Editing Corey Clark (section)

==Album and music career==
Clark, along with the other second season finalists, recorded RCA Records' ''The American Idol Season 2: All-time Classic Love Songs'' soundtrack. Their version of the song "What the World Needs Now is Love" debuted at number six on the Hot 100 singles sales Billboard Magazine Chart, beating out [[Jackie DeShannon]]'s 1965 debut of the same song in at number seven.  With singles charting at number one ("God Bless the U.S.A.") and number six ("What the World Needs Now is Love") that year, Clark and the rest of the second-season cast became the first act since [[Nelly]] to place two titles in the top ten of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Singles sales. In the May 17, 2003 issue of ''[[Billboard Magazine]]'' the soundtrack attained ''Billboard''{{'}}s Top Soundtrack number-one spot, ''Billboard''{{'}}s Top internet Album sales at number fourteen, [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] hot shot debut at number two, and the single "God Bless the U.S.A." remained at number one for three weeks. The soundtrack sold more than 500,000 copies domestically, giving Clark and his fellow second-season castmates Gold record status, as well as making them all number one artists on the Billboard Music Charts of May, 2003.

Clark's first album, ''Corey Clark'', was released on June 21, 2005.<ref>Ford, Tracey. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070612044723/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7373804/in_brief_corgan_destiny "In Brief: Corgan, Destiny: Billy Corgan sings for Chicago, Destiny's Child kick off in St. Louis"]; RollingStone.com; June 2, 2005</ref>  Although the making of the album was highly publicized, the final product received minimal promotion or radio play. Despite featured guest spots from [[The Black Eyed Peas]] and [[Scott Storch]], consumers were generally unaware that the album was released and available to the market.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}  Clark claimed that radio conglomerate [[Clear Channel Communications|Clear Channel]] refused to play his record due to threats Clear Channel received that all ''American Idol'' promotional and advertising dollars would be pulled from any station playing Clark's record.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}
<!-- Clear Channel is a publicly owned company and has NEVER been owned by News Corp. (Fox's parent) as was claimed in a prior version of the above paragraph.  (Due to the size of the TV-station divisions of both Clear Channel and Fox, the FCC would never have allowed them to combine even if they tried to.)  IF it was Clark who made that false claim, please re-edit this article to state that HE made that claim. -->

Clark signed a one album, press and distribution label imprint deal with [[Universal Music Group|Universal]]/[[Bungalo Records]], making him the first ''American Idol'' contestant in history to release his own album under his own record company distributed by a major label. This helped him earn a larger share of the album royalties and profits, and made him a partner in the decision-making process into the creative development of the album.<ref>Clark; 2005; Chapter 8.</ref>