Twostepcublog

    " 19 Somethin' " - Mark Wills from the album Greatest Hits (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 14   Today's song comes from country music singer Mark Wills , who scored his second top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the beginning of 2000 with his cover of the recent R&B/pop hit from Brian McKnight " Back At One ".  The following year, Mark returned with his fourth album Loving Every Minute , which made the top ten on Billboard 's Country Albums chart at #10 but only made it to #93 on the main Billboard 200 sales tally, unlike his last which reached the top-40. It did manage to sell over a half-million copies (about half its predecessor) but the lead single and title track " Loving Every Minute " stalled down at #18 on the Country Songs airplay chart, while only "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #107 (the soft-pop gem deserved better).  I believe that the label, Mercury

    " All My Life " - Foo Fighters from the album One By One (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #43 (two weeks)   This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Foo Fighters , whose third album There Is Nothing Left To Lose had landed the band their first official top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in the beginning of 2000 with " Learn To Fly ".  The following year, the group contributed a song to the soundtrack to the Jack Black/Colin Hanks slacker movie Orange County , " The One ", which placed on both the Alternative (#14) and Mainstream (#20) Rock radio charts, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #121.  At the end of 2002, Dave Grohl and the Fighters returned with One By One , the first to include new guitarist Chris Sheflett. The set was long in the making, delayed by drummer Taylor Hawkins' heroin overdose which sidelined them for a little, and troubles making the actual album. The original sessions, which inc

    " Red Rag Top " - Tim McGraw from the album Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 2   Today's song comes from Tim McGraw , who saw all four singles from his sixth studio album Set This Circus Down go to #1 on Billboard magazine's Country Songs airplay chart as well as cross over to the top-40 on the Hot 100 with " Grown Men Don't Cry ", " Angry All The Time ", " The Cowboy In Me ", and " Unbroken ".  With this clout Tim was able to take charge and do two striking things for his next release, Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors in 2002. First, as implied in the name, he had his touring band backing him instead of studio musicians which was the norm in the genre. Second, McGraw took a big chance with the subject matter of the lead single "Red Ragtop". Written by Jason White for that singer/songwriter's own album from the year prior, the l

    Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top "hit" tunes from the previous week. Noah Kahan and Post Malone spend a second week at #1, while Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves (pictured above) leap into the top five. Former big hits from Foo Fighters and Lovejoy drop off my chart, while songs from blink-182, Dylan Scott, and Troye Sivan make some of the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ). And under the list everything is Spotify playlisted for 5 1/2 hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music.    This Week               Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Dial Drunk - Noah Kahan f/Post Malone (1) 2. Under You - Foo Fighters (2) 3. Snooze - SZA (3) 4. What Was I Made For? - Billie Eilish (6) 5. I Remember Everything - Zach Bryan f/Kacey Musgraves (9) 6. Vampire - Olivia Rodrigo (

    " Fabulous " - Jaheim featuring Tha Rayne from the album Still Ghetto (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 9   Today's song comes from R&B singer Jaheim, whose debut album Ghetto Love had scored a pair of top-40 crossover hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Could It Be " and " Anything ". At the end of 2002, he released his sophomore effort Still Ghetto . The lead single from the set was "Fabulous", which featured Tha Rayne, a female vocal act put together by Naughty By Nature's Keir "KayGee" Gist. Originally a trio when they sang backup on Jaheim's debut, by the time they signed with Arista Records, they were just the duo of Elizabeth Bingham and Shaquana Elam. Tha Rayne had released a couple singles in 2002, but they went pretty much unnoticed. "Fabulous", written by Mary Brown, Balewa Muhammad, and producer Gist and Eddie Berkeley, uses a sample of the soul-d

    " I'm With You " - Avril Lavigne from the album Let Go (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 24   Today's song comes from Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne , who had already scored a pair of top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 from her debut album in 2002 with " Complicated " and " Sk8er Boi ".  The third single from her Let Go set was the ballad "I'm With You", written by the singer with the Matrix production team of Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards, and Scott Spock. Despite the hopeful love-song-like title, the lyrics find Avril basking in loneliness, wishing for someone to take her away to anywhere, just to feel being in love. It's a universal emotion, not restricted to age, and the Matrix's production and waltz-time signature allows Lavigne to sing to a broader audience. And the "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you" really cuts close. In return

    " Thugz Mansion " - 2Pac from the album Better Dayz (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (five weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 11   Today's song comes from 2Pac , aka Tupac Shakur, who was tragically gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996 at the age of 25. After a pair of posthumous albums, a Greatest Hits set was released in 1998, which spun off a top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the beginning of the following year with the Bruce Hornsby-sampling " Changes ".  Later in 1999, another album, Still I Rise , which used 2Pac recordings on Death Row Records with his posse the Outlawz, went to #6 on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million copies, and " Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II) ", an obvious sympathy grab, went to #72 on the Hot 100 and #36 on the R&B Singles chart. That was followed in 2001 with a double-disc set, Until The End Of Time , which featured more unreleased music specially remixed with new production. T

    " Bump, Bump, Bump " - B2K featuring P. Diddy from the album Pandemonium (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 19   Today's song comes the the R&B "boyband" B2K , who scored a pair of top-40 crossover hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in 2002 with " Uh Huh " and " Gots Ta Be ". In true "boyband" fashion, Epic Records quickly followed up with a remix album and a holiday set ( Santa Hooked Me Up ) that both made the Billboard 200 sales tally at #129 and #132 respectively. And by the end of the year, Omarian, J-Boog, Raz-B, and Lil Fizz were back with a sophomore studio album Pandemonium . The lead single paired the group of with two of the hottest names in the R&B world at that point, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and R. Kelly (as his own "troubles" were just starting"). Kelly co-wrote the track with Varick Smith, and co-produced it with Diddy. The lyrics have Omario

    " The Zephyr Song " - Red Hot Chili Peppers from the album By The Way (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49 (two weeks)   This week's "robbed hit" comes from the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers , who landed their fifth top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the summer of 2002 with the lead single and title track from their album By The Way . Their following release would be "The Zephyr Song", written by the group and produced by Rick Rubin. The lyrics are a stream of consciousness like many from them, but it's a more positive and less drug-infused one. The production from Rubin is the usual trippy lite-funk, but the chorus is way more uplifting that I'm used to hearing from the Peppers. The music video has no story but rather a flow of images to stimulate the brain...    While "The Zephyr Song" did decently on rock radio, topping the nascent Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") Rock chart for five weeks, pe

    " Miss You " - Aaliyah from the album I Care 4 U (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 28   Today's song comes from the late R&B singer Aaliyah , who returned to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 a year after her tragic plane crash death with " I Care 4 U ". As that song was cresting in October of 2002, a new single, "Miss You" was released. Written by Johnta Austin with producer Teddy Bishop, the song was recorded during the sessions for her self-titled third album, but cut from the tracklist. The lyrics have Aaliyah pining over a past young love that went away for school, but then circles that depression drain for the rest of the song (I can understand why it was left off Aaliyah ). But the weight of the singers passing of course gave a heavier context to this, and any song named "Miss You" from her would gain attention. The production is simple and spacious enough to let Aaliyah's gen

  Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. Noah Kahan and Post Malone take over at #1, while Olivia Rodrigo (pictured above) climbs a pair of notches in the top ten. Songs from Blink-182, Paul Russell, and Olivia Rodrigo make some of the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while former big hits from Kylie Minogue, Beck/Phoenix, and Ayron Jones drop off my chart. And under the list everything is Spotify playlisted for 5 1/2 hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. Rainy days and Fridays.... This Week         Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Dial Drunk - Noah Kahan f/Post Malone (2) 2. Under You - Foo Fighters (6) 3. Snooze - SZA (3) 4. Fast Car - Luke Combs (4) 5. Dance The Night - Dua Lipa (1) 6. What Was I Made For? - Billie Eilish (

    " React " - Erick Sermon featuring Redman from the album React (2002) and Honey (Original Soundtrack) (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 2   Today's song comes from rapper Erick Sermon , who had been a part of the seminal rap group EPMD starting it the late 1980, before embarking on a solo career in the following decade that also saw him reuniting with the group. At the turn of the millennium, Sermon signed with veteran executive Clive Davis' J Records, and in 2001 scored a top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Music ", a single that used a sample of an unreleased song from Marvin Gaye.   A year later, Erick returned with his fifth solo album and second on J Records, React . The title track, which featured rapper Redman, was released as the lead single. Redman hadn't been in the top-40 as a lead artist since his collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man on " How High " in

    " Family Portrait " - Pink from the album Missundaztood (2001) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 13   Today's song comes from P!nk , whose sophomore album Missundaztood had already spun off three top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Get The Party Started ", " Don't Let Me Get Me ", and " Just Like A Pill ".  The fourth and final single from the record was the ultra-personal "Family Portrait". Written by the singer (as her given name Alecia Moore) with producer Scott Storch (once with the Roots), the song deals with her growing up, with her parents divorcing before she hit ten. Pink addresses her mother, begging her to make up with her dad, while addressing her dad with a plea not to leave. She mentions running away from home to escape the turmoil, but in her eyes as a child keeps bargaining to get back to the place they were in their "family portrait". It's ver