Billboard AC Chart Flashback: January 17, 2004

[johnm1120]

To mark Cher's return to the AC chart, let's take a look at the last time she cracked the top 20.

January 17, 2004

Last Week	This Week	Artist	Title	Weeks	Peak
1	1	Uncle Kracker	Drift Away 28th week at #1	44	1
4	2	Shania Twain	Forever & For Always	37	1
3	3	Train	Calling All Angels	27	2
2	4	Matchbox 20	Unwell	35	1
5	5	Counting Crows f/Vanessa Carlton	Big Yellow Taxi	35	5
7	6	Phil Collins	Look Through My Eyes From "Brother Bear"	17	6
6	7	Simply Red	Sunrise	24	5
11	8	Josh Groban	You Raise Me Up	12	8
9	9	Sheryl Crow	The First Cut Is The Deepest	14	7
8	10	Clay Aiken	Invisible	13	8
10	11	Dido	White Flag	19	6
13	12	Sarah McLachlan	Fallen	15	12
15	13	Tim McGraw	Tiny Dancer	12	13
21	14	Michael McDonald	Ain't No Mountain High Enough	11	14
25	15	Jim Brickman f/Collin Raye	Peace (Where The Heart is)	22	15
20	16	Christina Aguilera	The Voice Within	7	16
27	17	Rod Stewart & Cher	Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered	10	17
22	18	Santana f/Alex Band	Why Don't You & I	9	18
28	19	Five For Fighting	100 Years	3	19
30	20	Celine Dion	Stand By Your Side	11	17
RE-ENTRY	21	Seal	Waiting For You	16	20
RE-ENTRY	22	Hall & Oates	Getaway Car	8	22
26	23	Burke Roney	Let It All Come Down	7	22
RE-ENTRY	24	3 Doors Down	Here Without You	2	24
RE-ENTRY	25	Michael Bolton	When I Fall in Love	12	17
NEW	26	The Bangles	Something That You Said	1	26
RE-ENTRY	27	Clay Aiken	This Is The Night	19	13
NEW	28	Elton John	The Heart of Every Girl From "Mona Lisa Smile"	1	28
NEW	29	Tarralyn Ramsey	Up Against All Odds	1	29
RE-ENTRY	30	John Mayer	Bigger Than My Body	2	30

This was an AC week we are all familiar with, the Christmas clearout week. With 3 debuts and 6 re-entries, Christmas wasn't as dominant, but still made its presence felt.

This week marks the final week of Uncle Kracker's unprecedented and unduplicated #1 run, his 28th unconsecutive week at #1 with "Drift Away." The following week he would be unseated for good by Train's "Calling All Angels." Drift Away was also the oldest song on the chart spending its 44th week in the top 30.

Josh Groban's future #1 "You Raise Me Up" got its first week in the top 10 this week.

Several cover songs were on the chart. Tim McGraw's rendition of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" was at #13, 1 spot higher than Michael McDonald's cover of the Motown classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." One of the re-entries at #25 was Michael Bolton's rendition of the standard "When I Fall in Love."

Rod Stewart & Cher leaped back up 10 spots thanks to the Christmas clearout, and landed in what would be their peak position with their rendition of "Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered." The song was also covered at that time by Celine Dion for the "Mona Lisa Smile" soundtrack, however that version was not released to AC. This version came from Rod Stewart's "American Songbook" series.

Speaking of Mona Lisa Smile, a different song from the soundtrack made its debut that week. It was Elton John's "The Heart of Every Girl" bowing in at #28.

The highest debut of the week marked the comeback of The Bangles, who ended a 15-year hiatus with the 2003 album "Doll Revolution." "Something That You Said" debuted and unfortunately peaked at #26. The song only stayed on the chart for 3 weeks.

The last debut of the week came from reality star Tarralyn Ramsey. With American Idol as a hot show at the time (see Clay Aiken at #10 and #27), VH1 came up with their own singing competition called "Born to Diva," with the winner getting to perform at the next VH1 Divas Live concert. Tarralyn Ramsey was the winner of the show and "Up Against All Odds" was her winning single. The song was a one-week wonder on AC dropping off the next week.

[esoteric76]

I have major, MAJOR flashbacks of this time. Those four songs at the top were literally up there for nearly a year. It was MADNESS!