twostepcub's music chart for February 26, 2010....

Snowbound again, and totally through with it! It's time for spring! Actually, it's time for my top tunes for the week. This week Lady Gaga spends another week on top, while French rock band Phoenix (pictured above) make a big move in the top-10. Former big hits by Plumb, Dierks Bentley, Kings Of Leon, Green River Ordinance, and Uncle Kracker drop out, while Lady Gaga & Beyonce, Adam Lambert, and Pearl Jam make the biggest jumps. Link-O-Rama is back in effect, so you can click on the highlighted name of any of the artists to go to their website. Cupcakes are ready!

This Week Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses)
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1. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa (1)
2. Someday - Rob Thomas (2)
3. Kings & Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars (3)
4. Fireflies - Owl City (5)
5. Never Gonna Be Alone - Nickelback (6)
6. 1901 - Phoenix (10)
7. Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble (9)
8. One Love - David Guetta f/Estelle (8)
9. Halfway Gone - Lifehouse (13)
10. Breakeven - The Script (14)
11. Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson (11)
12. Uprising - Muse (12)
13. Why Don't We Just Dance - Josh Turner (15)
14. White Liar - Miranda Lambert (4)
15. Soldier Of Love - Sade (16)
16. Russian Roulette - Rihanna (21)
17. Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas (7)
18. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum (18)
19. Fifteen - Taylor Swift (20)
20. Hey, Soul Sister - Train (22)
21. If You Only Knew - Shinedown (17)
22. According To You - Orianthi (31)
23. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood (19)
24. The Truth - Jason Aldean (24)
25. Why Don't You Love Me? - Beyonce (26)
26. Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer (28)
27. Break - Three Days Grace (30)
28. Replay - Iyaz (32)
29. Push N Pull - Noferini & Marini f/Sylvia Tosun (29)
30. Fight For You - Morgan Page (34)
31. Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen (38)
32. Rain - Anjulie (36)
33. Did It Again - Shakira (35)
34. Hard - Rihanna (42)
35. Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys (25)
36. Sexy Bitch/Sexy Chick - David Guetta f/Akon (33)
37. Life After You - Daughtry (39)
38. Tik Tok - Ke$ha (44)
39. Bodies - Robbie Williams (47)
40. Ain't Leavin' Without You - Jaheim (46)
41. I Will Not Bow - Breaking Benjamin (41)
42. On The Floor (Oh Baby Please) - Kaylah Marin (50)
43. Come Back Clean - Crystal Method f/Emily Haines (43)
44. Back Against The Wall - Cage The Elephant (49)
45. You Are - Tony Moran f/Frenchie Davis (57)
46. Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon (51)
47. (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To - Weezer (27)
48. It Kills Me - Melanie Fiona (60)
49. Telephone - Lady GaGa f/Beyonce (84)
50. All The Right Moves - OneRepublic (55)
51. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam (66)
52. Hot - Inna (54)
53. Savior - Rise Against (53)
54. History In The Making - Darius Rucker (56)
55. Two Is Better Than One - Boys Like Girls f/Taylor Swift (62)
56. Heavy Cross - The Gossip (48)
57. 'Til Summer Comes Around - Keith Urban (61)
58. Highway 20 Ride - The Zac Brown Band (63)
59. Make Me - Janet Jackson (45)
60. Your Decision - Alice In Chains (75)
61. Paparazzi - Lady GaGa (59)
62. Syndicate - The Fray (77)
63. Whataya Want From Me - Adam Lambert (81)
64. Revolver - Madonna (76)
65. Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song) - Toby Keith (69)
66. Southern Voice - Tim McGraw (58)
67. Temporary Home - Carrie Underwood (74)
68. Stereo Love - Edward Maya f/Vika Jigulina (70)
69. Fresh Out The Oven - Jennifer Lopez f/Pitbull (67)
70. Fancy Free - Sun (DEBUT)
71. American Saturday Night - Brad Paisley (73)
72. Rain - Creed (68)
73. The Power Of Music - Kristine W. (DEBUT)
74. Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart - Alicia Keys (88)
75. Fearless - Taylor Swift (79)
76. Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You - Kellie Pickler (78)
77. That's How Country Boys Roll - Billy Currington (80)
78. Hurry Home - Jason Michael Carroll (82)
79. Wonderful - Billie Myers (93)
80. Today - Gary Allan (85)
81. A Little More Country Than That - Easton Corbin (83)
82. Acappella - Kelis (DEBUT)
83. I Am - Mary J. Blige (DEBUT)
84. Drama Queen - Simone Denny & Barry Harris (64)
85. You & I - Medina (97)
86. Keeping Score - Hannah (92)
87. Don't Stop Believin' - "Glee" Cast (87)
88. Hillbilly Bone - Blake Shelton f/Trace Adkins (90)
89. You Run Away - Barenaked Ladies (DEBUT)
90. American Honey - Lady Antebellum (94)
91. Down - Jay Sean f/Lil' Wayne (91)
92. Again - Flyleaf (100)
93. Superman Tonight - Bon Jovi (DEBUT)
94. Outside My Window - Sarah Buxton (95)
95. Keep On Lovin' You - Steel Magnolia (99)
96. Secret Love - Kim Sozzi (96)
97. Remember - Lucas Prata (DEBUT)
98. Beer On The Table - Josh Thompson (DEBUT)
99. Imma Be - Black Eyed Peas (DEBUT)
100. Dingue Dingue Dingue - Christophe Mae (DEBUT)

This week ten new songs enter my chart. The highest is by singer Sun, the moniker for Ho Yeow Sun, who hails from the Southeast Asian nation of Singapore, an island country of about 5 million people squeezed onto under 300 square miles, making it the second most densely populated independent countries in the world. Sun went from a position in the evangelic City Harvest Church to a wildly successful music career in Asia. In the last decade, she crossed over to America, scoring five big dance club hits, with four making #1 ("One With You", "Without Love", "Ends Of The Earth", and "Gone") between 2004 and 2006. Her latest single is another remixed dance number called "Fancy Free"...



Next up is another singer with success on the Dance chart, and how. Kristine W. is originally from the state of Washington, where she represented as a beauty pageant contestant at the 1982 Miss America contest. She didn't win, but she's gone on (with a help from a loyal gay following - imagine that!) to place 14 of her fifteen singles at #1 on Billboard Club chart - with the only other one she released, "I'll Be Your Light" coming up at #2 (damn you Beyonce!). Her latest is shooting towards that goal, and it's the sixth single and title track from her latest album, The Power Of Music. A kick-ass video for a kick-ass song...



The third debut is also a dance track, and it's by R&B singer Kelis. The New Yorker was originally an underground find from her banshee anthem "Caught Out There", from her debut album Kaleidoscope, but then followed that with a sophomore effort that wasn't even released in the States. It wasn't until 2003 where Kelis hit gold, as the song "Milkshake" brought the whole world to the yard, to the tune of 2,000,000 copies of her third album, Tasty. Since then she's been boffo in Britain, with all told nine top-40 hits there, while in the US only one more song ("Bossy", with rapper Too Short), made ours even though her followup Kelis Was Here went higher on the chart as her first top-10 CD but selling under 200,000 copies domestically. Starting fresh with a new record label, Kelis is collaborating with some of the best in dance and electro, like Norwegians Royksopp, Brit groups La Roux and Hercules & The Love Affair. It will be out in April, and the first single comes out strong, with a production by Frenchman-of-the-moment David Guetta, who already has two of his own tracks on my chart. Here's Kelis with "Acappella"...



Diva extreme Mary j. Blige is back, already appearing as a guest judge on American Idol, and releasing her ninth studio album, Stronger With Each Tear, which I just picked up on Amazon's $5.00 special. She's racked up 20 top-40 pop singles in the US (16 as lead artist), as well as 46 on the R&B chart (39 as lead artist). Wow. "Family Affair" made her only pop #1 to date, while four more songs besides that one made the top in R&B (including her first two, "You Remind Me" and "Real Love"). She's also won nine, count 'em, nine Grammys. The latest single is in the top-5 already, and it's a real winner, though Auto-tuning her amazing voice did come as a shock to me. Here's "I Am"...



It's only fitting that when the Olympics from Vancouver are winding down, one of Canada's best exports is returning to my list. Toronto-based Barenaked Ladies lost a "lady", as Steven Page left the group to go solo last year. The remaining band including singer Ed Robertson are continuing on with a new album All In Good Time due next month. They've always been a favorite of mine, and I distinctly remember picking up their single for "One Week" (their only #1 hit) in a mall in Utah on a cross-country trip I had taken. The latest is more reflective, a propos considering Page's departure and Robertson's recovery from a motorcycle accident. It's sweet without being hokey, and it's hands-down my favorite new clip of the week. Here's "You Run Away"...



And now since we had some imports, it's time for home-grown Jersey Boys. It's hard for bands to maintain momentum especially across decades where generation and style shifts leave a lot of bands in the dust, but Bon Jovi has managed to stay more than relevant, as their new CD, The Circle, has become their fourth #1 album (and second in a row, following Lost Highway). They also have three #1 singles to their credit ("You Give Love A Bad Name", "Living On A Prayer", and "Bad Medicine") as well as 14 other songs that made America's top-40. The second single from The Circle is another hit on the adult-pop chart, and it's "Superman Tonight". The clip is just about as good as the BNL one - watch the whole thing, for some real "Supermen (and Women)". Ow indeed...



Time for another New Yorker(besides Kelis), Lucas Prata, who had a #1 Dance Radio hit with "...And She Said" back in 2004. He also made the English version of the infamous "Numa Numa" song with original Moldovan singer Dan Balan that scraped the US charts in the mid-naughties. his latest is solo, and it's a fun, bouncy song that's another dance radio hit, "Remember"...



Country music is represented by one new song, and it's by newcomer Josh Thompson who is originally from outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He wrote the title track for fellow chart member Jason Michael Carroll's latest album, and his own CD Way Out There, which I picked up at Best Buy, dropped this past Tuesday. He had a hand in writing 10 of the songs, including the first single which is now a top-20 country hit, and it's what I could use right now, a "Beer On The Table"....



The Black Eyed Peas are now a force of nature. After having two of the biggest songs of last year, and as of now #3 and #4 biggest digital songs of all time ("Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", both over 5 million sold each), as well as a #1 European 100 hit "Meet Me Halfway", which is still on my top-20, their fourth single from their latest album The E.N.D. (Never Dies), "Imma Be", debuts on my list as they make a third pop #1 on Billboard. And here's David Guetta again, mixing that track on the extra long clip with "Rocking That Body" (the overseas current single) for a double delight...



and finally, to keep Mr. Guetta company, is another Frenchman, Christophe Mae. His debut album, Mon Paradis, was the second-biggest seller in his homeland in 2007. After an acoustic set, his upcoming sophomore CD is previewed by the #1 French single "Dingue Dingue Dingue" ("Crazy, Crazy Crazy"). The song also is in the charts in neighboring Belgium and Switzerland, and it's a breezy song in the manner of Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, and Tom Frager...



G'nite all! Cough!