Twostepcublog

    " Thank God I Found You " - Mariah Carey featuring 98 Degrees & Joe from the album Rainbow (1999) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 11   Today's song is from Mariah Carey , whose seventh studio album Rainbow , her last on the Columbia record label headed by ex-husband Tommy Mottola, had scored a #1 pop hit in the fall of 1999 with " Heartbreaker ". For the second single from the set, Mariah joined up with two other acts from two separate genres. Soulful boy-band 98 Degrees were riding high off their second album which scored a trio of top-40 pop hits, while releasing their Christmas disc which scored a minor pop hit with " This Gift " that season. Meanwhile neo-soul singer Joe had landed a top ten pop hit the year before with his collaboration with Case, " Faded Pictures " for the movie Rush Hour . The result was the ballad "Thank God I Found You", written and produced by Carey and the team of Te...

    " I Don't Want The Night To End " was a club hit for Bulgarian-born French singer and actress Sylvie Vartan. Appearing on her album I Don't Want The Night To End , the song was written by Brian Short and produced by Denny Diante. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-100 chart, the single peaked at #37 in 1979.      (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    " You Can Do It " - Ice Cube featuring Mack 10 and Ms. Toi from the albums Next Friday (Original Soundtrack) and War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) (2000) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 2 Today's song comes from rapper turned actor Ice Cube , whose fifth studio album War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc) had spun off a top-40 crossover hit at the start of 1999 with " Pushin' Weight ". Later that year, Ice Cube (real name O'Shea Jackson) starred in the movie Next Friday , the sequel to his popular turn on the urban comedy Friday from 1995. Along with his acting turn, he contributed the first song on the soundtrack which would be the first single to gain traction on the charts. "You Can Do It" reunited the rapper with Mack 10 , who together were two-thirds of the hip-hop "supergroup" Westside Connection. Mack 10 (real name Dedrick Rolison) also had a successful solo career, and had landed a to...

    "Keep On Making Me High" was a club hit for singer Unyque. Appearing on her sole album Makes Me Higher , the song was written and produced by Freida Narangis and Britt Britton. On Billboard magazine's Disco Top-100 chart, the song was listed as well as its "B-Side" "Party Down". The pair peaked at #15 there in 1979.    (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    " Rhythm Divine " - Enrique Iglesias from the album Enrique (1999) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 5   Today's song comes from Enrique Iglesias , who rode the "Latin Explosion" of 1999 and did something his superstar father Julio couldn't - hit #1 on the American pop Hot 100 chart in the fall of that year with " Bailamos ".  The second single from his first English language album Enrique was "Rhythm Divine". Written by the same team behind his previous hit (as well as Cher's "Believe"), Mark Taylor and Paul Barry, with Barry producing with Brian Rawling, the song again skirts the dance-pop realm with the Latin shading and general theme around dancing as a metaphor for romance. The music video, trying to make Enrique be his steamiest, is a bit stalky though... "Rhythm Diviine" became Enrique's second top 40 pop hit in the U.S. in January of 2000. The remixes of the song, done b...

    "Chattanooga Choo Choo" was a big club hit for the female vocal group Tuxedo Junction. Appearing on their debut album Tuxedo Junction , the track was a disco remake of the swing classic made famous by Glenn Miller in 1941. On Billboard magazine's National Disco Action Top-40 chart, the Tuxedo Junction album was listed as a single entry, with "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "Rainy Night In Rio" listed as the key DJ cuts. The record peaked there at #5 in 1978, while also making the top-40 on the pop chart in America at #32. (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. We finally have a new #1 with Silk Sonic, while Post Malone and the Weeknd (pictured above) climb a notch in the top ten. Songs from Charlie Puth, the Encanto Cast, and Nathaniel Rateliff make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while former big hits from J. Balvin/Skrillex and Glass Animals drop off my chart. And underneath the list everything is Spotify playlisted for 5 1/2 hours of listening goodness of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. Here's to optimistic beginnings...   This Week           Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Smoking Out The Window - Silk Sonic (2) 2. Easy On Me - Adele (1) 3. Freedom Was A Highway - Jimmie Allen & Brad Paisley (3) 4. Oh My God - Adel...