Hamilton is the official companion album to the 2015 musical Hamilton. The musical is based on the 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and is the highest-charting cast album since 1963.[2] It was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Album chart, the first cast album to ever do so.[3]
Debut and reception
The cast album for the musical premiered in September 2015 on NPR's show "First Listen."[4] Its digital release on September 25, 2015 debuted on numerous charts and was released in stores as a two-disc set on October 16, 2015. It debuted at number one on the Top Broadway Albums chart as well as number 3 on Top Rap Albums, number 5 on the Top Digital Albums, and number 9 on the Top Current Albums chart.[2] Hamilton's debut was the second biggest first week sales of a Broadway cast album, just behind the cast album for the musical Rent. It debuted at number 12 on the overall Billboard 200 chart for sales, with over 2.1 million streams combined from digital service providers, the largest streaming debut for a cast album ever.[2]
The album was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Album chart, the first cast album to ever do so.[3] It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and was the highest-charting cast album debut since 1963.[2]Billboard called the album an "eye-popping debut," giving it a 5-out-of-5 star review and listing it at number 2 on the magazine's "50 Best Albums of 2015."[5]Rolling Stone gave it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, listing it at number 8 on the magazine's "Top 50 Albums of 2015."[6][7]Robert Christgau wrote in Noisey, "I can attest that the intrinsic intellectual interest [Lin-Manuel Miranda] powers up here is so impressive it's exciting."[1]