the combination of music and film can still create a lasting impact even greater than the sum of its parts.