music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/week-ending-july-29-2012-songs-6-million-214342419.htmlWeek Ending July 29, 2012. Songs: 6 Million In Record Time
By Paul Grein | Chart Watch – 1 hour 2 minutes ago
"Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra reaches the 6 million sales mark in just its 30th week. That lopped four months off the previous speed record for a digital hit, which was held by "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock. The exuberant 2011 smash reached the 6 million mark in 48 weeks. Want to know the two songs that are next in line? Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" is in third place. It took 54 weeks. The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" is in fourth place. It took 59 weeks.
"Somebody That I Used To Know," which is the #1 song for the year-to-date, is still going strong. It dips from #5 to #6 on this week's Hot 100. The song is the front-runner to win the Grammy as Record of the Year in February.
Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" holds at #1 for the eighth week, which ties the Gotye/Kimbra smash for the longest run at #1 so far this year. This marks the first time that a Canadian artist has logged eight or more weeks at #1 since Percy Faith's "The Theme From `A Summer Place'" had nine weeks on top in 1960. That shimmering instrumental won the Grammy for Record of the Year. This marks the first time that a strictly solo female recording has logged eight or more weeks on top since Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" had nine weeks on top in early 2010.
It looks like Jepsen will lose the #1 spot next week (probably to Flo Rida's "Whistle"), but she may have a nice consolation prize: a second song in the top 10. "Good Time," her collabo with Owl City, jumps from #23 to #13 (a new peak) in its fifth week.
Maroon 5's "Payphone" dips from #2 to #3 in its 15th week. It has ranked #2 or #3 the entire time. "Payphone" has spent far longer in the top three than any previous Maroon 5 hit. "Moves Like Jagger" (featuring Christina Aguilera) spent 10 weeks in the top three last year. "Makes Me Wonder" spent five weeks in top three in 2007.
Shameless Plug: "Payphone" spent six weeks at #2 without reaching #1. There's a saying in the music business that the worst places to peak on the Hot 100 are #2, #11 and #41. The reason, of course, is that an artist came so close to #1, or the top 10 or the top 40, and just missed. The artist won't get the headlines, congratulatory messages and (most important) credit for the greater hit in posterity. That got me thinking: What records spent the most weeks at these and other "unlucky" positions without moving up that last crucial notch? I just posted a Chart Watch Extra in which I look at the songs since 1955 that came the closest to #1, the top five, the top 10, the top 20, the top 40 and the Hot 100 without getting there.
Flo Rida's "Whistle" jumps from #6 to #4 in its 11th week. It's the hip-hopper's third top five hit of 2012. It follows "Good Feeling" and "Wild Ones" (featuring Sia). The only other artist to amass three top five hits so far this year is Katy Perry, who has scored with "The One That Got Away," "Part Of Me" and "Wide Awake."
"Whistle" is the sixth top five hit of Flo Rida's career. Three have had one-word titles: "Low," "Sugar" and now "Whistle." I think Mr. Rida likes to keep it simple. The king of one-word titles was Lionel Richie. "Easy," "Still," "Lady," "Truly" and "Hello" all made the top five (for Commodores, Kenny Rogers and Richie as a solo artist). Keeping things simple always worked pretty well for him, too.
Usher's "Scream" logs its sixth week in the top 10, which matches (for weeks in the top 10) a different song titled "Scream" by Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson. The difference? Usher's is actually a good record! Both Michael and Janet made great pop records, so it's odd that their one collabo (in 1995) was so disappointing.
Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 songs.
The Top Five: Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" holds at #1 for the eighth week in its 23rd week on the chart. This is its 18th week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #2 (179K)… Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" jumps from #3 to #2 (a new peak) in its 10th week on the chart. This is its eighth week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #3 (151K)…"Payphone" by Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa dips from #2 to #3 its 15th week on the chart. It has been in the top three the entire time. Digital sales rank: #9 (119K)… Flo Rida's "Whistle" jumps from #6 to #4 (a new peak) in its 11th week. This is its third week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #1 (237K)…Ellie Goulding's "Lights" dips from #4 to #5 in its 32nd week on the chart. This is its sixth week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #7 (122K).
The Second Five: "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra dips from #5 to #6 in its 30th week on the chart. This is its 22nd week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #13 (92K)…Rihanna's "Where Have You Been" holds at #7 for the second week in its 15th week on the chart. This is its ninth week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #20 (68K)..."Titanium" by David Guetta featuring Sia holds at #8 for the third week in its 16th week on the chart. This is its fifth week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #10 (106K)… Usher's "Scream" holds at #9 for the second week in its 14th week on the chart. This is its sixth week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #19 (68K)…P!nk's "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" holds at #10 for the second week in its fourth week on the chart. This is its third week in the top 10. Digital sales rank: #6 (123K).
"Somebody That I Used To Know," "Scream" and "Where Have You Been" are vulnerable to falling out of the top 10 in coming weeks. As you can see, they're already out of the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs.
By contrast, three songs that are not yet in the top 10 on the Hot 100 are already in the top 10 on the digital chart: .fun's "Some Nights" (Digital sales rank: #4, 130K), Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back" (Digital sales rank: #5, 128K) and the aforementioned "Good Time" by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen (Digital sales rank: #8, 122K).
"Some Nights" tops the 1 million mark this week. It's not easy for an "alternative" rock/indie pop act to follow a pop smash. Look at Foster the People, which had the #6 best-selling song of 2011, "Pumped Up Kicks." The trio has yet to make it back to the top 40, much less the top 15.
"As Long As You Love Me" by Justin Bieber featuring Big Sean vaults from #53 to #28 in its sixth week. The mid-tempo song has already climbed as high as #21. This is certain to become Bieber's 10th top 20 hit. Moreover, it's a very good bet to make the top 10. It would mark the first time that Bieber has had back-to-back top 10 hits. (According to press reports, Bieber chafes at constant comparisons to Justin Timberlake. He shouldn't let it bother him. Few teen stars have ever made the transition to adult pop stardom more convincingly. And with this song, Bieber is smartly following the same path.)
Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up," which climbed as high as #8, tops the 2 million mark in digital sales this week.
Here are four songs that have a good chance of cracking this week's chart.
"Birthday Song" by 2 Chainz featuring Kanye West. This is the second single from 2 Chainz's debut album, Based On A T.R.U. Story, which is due Aug. 14. The first single, "No Lie" (featuring Drake), reached #28.
"New God Flow" by Pusha T & Kanye West. This is from the upcoming GOOD Music sampler Cruel Summer, which is due Sept. 4.
"Hands In The Air" by Timbaland featuring Ne-Yo. This is from Step Up Revolution (Music From The Motion Picture), which enters this week's Billboard 200 at #59.
Toby Keith's "I Like Girls That Drink Beer."
Jessie J's recent hit "Domino" and Muse's 2009 hit "Uprising" top the 2 million mark in digital sales this week.
Chris Brown's "Turn Up The Music" tops the 1 million mark in digital sales this week. The fact that such a catchy and commercial record needed 24 weeks to sell 1 million copies speaks to the resistance still facing Brown. Two other songs top the 1 million mark this week: "Faded" by Tyga featuring Lil Wayne and Outasight's "Tonight Is The Night."
Florence + the Machine's "Spectrum (Say My Name" holds at #1 on the Official U.K. Chart for the third straight week. Florence + the Machine is the first lead British artist to spend three weeks atop the British chart since Adele reigned for five weeks in early 2011 with "Someone Like You." "Someone" later "crossed the pond" and reigned for five weeks in the U.S. as well. Will "Spectrum" become a big hit here? Stay tuned.
R.I.P.: Tony Martin, one of the oldest surviving stars from the 1930s and 1940s, died last week at 98. Martin had two hits in the late '30s (before the inception of the first weekly national song chart in 1940) and 33 chart hits between 1940 and 1957. His biggest was "There's No Tomorrow," which hit #2 in 1950. Martin was married to dancer Cyd Charisse for 60 years until her death in 2008.
Twitter Feed: You probably know that Lady Gaga has the most-followed Twitter account, with 27.5 followers. Gaga is followed by Justin Bieber (25.6 million), Katy Perry (23.4 million), Rihanna (23.2 million) and Britney Spears (19 million). The outlier here is Spears, who first cracked the Hot 100 in November 1998. The others are more recent arrivals (and thus fit more logically on a list like this, which favors the hottest and the newest). Spears' longevity, and especially her continuing ability to fascinate, is remarkable.
To My Readers: I'll have a lot more to add after I've seen the full Hot 100 later today.
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