Cups (Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone) Timeline: The Road to a Top 10 Hit

Posted by Cups
July 13, 2013

This week (July 10th) Billboard.com released its Top 10 for the week and Anna Kendrick’s – Cups (Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone) finally made it in the top ten rising from 13 to 10 in its 28th week in the chart.

Commemorating this incredible achievement here is a look at the road ‘Cups’ took to finally become a top 10 hit.

1931: Carter Family recorded an old-time folk song ‘When I’m Gone’
1937: J. E. released the version ‘Miss Me When I’m Gone’
1938: Country singer Charlie Monroe recorded ‘You’re gonna miss me when I’m Gone’
June 9, 2009: British band ‘Lulu and the Lampshades’ (now known as ‘Landshapes’ uploaded ‘Cups (You’re Gonna Miss Me)’ on Youtube, their cover version of the Carter Family old-time folk song ‘When I’m Gone’. This version included of course the now famous “cups”.
June 8, 2011: Anna Burden posted on Youtube her cover of ‘Lulu and the Lampshades’ – ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me (Cups)’. Her videos went viral and made it to the front page of Reddit.
Anna Kendrick finds Anna Burden’s video on Reddit and decided to spend an entire afternoon learning how to play the song ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me (Cups)’
Anna Kendrick gets cast as Beca for the acapella themed movie ‘Pitch Perfect’. Someone found out that she could do the ‘Cups Song’ and it made it in the movie.
September 24, 2012: The world premiere of ‘Pitch Perfect’ took place in Los Angeles, California.
September 28, 2012: ‘Pitch Perfect’ opens in limited release in the U.S. and Canada. It grossed $1,755,935 its opening day.
September 25, 2012: ‘Pitch Perfect’: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is release in its digital version.
October 2, 2012: ‘Pitch Perfect’: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is release its physical.
October 4, 2012: Anna Kendrick appears on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and shows off her dexterity at performing “Cups” as she does in “Pitch Perfect.” – “Cause I’m a huge loser, I thought the best way to spend an entire afternoon would be watching (Burden’s) video 50 times and teaching myself how to do it,” Kendrick told Letterman. When the film’s creative powers “found out I could, they wanted me to (perform) it in the movie.”
October 5, 2012: ‘Pitch Perfect’ wide release in the U.S. and Canada. It grossed $4,889,050 its opening day. It ranks at #3 in its first weekend, grossing $14.8 million.
October 13, 2012: The ‘Pitch Perfect’ soundtrack debuts on the Billboard 200 at #43 with 9,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
December 18, 2012: ‘Pitch Perfect’ release on Blu-ray and DVD.
January 12, 2013: ‘Cups’ enters the Hot 100 at #93 with its 1-minute-16-second-long soundtrack version. 69% of its chart points are due to digital sales, 31% to streaming and 0% to radio.
February 2, 2013: ‘Pitch Perfect’ soundtrack spends its first of three weeks at its #3 Billboard 200 peak.
April 12, 2013: Cups (Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone) music video premieres on Anna Kendrick Vevo channel with a 3 minute 7 seconds version of the song.
April 16, 2013: Entertainment Weekly reports: Universal announced at its CinemaCon presentation today that it plans to produce a Pitch Perfect sequel that would hit theaters sometime in 2015.
April 20, 2013: ‘Cups’ debuts on the Pop Songs radio airplay chart at #40 after Republic Records released a new, longer edit featuring more instrumentation (than the acapella version).
June 1, 2013: ‘Cups’ reaches the Hot 100’s top 40 in its 21^st week.
June 22, 2013: ‘Pitch Perfect’ makes its premium cable premiere on HBO.
July 8, 2013: Anna Kendrick is amazed by the song’s new levels of airplay: “Holy s*** it’s happening. I’m hearing my song on the radio. Every music biopic ever has taught me this will lead to drugs and madness … #sweet”
July 10, 2013: ‘Cups (Pitch Perfect When I’m Gone) reaches the #10 at the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time!