twostepcub's music chart for April 8, 2011...

Hey folks, my cherry blossoms are out, and it's time for my top 100 tunes for the week. This week the Queen Monster spends a second week on top, while country bears the Zac Brown Band (pictured above) move into the top-3. Former big hits by the Sick Puppies, Trey Songz, Selena Gomez, and Blake Shelton drop off the list, while tracks by Alexis Jordin, The Band Perry, and Easton Corbin make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red). Link-O-Rama is still in effect, so you can click on the highlighted name of any of the artists to go to their website. Damn Squirrels!

This Week Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses)
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1. Born This Way - Lady GaGa (1)
2. Fuckin' Perfect - Pink (2)
3. Colder Weather - The Zac Brown Band (5)
4. S&M - Rihanna (4)
5. Fuck You/Forget You - Cee-Lo Green (7)
6. Grenade - Bruno Mars (6)
7. Rolling In The Deep - Adele (3)
8. Shake Me Down - Cage The Elephant (12)
9. For The First Time - The Script (9)
10. Tonight (I'm Lovin' You) - Enrique Iglesias f/Ludacris (8)
11. Firework - Katy Perry (11)
12. This - Darius Rucker (17)
13. Higher - Taio Cruz f/Kylie Minogue & Travie McCoy (14)
14. Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine (10)
15. Sing - My Chemical Romance (15)
16. Rope - Foo Fighters (21)
17. The Cave - Mumford & Sons (19)
18. Help Is On The Way - Rise Against (26)
19. Hello - Martin Solveig f/Dragonette (16)
20. Don't You Wanna Stay - Jason Aldean f/Kelly Clarkson (20)
21. Better Than Today - Kylie Minogue (13)
22. Hello World - Lady Antebellum (22)
23. Marry Me - Train (18)
24. Jar Of Hearts - Christina Perri (24)
25. Back To December - Taylor Swift (23)
26. Someone Like You - Adele (34)
27. Waiting For The End - Linkin Park (25)
28. Let Me Down Easy - Billy Currington (33)
29. Move On Fast - Yoko Ono (29)
30. Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons (30)
31. Hold It Against Me - Britney Spears (27)
32. Raise Your Glass - Pink (28)
33. What Do You Want - Jerrod Niemann (39)
34. Uncharted - Sara Bareilles (46)
35. Rocketeer - Far East Movement f/Ryan Tedder (35)
36. Little Miss - Sugarland (38)
37. What The Hell - Avril Lavigne (41)
38. A Little Bit Stronger - Sara Evans (48)
39. Closer To The Edge - 30 Seconds To Mars (43)
40. Sanity - Hannah (40)
41. Tighten Up - The Black Keys (31)
42. Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not - Thompson Square (42)
43. Price Tag - Jessie J. f/B.o.B (53)
44. I Do - Colbie Caillat (49)
45. Seek Bromance - Tim/Berg (45)
46. I Won't Let Go - Rascal Flatts (51)
47. Just The Way You Are - Bruno Mars (37)
48. You Are - Charlie Wilson (36)
49. Good Girl - Alexis Jordan (71)
50. Heart Like Mine - Miranda Lambert (54)
51. What's My Name - Rihanna f/Drake (47)
52. Lay With You - El DeBarge f/Faith Evans (59)
53. Bleed Red - Ronnie Dunn (63)
54. Who's That Chick? - David Guetta f/Rihanna (44)
55. Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland (56)
56. Walking - Mary Mary (74)
57. Never Gonna Leave This Bed - Maroon 5 (62)
58. Twist Of Love - Kimberly Davis (64)
59. E.T. - Katy Perry f/Kanye West (79)
60. Far Away - Marsha Ambrosius (DEBUT)
61. You Lie - The Band Perry (83)
62. Live A Little - Kenny Chesney (72)
63. This Is Country Music - Brad Paisley (58)
64. Georgia Clay - Josh Kelley (69)
65. New Low - Middle Class Rut (67)
66. Without You - Keith Urban (84)
67. On The Floor - Jennifer Lopez f/Pitbull (77)
68. Family Man - Craig Campbell (70)
69. Howling For You - The Black Keys (73)
70. Freefallin' - Zoe Badwi (82)
71. More - Usher (81)
72. Keep On Dancing - Alyssa Rubino (76)
73. Love Letter - R. Kelly (85)
74. Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) - Shinedown (78)
75. Country Song - Seether (DEBUT)
76. Where You At - Jennifer Hudson (DEBUT)
77. Army Of Love - Kerli (95)
78. I Can't Love You Back - Easton Corbin (100)
79. Paris (Ooh La La) - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (DEBUT)
80. My Body - Young The Giant (86)
81. I'll Be There - Tiffany Evans (91)
82. Something To Believe In - Parachute (DEBUT)
83. Keep Your Head Up - Andy Grammer (88)
84. Falling In - Lifehouse (94)
85. Tomorrow - Chris Young (DEBUT)
86. Don't Hold Your Breath - Nicole Scherzinger (DEBUT)
87. We R Who We R - Ke$ha (87)
88. Blow - Ke$ha (92)
89. Sun Is Up - Inna (89)
90. Celui - Colonel Reyel (90)
91. Get It Right - Glee Cast (DEBUT)
92. Hollywood Hills - Sunrise Avenue (DEBUT)
93. Gold Forever - The Wanted (DEBUT)
94. Raymond - Brett Eldredge (DEBUT)
95. As Days Go By - Mickey 'Mixin' Oliver f/Kim Smith (96)
96. Loser Like Me - Glee Cast (DEBUT)
97. Just Can't Get Enough - The Black Eyed Peas (DEBUT)
98. Toutes Les Nuits - Colonel Reyel (DEBUT)
99. Never See You Again - Talia Coles (DEBUT)
100. Sun Of A Gun - Oh Land (DEBUT)

This week there's a big turnover with sixteen new songs on my list (marked in yellow). I've included earlier videos marked in orange.

The highest entry is by Marsha Ambrosius, the British soul singer who was formerly one half of the group Floetry. The duo had a top-40 US hit with "Say Yes" in 2003, when the alt-R&B genre was in full-gear. Eight years later, Ambrosius has a hit CD (Late Nights and Early Mornings) which includes "Far Away", a slow smoker most notable for its video about African American men, violence and tolerance in way I have never seen in an R&B video. It's a must-see if you haven't seen it.



South African hard-rock band Seether is back after two years from their last single, a grunge cover of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper". Their latest is their eleventh to make the Rock top-10, including two #1's, "Remedy" and "Fake It". And ironically it's with "The Country Song"...



Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson is back with a song that's just as epic as "Spotlight" was a classic jam. It's a sure-fire drag number of the future with "Where You At"...



Next up is roots-rock group Grace Potter and The Nocturnals from Vermont, who graduate from Triple A radio (where they scored prior with "Tiny Light") and impact adult-pop with the rougher "Paris (Ooh La La)"...



Virginians Parachute return hoping to equal the success of their adult-pop hit from 2009, "She Is Love". They've already gone viral with the video of their anthemic new song, "Something To Believe In"...



Chris Young just set the record for longest climb to #1 on the country chart with "Voices", which took 51 non-consecutive weeks to hit the top spot. Here's hoping his latest takes a little less time. Like "Tomorrow" (man, that's bad)...



Ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger may hve had a bit of trouble jumpstarting a solo career in the States, but in England she's had a better go, scoring a top-3 hit with "Poison", and now her first solo #1 with this song that deserves a shot here, here's "Don't Hold Your Breath"...



Well Glee came through the last episode with original songs, and two of them debut this week, including this power-ballad written by music director Adam Anders, and sung by Lea Michele ("Rachel"). Here's "Get It Right"...



And now for something completely different, Finnish rock band Sunrise Avenue have their first hit on my list, and their second top-10 hit in Germany (following 2006's "Fairytale Gone Bad"). It's with the very American-sounding "Hollywood Hills"...



British boyband The Wanted came on the scene with the #1 hit "All Time Low", and they now have the Official Single for the UK charity Comic Relief, which explains the presence of red noses on the clip for "Gold Forever"..



Country singer Brett Eldredge has his first hit with a song with a moving theme about visiting a stranger in a nursing home, "Raymond" (WTF in 2011 about not embeddable videos?)...



The second entry from Glee is the first to get significant radio airplay, not surprising since it was co-written by super-producer/writer Max Martin. It's also the show's highest placing on Billboard's pop chart (#6) since their first smash, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Here's "Loser Like Me"...



The Black Eyed Peas follow up their scramble of Dirty Dancing of "The Time (Dirty Bit)" with a song they shot the video in Tokyo a week before the tragic Tohoku earthquake. Eerie in retrospect, it includes a plea for the Red Cross. Here's "Just Can't Get Enough"...



For the first time, an artist has two foreign-language concurrent hits on my top-100, as Frenchman Colonel Reyel's "Celui" is joined by a track that jumped into the French top-5 at number 1. It's "Toutes Les Nuits" ("All of the Nights")...



New York singer Talia Coles has her first hit with a song that's rockin' the clubs, "Never See You Again"...



The final of the 16 debuts is by Danish (the country, not the delectable pastry) singer Oh Land, a play on her middle name (full name Nanna Oland Fabricus). She does it with the dance track "Sun Of A Gun".



Now how's that grease working out, squirrel?