The cast of the hit US show Glee have won themselves a place in the music history books as they have now smashed the record for the act to have 20 top 40 hits in the shortest space of time, knocking pop legend Elvis Presley off this top spot.

The latest release by the unlikely stars, a cover of Toxic by Britney Spears, entered the charts at number 40 making this their twentieth top 40 hit in only 57 short weeks.

Elvis Presley previously held the honour after having 20 top 40 hits in 88 weeks.

This takes the tally of chart topping releases by the Glee cast up to 40 with the group of young singers registering three top ten hits and a further six top 20 singles totaling more than two million singles sold in total.

Martin Talbot, the managing director of the official charts company said: “This is quite an amazing achievement by the Glee cast to be in the same company as the likes of Elvis Presley, in fact beating his fifty year old record.”

After every episode of the TV comedy songs from the show are available for fans to download online.

Martin Talbot added: “The success underlines just how popular this TV show has become, as well as emphasizing how digital downloading has transformed the consumers engagement with music. The Glee cast are superstars of the digital music age.”

The cast are no strangers to awards and accolades as the group have also won “Best TV musical or Comedy” and two supporting actor prizes at the Global Globes while also being proclaimed as among the American Film Institute's Top 10 television programmes of 2010.