Twostepcublog

    " I'm Glad " - Jennifer Lopez from the album This Is Me...Then (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 5   Today's song comes from Jennifer Lopez , whose album This Is Me...Then had already spun off one of the most self-serving songs to become a "hit", " Jenny From The Block ", followed by her collab with rapper LL Cool J on " All I Have ", which topped Billboard magazine's Hot 100 for a month at the beginning of 2003. The third single pulled from the album was "I'm Glad", written by Lopez (s) with producers Troy Oliver and Cory Rooney along with Andre Deyo and rapper Jesse "Schooly D" Weaver Jr., whose song " PSK What Does It Mean " was sampled for this record. The lyrics make this a gushy love song, which was on-brand at the time of her first highly-publicized romance with actor Ben Affleck. The production is lush and quite lovely, and they process her vocals en

    " Three Wooden Crosses " - Randy Travis from the album Rise & Shine (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 5   Today's song comes from country music veteran Randy Travis , who originally recorded under his birth name of Randy Traywick when he released his first music. Born in south central North Carolina, he first moved to Charlotte, where Randy met his manager and eventual wife Elizabeth Hatcher. Moving to Nashville and signing with the indie label Paula Records, Randy's single " She's My Woman " grazed the lower stretch of the Country Singles chart for a month, peaking at #91 in 1979.  From there Travis disappeared for six years before getting a deal with Warner Brothers under the possibly more palatable name Randy Travis. His first single on the label, the cheating treatise " On The Other Hand ", was originally another minor hit on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart at #67, but aft

    " Don't Wanna Try " - Frankie J from the album What's A Man To Do (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 12   Today's song comes from Latin-pop singer/songwriter Frankie J , who was born Francisco Bautista Jr. in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in California. Singing since school, Frankie has fluttered around the music business for awhile, signing with a few indie labels and having a failed attempt at a freestyle dance music career under the moniker Frankie Boy. This changed when at the end of the 1990s the singer joined the Kumbia Kings, a Mexican-American group fronted by Selena's brother A.B. Quintanilla. Frankie was with the act for four years, during which they scored their first and only Billboard magazine Hot 100 hit with the boy-band pastiche " U Don't Love Me ", which peaked at #62 and also made it to #12 on Billboard 's Rhythmic format chart in the spring of 2000.  After three albums with the Kings, F

    " What Would You Do? " - The Isley Brothers from the album Body Kiss (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49 (three weeks)   This week's "robbed hit" comes from the veteran R&B act the Isley Brothers , who by the 2000s was whittled down to just brothers Ronald and Ernie. After the success of the siblings backing up R. Kelly on his top ten hit " Down Low (Nobody Has To Know) " in the spring of 1996, and especially with Ronald's alter ego in the music video as kingpin "Mr. Biggs", the pair had seen a resurgence. They released Eternal in 2001 and scored a top-20 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Contagious ". In fact, for their lead single from their second album on DreamWorks Records, "What Would You Do?", the label was credited as "The Isley Brothers Featuring Ronald Isley AKA Mr. Biggs". That takes a good self-worth (or a bit or delulu). Like almost all of the album save one tra

    " So Gone " - Monica from the album After The Storm (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 17   Today's song comes from R&B singer Monica , whose second album The Boy Is Mine in 1998 had spun off three #1 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Angel Of Mine ", " The First Night ", and the title track with Brandy that spent thirteen weeks at the top of that chart. She laid low for a couple of years, where she contributed a couple of songs to soundtracks and acted. During that time Monica moved to Clive Davis' new label J Records, where she recorded her third album All Eyez On Me . However when the lead single " All Eyez On Me " stalled down at #69 on the pop Hot 100 and #32 on the R&B Songs chart, the set was initially released just in Japan. And in the age of Napster and the like, the record was shared through the interwebs all over (kind of like Usher's from a little bit before),

      Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top hits of the week. Teddy Swims holds on to #1 for a fourth week, while Noah Kahan (pictured above) leaps into the top five. Songs from Cage The Elephant, the Black Keys, and Foo Fighters make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while a former big hit from Dan + Shay drops 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. My gold shoes at least light up!   This Week           Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Lose Control - Teddy Swims (1) 2. Is It Over Now? - Taylor Swift (2) 3. Get Him Back! - Olivia Rodrigo (3) 4. Stick Season - Noah Kahan (8) 5. Loving You - Cannons (5) 6. Water - Tyla (6) 7. Where The Wild Things Are - Luke Combs (11)  8. White Horse - Chris Stapleto

    " Rock Wit U (Awww Baby) " - Ashanti from the album Chapter II (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 18   Today's song comes from R&B singer Ashanti , whose self-titled debut album was massive, selling millions and spinning off three pop crossover hits with " Baby ", " Happy ", and " Foolish ", with the latter spending ten weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100. She also appeared on top ten hits from producer Irv Gotti (" Down 4 U ") and rapper Ja Rule (" Mesmerize "). Gotti (aka Irving Lorenzo would go on and co-write and co-produce Ashanti's lead single from her sophomore effort Chapter II along with Andre "Chink Santana" Parker. "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)" has the singer cooing come-ons to her prospective partner, asking if they're up to the task. With a passing reference to fidelity it's more about the carnal pleasures but lightly enough to g

" Beware Of The Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke) " - Panjabi MC featuring Jay-Z from the album Beware - The Album (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 2   Today's song comes from DJ/producer Panjabi MC , who was born Rajinder Singh Rai in the middle England city of Coventry (home of that Carol).  He was originally signed to the label Nachural, a British label that specialized in bhangra , the rhythmic music from southeast Asia and India specifically. He released his debut album Souled Out , which mergered the genre with hip-hop beats, in 1993. His fifth and final disc on the label, Legalised , was originally put out in the UK in 1998. The opening track from the record was the song "Mundian To Bach Ke", roughly translated to "save your head". On the record, it was subtitled "The Knight Rider", since it sampled the theme to the hit TV show starring David Hasselhoff, written by Glen Larson and Stu Phillips. The pair was

    " Magic Stick " - Lil' Kim featuring 50 Cent from the album La Bella Mafia (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 21   Today's song comes from rapper Lil' Kim , who had returned to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 for the fourth time as a lead artist in the spring of 2003 with "The Jump Off", the lead single from her third album La Bella Mafia . For the follow-up, Kim released a song that originally was meant to be on rapper 50 Cent's debut Get Rich Or Die Tryin' , but (conveniently) delayed enough to miss the cutoff and ended up on her disc. "Magic Stick", written by the duo with producers Carlos Evans and Michael Clervoix, uses an interpolation of the blues classic " The Thrill Is Gone ", giving writer Roy Hawkins writing credit as well. You can tell it was a 50 Cent track at first since he takes the first verse, bragging about his sexual prowess and "expert technique&q

    " Snake " - R. Kelly featuring Cam'ron and Big Tigger from the album Chocolate Factory (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 9   Today's song comes from R&B singer/songwriter/producer and current sex crimes felon R. Kelly, whose 2003 album Chocolate Factory had landed a huge hit with " Ignition (Remix) " which spent five weeks in the runner-up spot on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the spring of 2003.  Two more cuts from the album, "Step In The Name Of Love" and " Who's That " featuring Fat Joe both got enough urban radio airplay to place on Billboard 's R&B Singles chart, with the former eventually being on this series and the latter stopping at #65 on the R&B list. The second "official" single from the record would be "Snake", which on the album features radio personality Darian Morgan, aka "Big Tigger". Big Tigger, who was on the Washington D

      " What A Beautiful Day " - Chris Cagle from the album Chris Cagle (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41   This week's "robbed hit" comes from country music artist Chris Cagle , whose debut album Play It Loud spun off four charting hits on Billboard magazine's Country Songs chart, with one of them, " I Breathe In, I Breathe Out ", crossing over to reach the top-40 on the all-genre Hot 100 in the spring of 2002. A year later, Chris returned with his self-titled sophomore effort, led by the single "What A Beautiful Day". Written by Cagle with Monty Powell, and co-produced by the singer with Robert Wright, it's one of those "counting" country songs, marking by what "day" certain life moments happen in a romance, from meeting to I love yous to day 189 when he mysteriously almost lost her to having a son all the way to 50 years together. It's like a shiny bright "In The Year 2525" but for Hallmark mo

    " Fighter " - Christina Aguilera from the album Stripped (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 11   Today's song is from Christina Aguilera , whose second major album release Stripped had gotten off to a rocky start with the trainwreck of a lead single " Dirrty " but then was redeemed by one of her most beloved and successful hits in " Beautiful ".  The third single from the record was the "rock" track from the album, "Fighter". Written by the singer with producer Scott Storch, the song's lyrics has Christina seemingly confronting a partner she's breaking up with for not only cheating on her but "stealing", which is a more rare one in these time of pop songs. Instead of hating them she's thanking them for inspiring the strength in her to become more self-assured ( that's odd) and at least ready to see the signs in the next relationship. I mean, she does get a few jabs

  Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. Teddy Swims hangs tight at #1 for a third week, while Cannons (pictured above) climb into the top five. Former big hits from Kelly Clarkson, Tiesto, Fall Out Boy, boygenius, and David Kushner drop off my chart, while songs from the Black Keys, Ariana Grande, and Kane Brown make 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. What a week...   This Week                 Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Lose Control - Teddy Swims (1) 2. Is It Over Now? - Taylor Swift (3) 3. Get Him Back! - Olivia Rodrigo (4) 4. White Horse - Chris Stapleton (5) 5. Loving You - Cannons (6) 6. Water - Tyla (2) 7. World On Fire - Na