Twostepcublog

  Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. Hozier reigns for a fifth week, while SZA (pictured above) climbs into the top five. Songs from Morgan Wallen, Nate Smith, and Benson Boone make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while former big hits from Billy Joel, blink-182, Kings Of Leon, Maggie Rogers, and Calvin Harris with Rag N' Bone Man 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. Damn. just damn.... This Week            Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Too Sweet - Hozier (1) 2. Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter (2) 3. Million Dollar Baby - Tommy Richman (3) 4. End Of Beginning - DJO (5) 5. Saturn - SZA (7) 6. We Ca...

    " Stunt-101 " - G-Unit from the album Beg For Mercy (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 10   Today's song comes from the rap collective G-Unit, which featured one of the biggest hip-hop acts of the beginning of the millennium, Curtis " 50 Cent " Jackson. 50 Cent, along with friends Lloyd Banks (aka Christopher Lloyd) and Tony Yayo (Marvin Bernard) grew up together in the Queens section of New York City. Jackson was originally signed to Columbia Records, but after he was dropped, the trio came together with Banks and Yayo to form G-Unit. After Jackson was signed to Interscope as a solo artist, he would go on to score a trio of top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " In Da Club ", " 21 Questions ", and " P.I.M.P. ". But at the same time, he arranged for Banks and Yayo to be signed under his own vanity imprint on Interscope, named for their group name G-Unit. 50 Cent went to record...

    " It's My Life " - No Doubt from the album The Singles 1992-2003 (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 22   Today's song comes from the band No Doubt , whose fourth album on Interscope Records in 2001, Rock Steady , had returned them to A-list status and spun off three top-40 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart with " Hey Baby ", " Hella Good ", and " Underneath It All ", with the first and third singles winning a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in consecutive years. But after touring, it was apparent that lead singer Gwen Stefani, who had a bit of success sidelining as a featured artist on a couple big hits for Eve and Moby, was readying her own solo career. So after touring behind the album, they put themselves as a unit on ice, but not before recording a "new" song for a greatest hits compilation for the label. But instead of a new composition, it was a cover song of o...

    " White Flag " - Dido from the album Life For Rent (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 31   Today's song comes from British singer/songwriter Dido , whose breakthrough single " Thank You " was co-opted for rapper Eminem's classic track " Stan ", and then went on to be a top ten hit in its own right in the spring of 2001. Two years later, Dido returned with the lead single from her second album Life For Rent . "White Flag" was written by the singer with brother Rollo (the behind-the-scenes master of alternative dance act Faithless) and songwriter Rick Nowels, who was mostly known for his work with Belinda Carlisle ("Heaven Is A Place On Earth"). The lyrics have Dido mourning a failing relationship, admitting she had a hand in its demise but refusing to quit. Dido sings this coolly but with a frail emotion that's simmering under the surface. The production from Dido and Rollo is soothing...

    " Me Against The Music " - Britney Spears featuring Madonna from the album In The Zone (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 3   Today's song comes from giant pop stars from two "eras" in pop history, Britney Spears and Madonna, that were both experiencing a relatively dry period. Britney's third studio album, Britney , had sold close to five million copies, but after the lead single, the deliberately over-provocative " I'm A Slave 4 U ", stalled down at #27 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 at the close of 2001 (not helped by the label holding back a commercial single to plump album sales), the subsequent released stiffed in the States. A contribution to the wildly successful Austin Powers: Goldmember film franchise, " Boys " with super-hot producer Pharrell Williams, was a top ten hit in the United Kingdom at #7, but while it got to #22 on the Mainstream Top-40 radio chart in America, it only ...

    " Bad Boy This Bad Boy That " - Bad Boy's Da Band from the album Too Hot for TV (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50 (two weeks) This week's "almost hit" (I can't in good conscience say it was robbed ) comes from a reality show that was the collaboration between MTV (which already was swaying away from the music video business) and record label Bad Boy, run by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. It was marketed as the "second reiteration" of Making The Band , in which the first produced the boyband O-Town, which did end up scoring a pair of top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in 2000-2001. (That version had Lou Pearlman as the studio exec mentor, but his story did not end well.)    This version started in the fall of 2002, with Diddy forming what would be "Da Band" by the end of the second "season". The original 40,000 claimed auditioners were pared to four men and two women, with one of each sex being the s...

    " Bright Lights " - Matchbox Twenty from the album More Than You Think You Are (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (five weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 11   Today's song comes from the pop/rock band Matchbox Twenty , whose third album More Than You Think You Are had already spun off two top-40 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart with " Disease " and " Unwell ", with the latter reaching the top five in the summer of 2002. The third single from the record is "Bright Lights", written by lead singer Rob Thomas and produced by Matt Serletic. In the song Rob sings to a woman who is leaving for the big city to pursue fame, saying if it doesn't work out she can return home (and to him presumably). But it seems he is the one needing her more, as the unsureness pervades throughout his words. The production starts out sweet and organically, and even when everything kicks in you can actually discern the different instruments and it f...

    Saturday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 hits of the week. Hozier stays put for a fourth week at #1, while Tommy Richman (pictured above) leaps into the top five. Former big hits from Beyonce, twenty-one pilots, Usher & H.E.R., and Linkin Park drop off my chart, while songs from Nate Smith, Mt. Joy, and Nathaniel Rateliff make some of the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ). And under the list everything is Spotify playlisted for five and 1/2 hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. I guess Justin took his song title a bit too literally... This Week                    Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Too Sweet - Hozier (1) 2. Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter (3) 3. Million Dollar B...

    " Clubbin' " -  Marques Houston featuring Joe Budden and R.Kelly from the album MH (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 1 Today's song comes from singer Marques Houston , who grew up in Los Angeles, where he came together with Jerome Jones and Don Santos to form the R&B trio Immature in the early 1990. Trying to be marketed as a younger alternative to the hip-hop/new jack scene, the group scored a top-5 pop and R&B hit in 1994 with " Never Lie ", when Marques was only just turning 13 years old. The trio (with Santos being replaced by Kelton Kessee after their first album) would put out five album, with the last two under the modified name IMx. After a lull after six top-40 pop hits with the last being " Stay The Night " in the beginning of 2000, they split, with both Houston and Jones pursuing acting careers.  In 2002 as soon as IMx ended, Houston secured a solo deal with the T.U.G. label, run by Immature...

    " Wat Da Hook Gon Be " - Murphy Lee featuring Jermaine Dupri from the album Murphy's Law (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (four weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 13   Today's song comes from rapper Murphy Lee , who grew up as Torhi Harper in the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. He was a part of the collective St. Lunatics, which included Nelly, who shot to fame as a solo artist but didn't forget his friends. In 2001 the group released an album together, Free City , which capitalized on Nelly's success and went to #1 on Billboard magazine's R&B Albums chart and #3 on the all-genre Billboard 200 in 2001, going on to sell over a million copies. However the single from the record, " Midwest Swing ", just missed the R&B Singles top-40 at #41.  When Nelly released his sophomore album Nellyville a year later, he included a track, " Air Force Ones ", that featured Murphy as well as Ali and Kyjuan from the act, and the song ...

    " Hey Ya! " - Outkast from the album Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (nine weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 28   Today's song comes (nominally) from the Atlanta rap duo Outkast , who returned in 2003 with their double-disc opus Speakerboxx/The Love Below , which had members Antwon "Big Boi" Patton and Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin having what was like a solo album each. In August of that year, the pair simultaneously released a single from each disc, with Big Boi's " The Way You Move " entering the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 first. But three weeks later, Andre 3000's track would rocket in and overtake the former in no time. "Hey Ya!" written and produced by Benjamin, it fit into the totally ecletic makeup of  The Love Below , where Andre skates between styles and periods, with the bouncy tempo and call and response vocals calling to the uplifting soul music of the 60s. But the lyr...

    " I Love This Bar " - Toby Keith from the album Shock'n Y'all (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 9   Today's song comes from Toby Keith , who went from being a consistent country music hitmaker to jingoistic provocateur with his Unleashed album in 2002, which spun off a quartet of hit country singles, three of which made the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with " Courtesy Of The Red White & Blue ", " Who's Your Daddy ", and the lynching-glorifying " Beer For My Horses ".  A year later, Toby returned with his eighth studio album and fourth on DreamWorks Records, Shock'n Y'All , titled to appeal to the "bomb them to infinity" crowd. The lead single for the record, though (probably tempered by the record company to be more wide-appealing) was the easy-going party record "I Love This Bar". Written by Keith with Scotty Emerick, the song goes through the ...

    " Heaven " - Live from the album Birds Of Pray (2003) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #59 (two weeks)   This week's robbed hit comes from the rock band Live , who had four album tracks reach the top-40 on Billboard 's Hot 100 Airplay chart (since never released as "singles", their weren't eligible for the Hot 100 proper). The last of them, " Lakini's Juice " from their third album Secret Samadhi , made that mark in the beginning of 1997.  In 1999, Live came back with their next album The Distance To Here , which reunited them with producer Jerry Harrison (of the Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club). The lead single, " The Dolphin's Cry ", spent six weeks at #2 on Billboard 's Mainstream Rock chart, and four weeks at #3 on their Alternative Rock chart, their most recent top ten placing on either list. That song, now with airplay-only tracks able to list, got to #78 on the pop Hot 100. That was followed in 2001 by the more electroni...