Twostepcublog

    " Something About You " was a club and urban radio hit for the funk band Ebonee Webb. Appearing on their self-titled debut album , the song was written by Allen Jones, who produced it with Anthony Taylor. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-80, the single peaked at #54 in 1981, while also climbing to #16 on their R&B Singles chart.      

    " Girls, Girls, Girls " - Jay-Z from the album The Blueprint (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 8   Today's song comes from rap icon Jay-Z , whose sixth album The Blueprint had become a critical and popular success, and had spun off his first top ten crossover pop hit as a lead artist in the autumn of 2001 with " I.Z.Z.O. (H.O.V.A.) ".  The second single from the album was the party track "Girls, Girls, Girls", which he wrote with producer Justin "Just Blaze" Smith using a sample of soul singer Tom Brock's " There's Nothing In This World That Can Stop Me From Loving You ", which gave Brock writing credit.  As for the rhymes, they're, well, pretty damn misogynistic, starting with the first verse which describes the girls he's involved with by ethnicity, with Hispanic, French, Indian, and Black, with a particularly bad slur for the Indian one, which he doubles down when describing...

    "Let's Have A Party Tonight" was a club hit for the trio Danielle, featuring singers Ginger Blake, Michelle Hart, and Sarah Baldwin. Appearing on their only album Danielle , the song was written and produced by Rue Caldwell. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-100, the single peaked at #48 in 1980.     

    " Schism " - Tool from the album Lateralus (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #67   This week's "robbed hit" comes from the progressive metal band Tool , who came together in Los Angeles in the beginning of the 1990's under the leadership of singer Maynard James Keenan along with guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey, and bass player Paul D'Amour. Keenan had performed previously with the comic art-metal band Green Jellÿ, who had a top-20 pop hit in the summer of 1993 with " Three Little Pigs ". By that time Tool, who were also signed to Zoo Records, released their first EP (extended play single) Opiate om March of that year, followed by a full-length debut album Undertow a month later. That set's first radio single, " Sober ", climbed to #13 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart at the close of 1993. Undertow went to #50 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, staying on the list for over a year and selling ...

    " Dance With Me " - 112 from the album Part III (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 2   Today's song comes from the R&B vocal group 112 , whose third album had been their biggest so far, spinning off two top ten crossover pop hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " It's Over Now " and " Peaches & Cream ". The third and final single from the record was the album opener (after the intro) "Dance With Me". Written by the group's Daron Jones and Michael Keith with Jason Boyd (who would eventually work with Justin Bieber), the song is a mid-tempo party track mean for the dancefloor, with lyrics having the guys mackin' on the ladies up in there. A radio remix was done with rapper Beanie Sigel whose verse takes the whole first minute of the single. Sigel, whose first two albums The Truth and The Reason both reached #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, selling a half a million each, ...

    It's time for my weekly new albums roundup, where I take a look at the big albums on this week's American and British albums charts, along with my choices of the new records I think you should check out. To catch up on this week's singles round, you can click here .  It's another really slow winter week, where the highest new entry on the Billboard 200 is at #100, and it's a sub-par rap effort from Babytron, and only one other newbie, which is a pre-fame release from 2020 from indie-country artist Zach Bryan.   Elisabeth - Zach Bryan Billboard 200 debut: #192 Choice cut: "Revival"   As Bryan sees his song "Something In The Orange" unbelievably make the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Bryan's second indie album from 2020 sees itself on the big sales tally, and deservedly so. I truly have faith in the future of country music with the grass roots reception he has received, and this bare-bones outlay of emotion is quietly stunn...

    It's time for my weekly new music roundup, where I feature my choices of the songs making the various radio charts in Billboard magazine, as well as on the charts in the United Kingdom. This week's big chart had two big-profile entries from female pop stars burning bridges with their unfaithful exes - one of them, Shakira's obliquely-titled "BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 53", was featured on last week's roundup since it entered the dance songs chart the week is was released.   " Flowers " - Miley Cyrus from the album Endless Summer Vacation (2023) Billboard Hot 100 debut: #1 Billboard Pop Airplay debut: #16 Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay debut: #14 Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay debut: #15  Official British Singles Chart debut: #1 British Singles Airplay debut: #1 British Singles Sales debut: #1   Four years after her separation from ex-husband Avenger Liam Hemsworth, Miley still holds a grudge, and gloriously lets it all out in this dan...

    " Walking Into Sunshine " was a big club hit for the British funk band Central Line. Appearing on their debut album Central Line , the song was produced by the group's Roy Carter, who wrote it with bandmates Linton Beckles and Lipson Francis. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-80, the Central Line album was listed as a single entry, with "Walking On Sunshine", "Don't Tell Me", and "I Need Your Love" listed as key DJ cuts. The record peaked at #5 there in 1981, while making it to #14 on their R&B Singles chart and #84 on the pop Hot 100.    (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    Friday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. Taylor Swift remains on top for a sixth week, while country music newcomer Nate Smith (pictured above) climbs a notch in the top ten. Songs from All Time Low, RAYE, and JVKE make some of the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while a former big hit from Bailey Zimmerman drops out. And under my chart everything is Spotify playlisted for 5 1/2 hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. Things may be looking up... This Week                Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift (1) 2. Cuff It - Beyonce (2) 3. Unholy - Sam Smith & Kim Petras (3) 4. Never Gonna Not Dance Again - Pink (4) 5. Made You Look -  Meghan Trainor (6) 6. Whiskey On You -...

    " Superman (It's Not Easy) " - Five For Fighting from the album America Town (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 22   Today's song comes from Five For Fighting , the recording moniker for pop singer/songwriter John Ondrasik. John grew up in Los Angeles, and after college hung around the L.A. music scene, mostly with the trashy metal crowd, and had a band for awhile before going into a whole different direction after the rise of grunge music in the early 1990s. Adopting the name "Five For Fighting", a hockey penalty term, to make it easier for people to remember, Ondrasik was signed to EMI Records and released his debut album, the indie pop set Message For Albert in 1997. However right at time the label was folding in America, and it wasn't promoted and quietly faded away.   Eventually, Five For Fighting was picked up by the Aware imprint on Columbia Records, and Ondrasik was back in business. At the close of 2000, h...

    " Don't Turn Your Back On Love " was a club hit for singer Kristin Baio. Released as a stand-alone single, the song was written by Cindy Valentine and Tony Green, and produced by Mark Berry, with a club mix from Chip Nunez. On Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart, the single peaked at #18 in 1989.      

    " Where The Stars And Stripes And The Eagle Fly " - Aaron Tippin from the album Stars And Stripes (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 14   Today's song comes from country music singer Aaron Tippin , who was born in the Florida panhandle and grew up in South Carolina, before heading to Nashville to start a music career. He began as a writer, then was signed to RCA Records as a performer. Tippin's debut album was released in the beginning of 1991, with title track " You've Got To Stand For Something " as the lead single. Written by Tippin with Buddy Brock, the politically encouraging workingman's song climbed to #6 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart, while the You've Got To Stand For Something album hit #153 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #23 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies.  A year later, Tippin returned with his sophomore effort Read Between ...

    "In The Pocket" was a club hit for the African Suite, a studio group put together by Ritchie Rome, the producer of the Ritchie Family (which he gave his name to). Appearing on the act's self titled and only album, that song was written by Rome with Russ Faith. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-100, the African Suite album was listed as a single entry, with "In The Pocket" listed as the key DJ cut. The set peaked at #26 in 1980.  

    " Lifetime " - Maxwell from the album Now (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 6   Today's song comes from neo-soul singer Maxwell (aka Gerald Maxwell Rivera), who had scored the biggest hit of his career in the spring of 1999 in the pop top five with the R. Kelly written-and-produced " Fortunate " from the movie Life . Later that year, a contribution to another soundtrack, The Best Man , yielded another minor hit with " Let's Not Play The Game ", which stopped at #55 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart. In 2000, a live acoustic remake of Kate Bush's classic " This Woman's Work ", from his 1997 MTV Unplugged album, started to garner urban radio airplay, enough so to climb to #61 on the R&B Singles chart.  At the beginning of the next year, Maxwell released the preview single for his upcoming third album, Now . " Get To Know Ya ", written and produced by the artist ...

    " Where There Is Love " was a club hit for the R&B vocal group the Whispers. Appearing on their album Bingo , the song was written by Joseph Jefferson with producers Bruce Hawes and Charles Simmons, and remixed for the clubs by Tom Moulton. On Billboard magazine's Disco Action chart, the Bingo album was listed as a single entry, with "Where There Is Love" listed as the only key cut. The album peaked there at #15 in 1974.        

    " Gone " - *NSYNC from the album Celebrity (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 18   Today's song comes from the "boyband" *NSYNC , whose fourth studio album Celebrity sold almost two million copies in its first week, but at the expense of the label not releasing a commerical single for " Pop ", which ended up stalling just within the top-20 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart in the early summer of 2001.  Jive Records did the same with the follow-up, "Gone". Written and produced by the group's Justin Timberlake along with Wade Robson, he meant for it to be for Michael Jackson to record. However, after not hearing anything back Justin submitted it for Celebrity , and it was recorded (according to him Jackson called later saying he wanted to do a duet, but it was too late). I can see why Timberlake would like Jackson to record it, it's a gentle ballad with forlorn lyrics about lost lov...

    "Super Elton" was a club hit for Canadian singer Paul Vincent. Appearing on his self-titled album in 1978, the song cribbed titles from a bunch of Elton John's songs, but not enough to apparently give him writing credit, which was to Vincent, Gilles Gravel, Jacques Lafleche, and producer Domenic Sciscente. On Billboard magazine's National Disco Action Top-40, the single peaked at #39 in 1977..     (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    " On A Night Like This " - Trick Pony from the album Trick Pony (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47    This week's "robbed hit" comes from the country trio Trick Pony who came together in the mid-1990s. Even though they were friendly acquainted, their appeared to be pre-fab, with the requisite blond female lead Heidi Newfield, a classically handsome sideman Keith Burns, and a "hipster country" third Ira Dean. After gigging for a while, the group was signed to Warner Brothers Nashville Records, where they released their self-titled debut album in 2001. The lead single, " Pour Me ", was a fun rollicking swing number that worked off the pun in the title. Co-written by the band, it's by far their best song, and broke them on the radio, climbing to #12 on Billboard magazine's Country Songs chart and popping on to the composite Hot 100 at #71.   For their second effort, the group brought in an outside tune, "On A Night Like This...