Pop Sweep: September 29, 2012...


Hey folks, welcome to the first part of today's five-part "chart sweeps" of the new songs making it on to the weekly music charts at Billboard magazine. This time out its the newest on the all-genre Hot 100 and adult-top-40 pop charts.

On the Hot 100, which monitors radio and tallies sales and internet streaming, Maroon 5 score their third number one hit as "One More Night" moves into the top spot.

The highest debut this week belongs to rapper Juicy J, who is part of collective Three 6 Mafia, who had two top-20 pop hits, the biggest being 2005's "Stay Fly".  His first hit under his own lead credit at #71 is the underground crunk of "Bandz A Make Her Dance", featuring Lil' Wayne and 2 Chainz. As this is another stripper rap, it does nothing for me, neither musically or lyrically. I mean, there's only so much you can talk about buttcheeks flapping together. (MAJOR NSFW)


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Arriving at #79 is Canadian rockers Lifehouse and British singer Natasha Bedingfield with "Between The Raindrops". The band's first hit, "Hanging By A Moment", went to #2 in 2001 and was the biggest hit of that year according to Billboard. Natasha topped the pop chart in 2004 with "These Words". Their collaboration is from the band's upcoming sixth studio album...



Another Canadian, Carly Rae Jepsen, has had a great year, with her "Call Me Maybe" the song of the summer, and "Good Time" in the top-10 now. Her album just dropped, and another cut from it, "This Kiss", sells enough to come in at #88, and it's a fun slice of disposable dance-pop...


Latin heartthrob Enrique Iglesias topped the American chart two times, "Baillamos" in 1999 and the following year with "Be With You". He's back with a song that's the sixth single from the re-released version of his Euphoria album, and it's in the single-note dance jam mold he's been so popular since his Jersey Shore-ification, "Finally Found You", featuring rapper Sammy Adams, who had a minor hit in 2010 with "Driving Me Crazy"..


Glee is back on TV, for better or for worse, and the first single to arrive on the Hot 100 from the fourth season comes in at #95. It's a cover of the Imagine Dragons' hit "It's Time", which also jumps into the top-40, no doubt helped by the exposure. Sung by actor Darren Criss as Blaine, while it's not the worst of their sins by far, it's so close to the original to border on pure karaoke, and of course it doesn't really fully fit with the scene that it appears in. But it does have more originality in the performance of it than usual, but stop smiling, Blaine! Now the cast has dubiously been given the title of act with the most Hot 100 appearances (I'd even as a fan place a big caveat on that considering the hugs bank of singers singing on these), but the last time a Glee cast song was in the Hot 100 it was May. four episodes before the season finale, on Florence + The Machine's "Shake It Out"...


English singer Olly Murs is best known in his homeland for coming in second in the sixth series of X Factor in 2009. He's had three #1 hits in the UK so far, and one of them becomes his first American hit, where he is now best known as the opening act on boy-band One Direction's US tour. The version in England featured UK hiphop duo Rizzle Kicks, but this time out it's Philly boys Chiddy Bang, who scraped the pop chart two years ago with "Opposite Of Adults". The redone track at #96 is "Heart Skips A Beat", and it deserves a real chance in the States. It reminds me of the ska-influenced work of Madness and the Specials from the early 80s...


And rounding up the entries at #98 is country crooner Justin Moore, whose two #1 country hits, "Small Town USA" and "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away", have made it to the top half of the pop chart, with his latest single, "Til My Last Day". It's a pleasant mid-tempo love song that doesn't really do more that what it's asked for, with a good twostep beat to boot....


Meanwhile, over on the radio-monitored Adult Top-40 pop chart, Pink stays at #1 for a second week with "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"...

The higher of the two new songs here is by Daughtry, led by namesake Chris who placed fourth on the fifth season of American Idol. Since then he's proven to be one of the most successful acts ever from the show, and he's topped the Adult top-40 list four times, from 2006's "It's Not Over" to "No Surprise" from 2009. Their latest, "Start Of Something Good" at #39, is the third hit from their Break The Spell album. It reminds me of their "September", a shuffling mid-tempo rocker that's sufficiently entertaining without requiring too much brain matter..


The other debut at #40 is by John Mayer, whose Grammy-winning "Daughters" topped the list in 2004. His newest, the second single from his #1 album Born And Raised, is "Queen Of California", which already has been to #2 on the Triple-A rock radio chart, and it brings of a whole chunk of mellow goodness that recalls the best of James Taylor and the Allman Brothers...


That does it for this round, out of these my picks are Olly Murs and John Mayer. Stay tuned, in an hour and a half I'll bring you the latest on rock radio...

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