Other than introducing fans to Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett‘s undeniable chemistry, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is responsible for a ton of original and catchy songs.
Of course, the stars of the fan-favorite Disney+ series — including Sofia Wylie, Kate Reinders, Matt Cornett, Dara Reneé, Julia Lester, Frankie A. Rodriguez, Larry Saperstein — performed some pretty epic covers of the classic HSM tunes, but they also showed off their stunning singing voices for new tracks that fans are still obsessed with. In fact, Olivia has actually written a few songs that were ultimately used throughout the series.
Most notably, the young songstress wrote and performed the season 1 single “All I Want” after being approached by the HSMTMTS music team, who heard some of her original music. “They were like, ‘We want Olivia’s character’s song to sound like the song that Olivia wrote,'” the brunette beauty recalled during an April 2021 interview with Elle. After writing a song for her character, Nini, the actress teamed up with her costar Joshua to craft a duet for the show, and “Just for a Moment” was born.
“Because we both are already songwriters on our own, I think we understood each other,” Joshua told the Los Angeles Times in January 2020 about making a song with Olivia. “It was really neat … how well we really did work creatively together. Although we did have our disputes here and there.”
During the same interview, Olivia explained that she doesn’t think “anybody could have written the song like Josh and I could have written the song” because of how well the duo knows their characters. “We were there for their creation, and we know all of the back story and everything that happened because we actually lived that and filmed that,” she added.
Another duet from the pair that has fans swooning over the on-screen relationship is the second season song “Even When/The Best Part.” Although they didn’t pen the song themselves, it marks a special moment between the pair during the season 2 premiere. Josh told Billboard in April 2021 that this song is “a truly special duet.”
“I played guitar when we filmed it and sang along to Olivia’s vocals in my ear while she shot her side separately!” he explained. “I’m stoked to see how it all came together and really think people are gonna love it! Hands down: one of my favorites this season!”
Click through our gallery to uncover all the best original songs from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
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