Gary
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Post by Gary on Apr 15, 2019 10:47:16 GMT -5
Nothing new again....looks like they recycle these - LOL
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Apr 22, 2019 9:20:01 GMT -5
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 1989, Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' Lifted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200
4/22/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Whitney Houston, Del Shannon & Blondie.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
April 22, 1989 30 years ago: Madonna's Like a Prayer ascended to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set spawned smashes in the title cut, "Express Yourself," "Cherish" (both reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100), "Oh Father" (No. 20) and "Keep It Together" (No. 8).
The Material Girl has just announced new material: her album Madame X arrives June 14; first, she'll perform on the Billboard Music Awards on May 1, sharing the stage with Maluma on their duet first single from the set, "Medellín."
April 23, 1988 "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" reached the Billboard Hot 100's apex, marking Whitney Houston's record seventh consecutive No. 1.
April 24, 1961 Going back to the roots of rock, Del Shannon's classic "Runaway" began a four-week reign on the Billboard Hot 100, fueled in part by its memorable Musitron instrumental bridge.
April 25, 1992 Rap duo Kris Kross kicked off its eight-week reign on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Jump."
April 26, 2014 5 years ago: Jason Derulo topped the Pop Songs chart with "Talk Dirty," featuring 2 Chainz.
April 27, 1963 Little Peggy March began a three-week reign on the Billboard Hot 100 with "To Know Him Is to Love Him." She was 15 years and one month old when the song reached the summit, making her the youngest female to ever notch a Hot 100 No. 1. "I am surprised that the record still stands," March has marveled to Billboard. "A lot of singers in the '60s were teenagers; I was just the youngest. I imagine that one day my record will be broken, and I will hand over the crown. I would love to be a part of the celebration when and if it happens."
April 28, 1979 40 years ago: Blondie's debut Billboard Hot 100 entry "Heart of Glass" became it first No. 1. The group would later lead with "Call Me," "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture."
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 3, 2019 20:19:19 GMT -5
Peggy March, the Youngest Woman to Top the Hot 100, Looks Back on 'I Will Follow Him'
4/27/2019 by Fred Bronson
GAB Archive/Getty Images Little Peggy March circa 1960s. Her million-selling single moved to No. 1 on this day in 1963.
Exactly 56 years ago today, 15-year-old singer Peggy March claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with her second single on RCA, "I Will Follow Him," which stayed in the top spot for three weeks. To be specific, she was 15 years and one month old on April 27, 1963, making her the youngest female singer to reach the top of the chart. She broke the record set by Brenda Lee, who was 15 years and eight months old when she went to No. 1 with "I'm Sorry" on July 18, 1960.
Most chart records are broken at some point, but five decades later, the Lansdale, Penn., born March still holds the title of youngest female singer to claim pole position on the Hot 100. She continues to tour, performing around the U.S., on cruise ships with other rock n' roll stars of the '50s and '60s as well as in Germany, where she lived for 35 years while enjoying a long and successful career recording German-language pop songs.
Billboard sat down with March in the dining room of her home in Florida to talk about the recording of "I Will Follow Him," her surprising thoughts about the follow-up single and how she thinks she will feel on the day a young female singer finally surpasses her long-standing chart achievement.
When "I Will Follow Him" moved to No. 1 on the Hot 100 on April 27, 1963, you were 15 years and one month old, making you the youngest female singer to ever top this chart. It's now 56 years later and no one had broken that chart record. How do you feel about holding this record for so long?
I think it's amazing. I thought Miley Cyrus would've gotten there in the very beginning of her career. She started young enough. Of course, Tiffany just missed it by a year, I think. That was a huge deal at the time.
The singer who came closest to breaking your record was Monica. She was 14 when her first single, "Don't Take It Personal," peaked at No. 2 in 1995.
What about Will Smith's daughter?
Willow was 10 when she made her Hot 100 debut with "Whip My Hair," which peaked at No. 11 in 2010.
She was very young. It's not something that I watch out for. It's not something I necessarily wish for. It surprises the hell out of me that the record is still there. I thought it would've been broken long before now. At the time, I don't think I gave it a second thought. It wasn't until years later when it became a thing that I thought, "Oh wow, isn't that interesting?" Because we were all teenagers at that time. Some were just older than others.
How do you think you will feel if and when the record is broken?
I would like to meet the young woman who does it. I would love to at least get a photo together because it is a milestone. It's something no one else has done up until now. So whenever that is, I'm sure I'll be okay with it.
Let's go back to childhood. What is your earliest memory of music?
My mother told me when I was two, I sang all the commercials from television. I don't remember doing that. However, when I was five, I was invited to sing for a ladies auxiliary group. I used to put shows on. And when I was eight, I did four shows a day for Tony Grant's Stars of Tomorrow in Atlantic City at the Steel Pier. If you ever saw the movie Beaches, the little redhead was pretty much me, aside from the fact that I was relatively shy and she wasn't. I tapped and I sang, and the next show was two hours later and in between, we were on the beach. It was fun and I absolutely loved it.
So you knew very early what you wanted. You were 13 when you signed with RCA and released your first single, "Little Me," from the Broadway musical of the same name. What did you think of that song?
It's not an easy song. It's got a weird melody. It changes keys in the middle. Even I knew at that age it was not really commercial, but because they had already given me the moniker "Little," they thought it was cute. And RCA was the label for Broadway musicals at that time. So it was the thing to do, give it to somebody to record and I just happened to be the somebody.
It wasn't a hit.
No. The funny thing is, it didn't bother me because I knew that if I found it difficult to sing, then everybody else was going to find it difficult to sing along with. It was a Broadway song, not a pop song. But some Broadway songs made it to No. 1 at that time. This one was not going to happen. The show only lasted seven months on Broadway. Even when they revived it, it only lasted four weeks. I wondered, "Why are they doing this?" The kazoos in the song were a good touch, though.
Growing up, did you listen to all of the popular female singers of the '50s?
I listened to female singers but I did not want to copy any of them. I didn't want to be like them. When somebody compared me to Connie Francis, I was insulted. I remember that vividly. But did I listen to them? Yes, I did, because it was the music of the day. Mom and dad were not against rock n' roll. Dad was very into girl singers. He loved big band music, and so he loved all the females from the big band era and listened to them all the time.
What do you remember about the first time you were introduced to "I Will Follow Him"?
I was beginning my freshman year of high school. I was taken out of school that day. We drove up to Newark, which was a two-hour drive from my hometown, to meet with Hugo [Peretti] and Luigi [Creatore], who were pretty big producers at the time. They produced the Tokens and they had big hits, several of which they wrote and several of which they didn't. "I Will Follow Him" is one they did not write. I remember walking into their office and seeing it on their desk. The sheet music was right there. My sister tells me to this day, "You didn't like that song at all. You thought it was too repetitive." Of course, that's what makes it an earworm and that's a good thing. It's not an easy song to sing vocally, because it springs octaves. It just goes up. But that was okay; I didn't care about that. It was very different. We recorded it shortly after, in early January 1963. It was the only song we recorded that day. It was a three-hour session. They had me in an isolation booth, because my voice was too loud. The strings were picking my voice up, so they had to isolate me. So there I was, drinking my Coca-Cola and singing my heart out. We did it 13 times and I only know this because somebody did a digital remix of it later and it said "Take 13" so that was the single. In those days, there was no going back and redoing one word. You did the whole thing over and over and over again.
And the orchestra was playing live?
Yes. That's why I was in a booth because the whole orchestra was all around me. The strings were over there, the tympani over there and the rhythm section over here and I was in this isolation booth. It was very cool.
How soon after you recorded it was the single released?
Not more than a month. It came out on Jan. 22, 1963.
When did you notice the song was getting some attention?
At the time, RCA had the biggest and the best promotion department. The single started to break in Detroit so I flew there with an entourage. It was my first time on a plane and the label had me doing interviews. I must have done some record hops. I was probably busy studying for a high school Latin test. But Detroit was a big deal. It wasn't Philadelphia. It wasn't around the corner. You had to get on a plane to get there.
Do you remember listening to your own song on the radio?
Friday was the day I had to clean the kitchen floor. I was in my school uniform doing the dishes and I was listening to WABC radio. Once my single made their top 10, I followed it every week. It continued to go up and it was No. 2 for three weeks and this particular week, when they played the No. 2 song, it was not "I Will Follow Him." I remember thinking, "Well, I guess it flew off. It's no longer there. That's disappointing." And then they played the No. 1 song and it was "I Will Follow Him." I stood there totally mesmerized, listening to me sing. It was very quiet in the house. Nobody was in the kitchen but me, and then the phone never stopped ringing because my family and everyone else were all calling. It was a big deal.
At that age, were you aware of the Billboard chart?
Oh, sure. Cash Box and Record World, too. I was made aware of all three of them by management. And every time we went to RCA, Billboard was everywhere. It was always on somebody's table. I knew that this was the music industry bible. It was important that you get in there and we watched it climb to No. 1.
How did the other kids in high school react to your sudden success?
As the song started to climb the charts, it was really strange, and I didn't understand why some kids were no longer talking to me. I wasn't asked to school dances and I would walk home alone and I would feel very sorry for myself.
Do you think the other kids were jealous?
Maybe some of them were. I still wanted to go my friends' birthday parties. I still wanted to go out with guys, because I'm a girl. I didn't want to be separated. As far as I was concerned, my career was another life that happened on the weekends and this was school. These were kids that I had grown up with since first grade. I heard later that the guys were intimidated because they thought I would say no and if I said no, they would be teased. All I know is that I didn't go on any dates.
Do you remember singing "I Will Follow Him" on television for the first time?
American Bandstand was the first time and I was scared because coming from the Philadelphia area, I watched it every day. I would pick my sister up from school and we'd go home and watch the rest of General Hospital and then American Bandstand. It was a ritual and the next day we'd talk about seeing Freddy Cannon or Fabian or Frankie Avalon. Brenda Lee was on quite a few times so the show had big stars. The kids dancing on the show were also stars. And now suddenly I'm standing in front of them. I'm younger than all of them, at least a year or two younger, which is a huge amount of time when you're a teenager. And I thought, "I have to stand in front of them and I have to perform. Oh my God, I can't." They were famous. I was confronted with being the star and it was quite frightening. I was honored also. Dick Clark was a wonderful guy and he treated me beautifully.
What was it like meeting Dick Clark for the first time?
My knees were shaking. The same thing for Perry Como. I idolized him and Dick too. These were megastars and what are they going to think about me and what's my hair look like? Am I sitting right? Dick was really extremely nice to me. I remember being behind this gold curtain waiting to go on and it opened up and there they all are in the studio, and it was small, but it looks like it's two blocks long. It was very exciting.
Years later, you did a live show with Dick Clark in Tampa.
It was my 50th birthday. He was such a good-looking guy and he never aged. It was totally unfair. He was very sweet again but we were more on an even keel. I was no longer the baby in the room and I was no longer intimidated by him. As far as I was concerned, he and his wife were human beings and they just happened to be there. I was impressed by his legend and his longevity, of course.
Let's talk about the follow-up to "I Will Follow Him," a song titled "I Wish I Were a Princess."
I thought it was babyish and that bothered me, especially because there were songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and I'm singing "I Wish I Were a Princess." I hated that. I really begged not to do it. Hugo and Luigi and George Weiss were the writers, so I couldn't have an opinion. I still don't like the song. It might be a favorite of other people but it was never my favorite.
Did you know before you saw the original John Waters' film Hairspray that your recording of "I Wish I Were a Princess" was part of the soundtrack?
No, I didn't. And not only that, they used so much of it. Usually it's two or three bars. It's on, it's off. Oh no. This one went on and on. So that of course made me very happy. It fit beautifully in there. More fun was when my version of "I Will Follow Him" was in a movie with Sandra Bullock. All About Steve was the name of that movie and it was not a hit.
And the of course, the song is a major element in the movie Sister Act. How were you first aware of that?
Lou Christie called me one day and said, "Peg, you have to go see Sister Act," and I asked, "Why?" He said, "Just go. You'll see why." So my mother was visiting and I took her with me. She was very funny, God rest her soul. She stood outside the theater and kept saying to everybody, "Do you know who this is?" "Mom, please don't do that." She used to do that all the time, embarrass me, but it was a lot of fun. I understand they looked for me for some time to be part of the film. I could've been a nun but they couldn't find me. And then there was a whole resurgence of "I Will Follow Him," which was a wonderful thing.
Can you do a live show without singing "I Will Follow Him"?
I didn't always do "I Will Follow Him" in Germany. I do now. I do a little bit longer version. The song was only two minutes and 30 seconds long. So now I do a repeat and a repeat and a repeat to make it a little longer. But no, never again can I ever do a show without singing it.
Did you ever tire of singing it?
I did when I was 18. But then I became so thankful because even though I didn't have the follow-up hits like a lot of other people did, the song was so powerful and so big and so international that it got me to a lot of other places. And through those other places, I was able to record other things that did as big in those other countries as "I Will Follow Him."
Have you ever changed the song up?
I have spoken to other artists about changing up their songs and I once saw a colleague of mine do that. She did that with a very big song of hers and turned it into a disco version and people walked out. They don't want that. So I never really did. I recorded it in German and it was not a very good lyric. It didn't mean anything to anybody in German like it does in English. In Japan, they had me keep a lot of the original lyric and translated parts of it into Japanese.
What kind of reaction do you get today when you sing "I Will Follow Him"?
People tell me, "I fell in love with that song." Or, "I had my first date with that song." And, "We danced to it at the prom."
One of the writers of the original French version of "I Will Follow Him" was Paul Mauriat, though he didn't use his real name. Five years after you took the song to No. 1, he was No. 1 on the Hot 100 with "Love Is Blue." Did you ever meet him?
Years later, I was at a song festival in Caracas, Venezuela. A man came up to me and said, "I want to thank you for my house." And I said, "Well, what is your name?" And he told me who he was and I asked, "Why are you thanking me?" and he said, "Because I wrote 'I Will Follow Him.'" "But your name is not on the label?" He said, "I didn't want people to know that I was writing commercial material at that time. I was a serious musician." I gave him a big hug and I said, "It's such a pleasure. I had no idea."
You had great international success, especially in Germany, where you had 26 consecutive chart hits, all sung in German. How did that come about?
RCA was very much an international company. They had studios everywhere and they often sent their artists to record in different languages. At that time, everybody recorded in German and they welcomed American artists with open arms. Because the American Forces Network radio was very strong there, they knew who these people were. They knew them in English and then of course they knew them in German. Even today, they still play Connie Francis' German songs. I was able to pick up the language relatively quickly and my accent was good and I kept going back and forth and recorded more music. Then songs were written for me. RCA had excellent writers. Henry Meier, who wrote "Summer Wind," was my composer and in the beginning, all my hits were his. And I had the best lyricists. The biggest and most famous of my songs was "Mit 17 Hat Man Noch Träume," which is one that everybody in Germany knows. It means, "At 17, you can still dream." I was 17 at the time and the song was written for me.
Finally, when RCA signed you, label execs added "Little" to your name and called you "Little Peggy March." How did you feel about that?
I absolutely hated it. I was 13 years old when I signed with RCA and I was really small at 4' 10". My family name was Battavio and they said, "No, that's too long. What can we call you? Should we call you Peggy Vio?" Nobody liked that. So Luigi said, "When's your birthday?" I said, "March." "Perfect. We'll call you Little Peggy March." I must have cringed because I didn't want to be "little" anything. Unfortunately, it stuck. To this day, it's still there and when people talk about "I Will Follow Him," they never say Peggy March. They say "Little Peggy March." One year after I was No. 1 on Billboard, I was on The Clay Cole Show in New York. They made a big sheet cake for me and it had "Happy Birthday Little Peggy March" on it. I crossed out the "Little." I guess nobody was watching the show that day because it stuck. There was just no way of getting rid of it until I turned 19 and I did an album called No Foolin' for RCA and by then they didn't call me "Little" anymore, and I was thankful for that. And at 19, I had grown to my full height of 5' 4".
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 3, 2019 20:21:07 GMT -5
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2003, Kelly Clarkson Was 'Thankful' to Debut Atop the Billboard 200
4/29/2019 by Gary Trust
SGranitz/WireImage Kelly Clarkson during American Idol Season 1 Finale - Performance Show at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. Plus, remembering feats by Sean Paul, Mariah Carey & Avril Lavigne.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
April 29, 2006 Rising "Temperature": Sean Paul scored his third of four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s. He'd return to the top more than 10 years later, as featured on Sia's "Cheap Thrills."
April 30, 2016 After their breakthrough self-titled album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2013, The Lumineers landed their first leader on the list, as Cleopatra debuted at No. 1.
May 1, 2010 B.o.B and Bruno Mars each earned their first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, as the rapper and featured singer, respectively, rose 2-1 with "Nothin' On You." The collab marked the first Hot 100 entry for each artist.
May 2, 1987 British band Cutting Crew topped the Billboard Hot 100 on its first try with "(I Just) Died in Your Arms," which flew 5-1.
May 3, 2003 A key indicator that American Idol finalists could graduate to post-show sales success: Kelly Clarkson debuted atop the Billboard 200 with her first album, Thankful. She's added seven more top five sets since.
May 4, 1996 How did Mariah Carey follow up the longest-leading hit in Billboard Hot 100 history? With another No. 1! After "One Sweet Day," with Boyz II Men, held the top spot for 16 weeks in 1995-96 (a record tied by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito," featuring Justin Bieber, in 2017), "Always Be My Baby" ascended to the summit for a two-week command. The song became her 11th of 18 No. 1s, the most among soloists.
May 5, 2007 Avril Lavigne logged her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, "Girlfriend." She had previously reached a No. 2 high with her debut hit, "Complicated," in 2002.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 6, 2019 8:12:12 GMT -5
CHART BEAT This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 1999, Ricky Martin Was 'Livin' ' Large Atop the Hot 100
5/6/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Bon Jovi, Pet Shop Boys & Roxette.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
May 6, 2006 After notching four No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 beginning in 1986, Bon Jovi topped Hot Country Songs in its first visit to the genre chart with "Who Says You Can't Go Home," the band's duet with Jennifer Nettles.
May 7, 1977 The Eagles' "Hotel California" checked into the Billboard Hot 100's top spot, becoming the band's fourth of five total leaders. According to its singer and co-writer, Don Henley, despite the countless rumors about the song's meaning, it's simply about a "journey from innocence to experience, that's all."
May 8, 1999 20 years go: We were goin' crazy for Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca," as the song began a five-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.
May 9, 1970 The Guess Who began a three-week command of the Billboard Hot 100 with "American Woman," backed with B-side "(No Sugar Tonight)." Lenny Kravitz later covered "American Woman," taking his version to the top 10 on both Mainstream Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts in 1999.
May 10, 1986 They didn't work in a pet shop – and thankfully so, since they make pretty good musicians. England's Pet Shop Boys danced to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with their debut smash, "West End Girls."
May 11, 1991 Sweden's most famous musical duo, Roxette, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Joyride." The album from the pair also produced the No. 2-peaking "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)."
May 12, 1984 Before there was Adele's … Lionel Richie's "Hello" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two weeks.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 10, 2019 14:56:59 GMT -5
Backstreet Boys Songwriters On How Britney Spears Helped 'Millennium' Go No. 1
5/10/2019 by Leena Tailor
From left: Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean in 1999.
“Hit it, guys!” With those words, a 17-year-old Britney Spears sent Backstreet Boys fans into a frenzy with hidden tracks on her 1999 debut, …Baby One More Time, which previewed the boy band’s upcoming full-length, Millennium. “I’ve got something very special, just for you,” said Spears in the teaser, which played after her final track. “I’m going to give you a private preview of new music from labelmates of mine.”
It was a strategic move by Jive Records amid the hungry anticipation for the Backstreet Boys’ third record, spurred by their hysteria-inducing popularity in Europe that had trickled into the United States. With no social media to leak the tracks, eager fans rushed to purchase a copy of Spears’ album. (A preview of new Backstreet Boys material also appeared on the group’s 1998 live album, A Night Out With the Backstreet Boys.) “Britney exploded as a result of doing that,” says songwriter Andrew Fromm, whose ballad “I Need You Tonight” was one of the tracks teased on her album and included on, he estimates, the first 200,000 copies of …Baby One More Time. “It really pushed Britney’s career. Backstreet fans were dying to hear new songs.”
Johnny Wright, who managed both acts, says the idea came from the label -- the group wasn’t even aware of it until Spears’ album dropped. The aim was twofold: promote an upcoming Jive release while building a fan base for one of its emerging artists. It worked: …Baby One More Time was the second-best-selling album in the United States in 1999, right after Millennium, which broke the record for highest first-week album sales with 1.1 million copies, according to Nielsen Music. The LP also hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it stayed for 10 nonconsecutive weeks.
In the 20 years since, the band has earned eight Grammy nominations; dropped its 10th studio LP, DNA -- which bowed atop the Billboard 200 in January -- and wrapped a two-year Las Vegas residency that raked in nearly $1 million every night, on par with Shania Twain and Gwen Stefani. Andreas Carlsson, who co-wrote “I Want It That Way,” says it all traces back to Millennium: “This album was another level. The floodgates opened, and they became a phenomenon.”
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Post by Gary on May 13, 2019 10:22:21 GMT -5
CHART BEAT This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2006, 'SOS' Became Rihanna's First Hot 100 No. 1
5/13/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson & Madonna.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
May 13, 2006 Rihanna reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, with "SOS." She's added 13 more No. 1s since, tallying the second-most leaders (14 total) among women in the chart's history. Among all acts, only the Beatles (20) and Mariah Carey (18) have more.
May 14, 1988 Gloria Estefan made her first trip to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as love song "Anything for You" (with Miami Sound Machine) reigned. She'd lead again with "Don't Wanna Lose You" in 1989 and "Coming Out of the Dark" in 1991.
May 15, 1993 After scoring seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10s from her 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814, Janet Jackson picked up right where she left off, as "That's the Way Love Goes," the first single from janet., began an eight-week run at No. 1. janet. would generate six Hot 100 top 10s, and "Goes" became her sixth of 10 No. 1s.
May 16, 1998 Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" spent its first of 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart.
May 17, 2008 Madonna earned her seventh of eight No. 1s on the Billboard 200 with the chart-topping launch of Hard Candy. The set yielded the No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 hit "4 Minutes," featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.
May 18, 1991 Powered by the highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit of the group's career, "Losing My Religion," which rose to No. 4, R.E.M. landed its first of two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, Out of Time. Monster topped the Billboard 200 in 1994.
May 19, 1990 More Madonna: She'd been inspired by dancer/choreographers Jose and Luis Xtravaganza from the Harlem "House Ball" community, who introduced vogue-ing to her at the New York club Sound Factory. On this date, her song "Vogue," with its iconic back-and-white video, struck a pose atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of three weeks.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 15, 2019 9:44:32 GMT -5
Gloria Estefan Looks Back On Her First Billboard Hot 100 No. 1: 'I Still Remember the Happiness I Felt'
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By Jessica Roiz | May 15, 2019 9:33 AM EDT Gloria EstefanGloria Estefan took to Twitter to share an anecdote about a major milestone that happened over 30 years ago. “@gloriaestefan earned her first of three No. 1s on the #Hot100 on this day in 1988 with “Anything for You” featuring Miami Sound Machine,” the Billboard Charts Twitter account tweeted on Tuesday (May 14). Soon after, the Cuban singer reacted to the tweet, recalling the time she found out about her first No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. “I still remember the happiness I felt when this happened!” she expressed on Twitter. “And the vocal performance on that record was the very first time I sang it, the very day I wrote it,” she noted, adding a red heart emoji. Before kicking off her successful solo career, Estefan was the lead singer for the Miami-based band Miami Sound Machine, established in 1975 by her husband Emilio Estefan Jr. See the tweet below. I still remember the happiness I felt when this happened! And the vocal performance on that record was the very first time I sang it, the very day I wrote it...❤️ t.co/JI2fnBBier — Gloria Estefan (@gloriaestefan) May 14, 2019
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 17, 2019 15:21:54 GMT -5
Ten Years Ago, One of the Biggest Forces in Billboard Hot 100 History Debuted on Primetime Television
5/17/2019 by Andrew Unterberger
FOX via Getty Images The cast of Glee in 2009.
A foolproof way to separate the casual pop fans from the true chart nerds: Ask them which artist holds the record for most chart entries in Billboard Hot 100 history. Give 'em five guesses, even.
Most will immediately go to the all-time chart legends: The Beatles, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson. Nope. Maybe a couple of them will figure it's a more recent megastar, able to take advantage of the charting volume allowed by the streaming era: Drake, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Beyoncé. Closer, but still pretty far off.
Actually, the artist with the most Hot 100 hits in history is barely an artist in the conventional sense, but more a collective: Glee Cast, the credited force behind precisely 207 entries on Billboard's marquee songs chart. That was, of course, the catch-all artist name for every song released as a digital single from Fox's smash musical TV show Glee, which debuted 10 years ago this Sunday (May 19) and focused on a high school glee club, with the show's musically talented cast covering a variety of pop hits -- and eventually, performing a handful of original compositions -- in every episode.
Glee was an immediate hit on primetime, and it was on the Hot 100, too. On the chart dated June 6, 2009, Glee Cast notched its two first entries: covers of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." The former debuted at No. 98 and was off the chart the next week, but the latter landed all the way at No. 4 -- two spots ahead of rock superstars Linkin Park's then-new Transformers soundtrack single "New Divide" -- and lasted on the chart for seven weeks. The show's chart presence only grew more prolific from there, and by the end of the first season, Glee Cast was regularly sending five new songs to the Hot 100 per episode.
It didn't take long for the show to threaten, and then quickly break, a number of long-held Hot 100 records. In October 2010 -- two episodes into the show's second season, just 16 months after its first chart appearance -- Billboard announced that Glee Cast had broken the record for most entries in the chart's history by a group, previously held by The Beatles with 71. Then four months after that, Glee took the all-time Hot 100 crown, notching nine entries on the chart -- the troupe's most in a week -- including six debuts, to bring its all-time total to 113, past the previous record of 108 entries, held for decades by Elvis Presley.
Was excitement around Glee really at such a level that it was able to dwarf both The Beatles and Elvis Presley in less than two years? Well, probably not quite: The show was obviously a major cultural force, but what separated it on the Hot 100 from Beatlemania was more about differences in era than anything: Simply put, no other such high-profile artist in the chart's history had ever had the capability of releasing singles at this rate or volume before. While Elvis and The Beatles saw their release schedules planned to specifically promote singles one at a time -- and were also inherently limited by the demands and constraints of physical media -- Glee was able to release five or six songs on the Internet as digital singles after every episode, and the show was popular enough that fans would eat 'em up and still be hungry again for more one week later. It was rare and resounding success story during a period of extreme insecurity within the music industry.
In fact, the timing for Glee really couldn't have been better. In the late '00s and early '10s, physical sales were dwindling, but download sales were surging, well on their way to overtaking CDs as the best-selling musical medium. The debut and rise of Glee neatly nestled into those peak iTunes boom years. Glee's digital sales were so robust that the songs didn't really need assistance from radio airplay to get onto the Hot 100 -- thankfully for the act, because they didn't get much. While Glee Cast scored a staggering 237 entries on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart (over 100 more than the next closest competitor to this day), it never once even scraped Billboard's Radio Songs tally.
However, while Glee landed a high concentration of Hot 100 hits on a weekly basis at its apex, lack of continued radio support and diminished novelty past the songs' debut weeks meant they usually didn't land very high or last very long on the chart. In fact, that No. 4 debut for "Don't Stop Believin'," in the first appearance by Glee Cast on the chart, was as high as the show ever got -- of its 207 Hot 100 chart entries, only three ever reached the top 10, while just 70 of them ever made it to the chart's top half (still the fourth-best total among all acts all-time). The great majority of the songs were one-and-dones on the chart, debuting outside the top 40 and then dropping off the next week. "The songs from Glee aren't hits," wrote Jacob Ganz of NPR in a 2010 article examining the show's overwhelming-but-fleeting Hot 100 presence. "They're souvenirs."
But while the Glee covers weren't often hits in their own right, they did help make a couple hits possible in their original forms. Most prominently, fun.'s Janelle Monae-featuring "We Are Young" was a relatively obscure single by a New Jersey trio with little established mainstream presence when Glee decided to feature it in a season three episode in late 2011. After the Glee Cast version of the little-known song debuted at No. 12 on the Hot 100, it ignited interest in the fun. version, which then scored a Super Bowl commercial sync, and quickly went on to be one of the biggest hits of 2012, topping the Hot 100 and winning the Song of the Year Grammy in 2013. (The year's other biggest and most unexpected alternative hit, Gotye's Kimbra-featuring "Somebody That I Used to Know," also benefited from a smaller Glee bump, climbing to No. 1 on the Hot 100 the same week the Glee Cast version debuted at No. 26 on the chart.)
Even with these successes, the show's Hot 100 entries started to thin out significantly in its third season, and by the fourth season, they had stopped nearly altogether. Declining ratings were undoubtedly a factor, as was diminished novelty, and the fact that after 40-plus episodes worth of covers -- and even a foray into originals, beginning late in the second season with the pair of top 20 hits "Get It Right" and "Loser Like Me" -- many of the best and most obvious song choices had been exhausted. But perhaps most significantly, the song-sales surge that the show had originally profited from was finally starting to abate: Spotify launched in the U.S. in July 2011, unofficially kicking off the streaming age, and within a couple years, it had siphoned off a healthy percentage of the music consumption from the iTunes faithful. A version of Bob Dylan's pop standard "Make You Feel My Love," which debuted and peaked at No. 84 on the Hot 100 dated Oct. 26, 2013, was the 207th and final of Glee Cast's hits on the Hot 100.
Meanwhile, though Glee Cast blazed past a Hot 100 record that had previously stood for entire generations, their own mark might not survive the 2010s. While the iTunes era allowed for previously unheard-of tallies on the Hot 100, that's proven to be little preparation for the way that streaming allows for single-artist dominance of the chart, when a new album can now chart every single one of its tracks in its first week of release. (Plus, with the rise of rap, a move away from the traditional album-cycle release schedule, and increased emphasis on collaboration in pop music, artists now have more avenues to charting hits than ever before.) Drake, who first debuted on the Hot 100 two weeks before Glee -- and has since come to be the poster child for mainstream success within the streaming age -- currently sits at 193 Hot 100 entries, just 14 back of Glee Cast, which means he may very likely be no more than an album away from overtaking the all-time record.
Nonetheless, the show's jaw-dropping tally -- and eight-years-and-counting grasp of the Hot 100's title belt for most entries -- remains a fascinating reflection of a moment in pop culture history where music, television and the Internet combined to make Glee as pervasive a pop culture phenomenon as existed in the early '10s, and showed a path to massive commercial success that was often imitated, but never duplicated. (And for what it's worth, Glee Cast is still 136 Hot 100 entries above the top traditional group: The Beatles.) We may not exactly be pulling their albums back out as often as those of The Beatles, Madonna or Drake in 2019, but the name "Glee Cast" will exist within the Billboard record books for all time, and will endure as a chapter that demands inclusion in any comprehensive history of the music industry in the 21st century.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 20, 2019 8:04:03 GMT -5
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2011, Adele Was In 'Deep' at No. 1 on the Hot 100
5/20/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Paula Abdul, Mariah Carey & Hanson.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
May 20, 1989 30 years ago: The title cut from Paula Abdul's debut album Forever Your Girl spent its first of two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The set spun off four Hot 100 No. 1s in all.
May 21, 2011 Adele began the chart-topping reign that would net her the top song of the 2011 chart year, as "Rolling in the Deep" spent its first of seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
May 22, 2004 15 years ago: The bad news: Usher fell from the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 after 12 weeks with "Yeah," featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. The good news: he replaced himself at the summit with follow-up "Burn," which would reign for eight weeks.
May 23, 1998 Mariah Carey scored her lucky 13th Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with "My All." She's since upped her total to 18 leaders, the most among all solo artists in the chart's history.
May 24, 1997 Its lyrics may have been somewhat nonsensical, but, thanks to its undeniable hook, Hanson's "MmmBop" became a smash, beginning a three-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100.
May 25, 1991 More Mariah Carey, who notched her fourth Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in as many tries from her debut self-titled album, as "I Don't Wanna Cry" reached the top spot. It followed "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time" and "Someday" to the summit. Carey became the first act to top the Hot 100 with her first four entries on the chart since the Jackson 5 in 1970 and would lead with her next single, 1991's "Emotions," becoming the first artist to hit No. 1 with five initial singles.
May 26, 1984 35 years ago: Give it up for Deniece Williams! And, "Let's Hear It for the Boy," too, as her smash reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 20, 2019 8:06:10 GMT -5
May 20, 1989 The title cut from Paula Abdul's debut album Forever Your Girl spent its first of two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The set spun off four Hot 100 No. 1s in all.
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2011, Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' Hit No. 1 on the Hot 100
5/21/2018 by Gary Trust
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
May 21, 2011 Adele began the chart-topping reign that would net her the top song of the 2011 chart year, as "Rolling in the Deep" spent its first of seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
May 22, 2004 The bad news: Usher fell from the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 after 12 weeks with "Yeah," featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. The good news: he replaced himself at the summit with follow-up "Burn," which would reign for eight weeks.
May 23, 1998 Mariah Carey scored her lucky 13th Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with "My All." She's since upped her total to 18 leaders, the most among all solo artists in the chart's history.
May 24, 1997 Its lyrics may have been somewhat nonsensical, but, thanks to its undeniable hook, Hanson's "MmmBop" became a smash, beginning a three-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100.
May 25, 1991 More Mariah Carey, who notched her fourth Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in as many tries from her debut self-titled album, as "I Don't Wanna Cry" reached the top spot. It followed "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time" and "Someday" to the summit. As Paul Grien wrote in Chart Beat that week (via reader David Harris), Carey became the first act to top the Hot 100 with her first four entries on the chart since the Jackson 5 in 1970. Carey would lead the list with her next single, 1991's "Emotions," becoming the first artist to hit No. 1 with his or her first five singles.
(On the same date, the Billboard 200 adopted Nielsen Music point-of-sale data, allowing, for the first time, a chart ranking album sales not by ranked retailer reports but electronically-scanned sales. No. 1 that week? Michael Bolton's Time, Love and Tenderness.)
May 26, 1984 Give it up for Deniece Williams! And, "Let's Hear It for the Boy," too, as her smash reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
May 27, 1995 Hootie & the Blowfish's breakthrough album Cracked Rear View, featuring the monster hits "Hold My Hand," "Let Her Cry," "Only Wanna Be With You" and "Time," spent its first of eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on May 27, 2019 9:09:57 GMT -5
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2001, Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Lil' Kim & Mya Led With 'Lady Marmalade' 5/27/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Irene Cara, The Beatles & Justin Timberlake. Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
May 27, 1995 Hootie & the Blowfish's breakthrough album Cracked Rear View, featuring the monster hits "Hold My Hand," "Let Her Cry," "Only Wanna Be With You" and "Time," spent its first of eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
May 28, 1983 Irene Cara's '80s classic "Flashdance… What a Feeling" began a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
May 29, 2004 15 years ago: Gretchen Wilson climbed to No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, for the first of five weeks on top, with the Southern pride anthem "Redneck Woman."
May 30, 1964 55 years ago: A flashback to the Fab Four's pure-pop days: The Beatles scored their fourth Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with the bouncy, fun "Love Me Do."
May 31, 1980 Lipps, Inc. mixed music with real estate advice to great effect, as the disco act began a four-week residence atop the Billboard Hot 100 with "Funkytown."
June 1, 2013 Justin Timberlake's popularity was reflected atop the Pop Songs airplay chart, as "Mirrors" moved to No. 1.
June 2, 2001 "Lady Marmalade" by Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Lil' Kim and Mya (plus Missy Elliott, who co-produced the track, with Rockwilder and Ron Fair, and raps on it) spent its first of five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song, from the soundtrack to the Baz Luhrmann-directed musical film Moulin Rouge!, also won the Grammy Award for best pop collaboration with vocals, while its burlesque-style music video (with a cameo by Elliott) won video of the year at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Jun 3, 2019 8:38:04 GMT -5
CHART BEAT This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2005, Mariah Carey Returned to No. 1 With 'We Belong Together'
6/3/2019 by Gary Trust
Plus, remembering feats by Britney Spears, Taylor Swift & Rihanna.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
June 3, 2000 No sophomore slump for Britney Spears, who scored her second Billboard 200 No. 1 album when her second set, Oops!...I Did It Again, bowed at the summit. Starting with 1.3 million sold in is first week, according to Nielsen Music, the LP held the record for the most sales in a week for an album by a female artist (since Nielsen began tracking U.S. sales in 1991) for over 15 years, until Adele's 25 rocketed in with a record (among all acts) 3.38 million in November 2015.
June 4, 2005 Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" ascended 2-1 for its first of 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, marking her 16th No. 1 and first since 2000. The song would also reign as the top title on the 2005 year-end Hot 100.
June 5, 1993 Janet Jackson's album janet. launched atop the Billboard 200, arriving as her third of seven No. 1 sets to date.
June 6, 2015 Following the premiere of its official video at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" blasted 53-1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song became her third of five leaders, while featured artist Kendrick Lamar landed his first of two so far.
June 7, 1975 Truly fantastic! Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy became the first album ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
June 8, 2002 The Eminem Show premiered at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The album spun off the Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 smash "Without Me."
June 9, 2007 Rihanna's "Umbrella," featuring JAY-Z, led the Billboard Hot 100 for its first of seven weeks, becoming Rihanna's second of 14 No. 1s and JAY-Z's third of four.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Jun 3, 2019 8:41:21 GMT -5
56 Years Ago, Lesley Gore Got Her 'Party' Started at No. 1 on the Hot 100
6/1/2019 by Fred Bronson
Lesley Gore was a 16-year-old living in Tenafly, N.J. when she was discovered by Quincy Jones, who signed her to Mercury Records and recorded four songs with her at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. One month after she turned 17, one of those songs – "It's My Party," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 56 years ago (June 1, 1963) – bolted from No. 9 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the teenager kicked off her career with what would become her signature song.
The Lesley Gore story began in Brooklyn on May 2, 1946, when Leo and Ronny Goldstein welcomed the birth of their daughter. Leo was the owner of Peter Pan swimwear and soon after Lesley was born, the family name was changed back to the original Russian name of Gore.
Leo and Ronny realized early on what their daughter was most interested in. "Music always captivated me whenever a band was playing or a radio was on," Lesley told me in 1996. "I think I was listening to music before I could play with any other toys. At a very young age, I had quite a large 45 collection and a changer where you could put 20 records on at one time." Her parents were avid dancers and the turntable belonged to them. "They listened to [Frank] Sinatra, to Sarah Vaughan. They didn't listen to much rock n' roll, but there wasn't much at the time. They never had trouble with my music and I don't think Chuck Berry was too big a leap for them." Lesley couldn't read yet, but she could identify records from the color of the labels. "And I'd sing along. Shortly after that, my folks would put me up on the cocktail table and I'd sing for 20 minutes."
When Lesley was four, her brother Michael was born. As he grew up, he shared her interest in music. "My parents bought an upright piano and he sat down and started playing with both hands. He would get the bassline going, playing melodies with his right hand. Shortly after he started playing he began writing and then we began writing and arranging songs together. That was pretty much how I spent my childhood. Every afternoon when we got home from school, we would go downstairs for a couple of hours. We played everything from Chuck Berry to Eydie Gorme songs and Nelson Riddle arrangements."
Lesley's talent developed at summer camp talent shows and in school. "When I went to high school in Englewood, they had a wonderful choir where they sang more religious songs than I had ever been exposed to. It really broadened my interests in terms of my ability to read music." In addition to joining the school chorus and choir, Lesley formed a girl group with her friend Mary Lombardi. "All they did was Shirelles songs…I'd suggest another song and these other two girls would say, 'What do you mean?' It was a wonderful concept!"
At 15, Lesley had her first paying gig when the singer for her cousin's band was sick and couldn't perform at a wedding. Her father said she could fill in if she finished her homework. "Every time they'd point to me, I got up and sang. I had a great Italian meal and drank beer for the first time…I made five or ten bucks. Suddenly I understood what it was like to be in front of an audience, what it was like to try and hold them, what it meant to learn different songs and jump from one to another. Four or five hours had gone by so quickly, and I realized my concentration had been enormous and I had been completely into what I was doing."
The same cousin who had a band helped Lesley come to the attention of Mercury Records. His brother was a boxer represented by an agent, Joe Glaser. Lesley recorded a couple of demos with her vocal coach and Glaser was impressed enough to play them for label chief Irving Green, who passed them along to his head of A&R, Quincy Jones.
Not long after, Lesley was singing with her cousin's band at the Prince George hotel in Manhattan. Jones was there to hear the band. "I sang a couple of songs and the next week I got a call from Quincy asking if I'd like to come in." Gore met Jones in his cubicle at Mercury's Fifth Avenue office. "We spent a couple of hours playing at the piano and then I was asked to record four sides and I jumped at the chance."
In February 1963, a chauffeured limousine pulled up in front of the Gore home in Tenafly. "I was impressed that he came with a driver," Lesley told me. "I hadn't seen that a lot. I discovered later that Quincy doesn't drive."
The Gore family helped Quincy carry in two large boxes of demos he wanted Lesley to consider for her upcoming recording session. "They were heavy," she recalled. "He had listened to all 200 up front…the very first one he played was 'It's My Party.' I said, 'This is not bad but let's listen to the rest.' We did, and it was the only one that we both liked enough to commit to."
"It's My Party" was written by John Gluck, Jr. and Herb Wiener and publisher Aaron Schroder brought in a third writer, Wally Gold, to help them finish the song. They had a female singer record a demo, which found its way to Jones as well as producer Phil Spector and British vocalist Helen Shapiro, who was in Nashville to record an album for release in the U.K. Shapiro was the first to record the song, which appeared on her 1963 album Helen in Nashville.
Lesley wanted to record her four sides the day after Jones showed up at her house, but there were more meetings in New York to listen to more demos and Jones had a busy schedule with live performances on the road. Finally, a session was scheduled for 2pm on March 30. Lesley remembered what it felt like to walk into the studio at Bell Sound. "There were more people in that room than I had ever seen. I couldn't figure out what the heck they needed me for. The entire orchestra was set up with two microphones over them and there were 12 background singers, men and women, surrounding one mic. Everyone was out in the studio having a great time and I had to go into this little booth and put on a headset. So I was isolated from everyone from the beginning."
The first song recorded was "It's My Party." Jones shortened the long intro to an attention-grabbing two-note blast. "I remember drinking a Coca Cola and looking out the window after the first verse thinking we were in the instrumental. Quincy stopped the take and said, 'Little Bits, you just swallowed the second verse.' Whoops! We did it again."
The other songs recorded that day were "Hello Young Lover" and "Danny," both written by Paul Anka, and "Something Wonderful," a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II composition from The King and I. "There was no overtime," Lesley said. "I was out on the street at 5 o'clock. My head was spinning, like, what happened? It was amazing. I went off to the movies with some friends that night in New Jersey and Quincy hosted an evening for Charles Aznavour at Carnegie Hall. That's the night Spector arrives on the steps and tells him he's cutting this great song with the Crystals…Spector tells him that the song is called 'It's My Party.'"
Later that night, alarmed that Spector would release the Crystals version and get the hit on "It's My Party," Jones returned to Bell Sound and picked up the master tape to Gore's recording. He asked engineer Phil Ramone to meet him and they made 100 copies of "It's My Party" to send to radio program directors across the U.S.
Seven days later, Gore was driving home from school listening to New York radio station WINS in her car and she heard disc jockey Murray the K play her version of "It's My Party." At first she thought someone else had recorded her song. "I had never heard myself on a small speaker, so I wasn't sure it was me. It took me until the middle of the second verse to realize I knew every inflection."
Things moved quickly. The single debuted at No. 60 on the Hot 100 for the week ending May 11. "My father would come home with the trades every week and Morrie Diamond from Mercury's promotion department would call my father and give him the numbers. It was very exciting." In its second chart week, "It's My Party" shot to No. 26, then to No. 9 and then to pole position. "It was No. 1 in all three trades and on all three radio stations in New York, which was my barometer. I realized it was big in Baltimore and Detroit and getting a lot of airplay, but other than that I couldn't imagine what was going on." Four weeks after her 17th birthday, Lesley Gore was famous all over the country. "It was like a dream come true. I was a little shocked. I was very nervous about performing because I had no technique. But I was willing to learn."
"It's My Party" was only in stores for a week and a half when Jones called the singer and said it was time to record an album. On May 14 they started recording the album that would be titled after the phrase Gore made famous in "It's My Party": I'll Cry If I Want To. Songwriter Gluck was in the hospital with hepatitis and wasn't available to write any follow-up songs but his friend Beverly Ross teamed up with Edna Lewis to continue the story of "It's My Party" with the vengeful "Judy's Turn to Cry." Gore thought it was "nerdy" to have a sequel. "After I lived with it for a while, I thought it was a good song. If I figured out what I was saying and that I would have to live with it for the rest of my life, I might not have made that decision. It was made on a visceral feeling for the song at an age when I could sing that and really mean it."
"It's My Party" was No. 5 on the Hot 100 when "Judy's Turn to Cry" debuted, eventually peaking at No. 5. Gore's third single, "She's a Fool," also peaked at No. 5. Gore was one of 1963's hottest new artists and that meant a music publisher like Don Kirshner would ask his writers, like Neil Sedaka, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, to submit songs for the teen star. That's how Gore found the song that charted as the flip of "She's a Fool," "The Old Crowd." "We were in Kirshner's office. Gerry and Carole walked in, sat down and sang this sucker and I said, 'I love it.'"
Lesley found her fourth single by herself. "I was up at Grossinger's Resort [in the Catskills] doing a record hop…these two guys from Philadelphia came up to me at the pool and invited me into this cabana to listen to a song. They played "You Don't Own Me" on a Saturday and on Monday I had them meet me after school in Quincy's office. They performed it for Quincy and he was convinced." The two songwriters were Dave White (of Danny and the Juniors) and John Madara and their feminist anthem gave Gore the second-biggest hit of her career, peaking at No. 2 but unable to climb any higher as the Beatles took over the No. 1 spot with their first American hit, "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
The hits kept coming for Gore, as songs like "That's the Way Boys Are," "Maybe I Know," "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" and "Look of Love" worked their way up the charts. Eventually other producers took over the reins from Jones; Bob Crewe helmed Gore's last top 20 hit, "California Nights."
After a long run on Mercury, Gore recorded some singles for Crewe's own label, named after himself. In 1972, she signed with Motown's west coast imprint, MoWest, and released a more mature singer/songwriter set, Someplace Else Now, featuring songs Gore wrote with actress Ellen Weston. Three years later Gore reunited with Quincy Jones for an A&M album, Love Me by Name.
In 1980, Lesley's younger brother Michael was asked to compose music for the motion picture Fame. Lesley co-wrote two songs for the soundtrack: "Out Here on My Own" and "Hot Lunch Jam." "Fame brought me back to New York," she told me. "I had been living on the west coast but didn't feel connected to my friends and family. In the summer of '79, Michael enticed me to come back at least for the summer." And that is where she lived the rest of her life. During those years she became an LGBTQ activist and hosted the PBS series about gay issues, In the Life. While she never pretended to be straight, she didn't make a public statement about her sexuality until she talked about being a lesbian in an interview on the AfterEllen website in 2005.
Gore was working on a memoir and a Broadway musical about her life when she died of lung cancer in a Manhattan hospital on Feb. 16, 2015. The news stunned her fans around the world, as there had been no prior public statements about her declining health. She left behind a legacy not just of finely-crafted pop songs, but the first feminist top 40 anthem that is still relevant today and a lifetime of activism from campaigning for Robert Kennedy for president in 1968 to her later public stance for LGBTQ equality.
Fred Bronson has had a lifetime love affair with the music of Lesley Gore. He was a high school student when he first interviewed the singer at NBC in Burbank while she was guest starring on The Andy Williams Show to sing "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows." Years later, when she was headlining a bill in Las Vegas with singer Peggy March, he reminded Gore of that decades-old meeting. "You're my Almost Famous!" she exclaimed, referencing the 2000 Cameron Crowe film. "Yes," he replied, "and you're my Led Zeppelin."
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Jun 10, 2019 10:53:02 GMT -5
This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 1999, Jennifer Lopez Jumped to Her First Hot 100 No. 1 With 'If You Had My Love'
News
By Gary Trust | June 10, 2019 8:05 AM EDT
Plus, remembering feats by Lady Gaga, The Beatles & Roxette.
Your weekly recap celebrating significant milestones from more than seven decades of Billboard chart history.
June 10, 1989 30 years ago: Howard Jones earned his second No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, with "Everlasting Love." He first led with "No One Is to Blame" in 1986.
June 11, 2011 Little Monsters rejoiced, as Lady Gaga's Born This Way bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The set's title cut likewise crowned the Billboard Hot 100, for six weeks beginning that February.
June 12, 1999 20 years ago: In a boom for Latin pop, after Ricky Martin spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Livin' La Vida Loca," Jennifer Lopez dethroned him, as "If You Had My Love," her first Hot 100 hit, began its own five-week command, marking her first of four total No. 1s.
June 13, 1970 The Beatles topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the last time, with "The Long and Winding Road." It became the Fab Four's still-record 20th Hot 100 No. 1.
June 14, 1997 Then-monikered Puff Daddy's tribute to slain rap star the Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You," began an 11-week rule on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was made even more poignant by Biggie's widow, Faith Evans, singing its chorus. Vocal act 112 added harmonies to the reworking of The Police's eight-week 1983 No. 1, "Every Breath You Take."
June 15, 1991 Paula Abdul began her longest Billboard Hot 100 reign, as "Rush, Rush" logged its first of five weeks at No. 1.
June 16, 1990 Pretty Woman gave Roxette a pretty big hit. From the soundtrack of the hit Julia Roberts film, the Swedish duo began a two-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100 with "It Must Have Been Love," Roxette's third of four No. 1s.
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