www.billboard.com/articles/6465909/hot-100-rihanna-kanye-west-paul-mccartney-ellie-goulding-mark-ronsonRihanna, Kanye West, Paul McCartney & Ellie Goulding Hit Hot 100's Top 10; Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars Still No. 1As 'Uptown Funk!' leads for a sixth week, the all-star trio vaults with 'FourFiveSeconds' and Goulding soars with 'Love Me Like You Do.'
Mark Ronson's
"Uptown Funk!," featuring Bruno Mars, rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a sixth week, while two songs surge into the top 10: Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney's "FourFiveSeconds" -- marking McCartney's first top 10 after a record-setting 29-year gap -- and Ellie Goulding's Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack single "Love Me Like You Do."
With an extra-action-packed chart, let's run through the key numbers behind the top 10 on the sales/airplay/streaming-based Hot 100, as we do each Wednesday.
As "Funk!," released on RCA Records, tops the Hot 100 for a sixth week, Mars matches his longest reign: "Locked Out of Heaven" (which Ronson co-produced) led for six frames in 2012-13. "Funk" spends a seventh week atop Digital Songs with 319,000 downloads sold (down 12 percent) in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music; leads Streaming Songs (17.9 million U.S. streams, down 27 percent) and the subscription services-based On-Demand Songs (5.4 million, down 5 percent) for a fourth week each; and tops Radio Songs for a third week with an 3 percent lift to 176 million in all-format audience.
In another honor, "Funk" becomes the first single to crown the Hot 100 and its three main component charts (Digital Songs, Radio Songs and Streaming Songs) simultaneously for three weeks. (The only other song to quadruple up at No. 1 for even two weeks: Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" last year.)
The week's other notable highlights in the top center on the region's two new entrants, led by Rihanna, West and McCartney's
"FourFiveSeconds," which vaults 15-6. Helping fuel the song's surge: the premiere of its official video on Feb. 3 and the trio's performance of it on the 57th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday (Feb. 8) (which likely swelled sales further just before the closing of the Nielsen tracking week that night; following a full week of sales, ending Feb. 15, the track should continue to gain in downloads).
"FourFiveSeconds" jumps 4-3 on Digital Songs (181,000, up 31 percent) and 36-22 on Radio Songs (46 million, up 33 percent) and enters Streaming Songs at No. 34 (3.8 million, up 830 percent, good for top Streaming Gainer honors on the Hot 100).
With the song's Hot 100 advance, McCartney makes history: he returns to the chart's top 10 after more than 29 years, ending the longest break between top 10s in the Hot 100's 56-year archives. He'd last graced the top 10 with "Spies Like Us" (the title theme from the Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd spoof), which reached No. 7 in 1986. McCartney passes Santana, who waited more than 28 years between top 10s from 1971 to 1999.
Let's take an updated look at the acts to return to the Hot 100's top 10 after the five longest gaps:
Paul McCartney, 29 years, 2 weeks
Feb. 8, 1986, "Spies Like Us"
Feb. 21, 2015, "FourFiveSeconds" (with Rihanna and Kanye West)
Santana, 28 years, 7 months, 2 weeks
Jan. 23, 1971, "Black Magic Woman"
Sept. 4, 1999, "Smooth" (feat. Rob Thomas)
Roy Orbison, 24 years, 5 months, 2 weeks
Oct. 31, 1964, "Oh, Pretty Woman"
April 15, 1989, "You Got It"
Aaron Neville, 22 years, 9 months, 1 week
Feb. 18, 1967, "Tell It Like It Is"
Nov. 25, 1989, "Don't Know Much" (with Linda Ronstadt)
The Beatles, 19 years, 4 months, 3 weeks
Aug. 7, 1976, "Got to Get You Into My Life"
Dec. 30, 1995, "Free as a Bird"
Notably, given the last act on the list above, McCartney did make an appearance in the top 10 with The Beatles in between his last two solo top 10s: the Fab Four's "Free as a Bird" debuted at No. 10 on Dec. 30, 1995 and peaked at No. 6 the following week.
(And, a nod to a late legend who came oh-so-close to setting the record: Otis Redding peaked [posthumously] at No. 12 on the Aug. 13, 2011 Hot 100 as featured on Jay Z and Kanye West's tribute "Otis." Redding had logged his only top 10, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," which reigned for four weeks in 1968. Thus, if "Otis" had risen two notches higher, he would've closed a top 10 gap of an astounding 43 years, three months and two weeks.)
More feats for Rihanna, West and McCartney (aka, the Fab Three): "FourFiveSeconds" becomes Rihanna's 26th Hot 100 top 10, McCartney's 23rd (to go along with his 34 with the Beatles) and West's 15th. McCartney has now been an inhabitant of the Hot 100's top 10 for more than 51 years: the Beatles' breakthrough "I Want to Hold Your Hand" reached the region on Jan. 25, 1964, ahead of its seven-week run at No. 1. Counting just his solo output, McCartney rewrites yet another mark: he expands his span of solo top 10s to a record-setting 43 years, 10 months and two weeks, dating to the first week in the top 10 for his first top 10, "Another Day," in 1971. He bests Santana's 33-year, eight-month span of appearing in the top 10 (1970-2003).
Even more: with "FourFiveSeconds" in just its third week on the Hot 100, McCartney equals his fastest top 10 ascent. Another of his superstar collabs, "Ebony and Ivory," with Stevie Wonder, also blasted to No. 6 (from No. 21) in its third week in 1982. It went on to rule the Hot 100 for seven weeks, marking McCartney's longest command as a solo artist.
"FourFiveSeconds" additionally zooms 2-1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
And, that's not the only new Hot 100 top 10 this week: Goulding's
"Love Me Like You Do" continues its climb, jumping 14-9. As buzz builds for Fifty Shades of Grey, in theaters this weekend, and with its soundtrack having arrived yesterday (Feb. 10), her single from the movie and album bullets for a second week at No. 6 on Digital Songs (115,000, up 12 percent); bounds 28-16 on Streaming Songs (5.7 million, up 43 percent); and debuts on Radio Songs at No. 44 (32 million, up 26 percent).
Goulding notches her second Hot 100 top 10: her debut hit "Lights" reached No. 2 in 2012. ("Like" reaches the top tier in its fifth week; "Lights" needed 27 chart weeks to do so.)
Oh, right, the rest of the top 10. Ed Sheeran's
"Thinking Out Loud" keeps at its No. 2 peak on the Hot 100, although it closes the gap between it and "Funk" at No. 1; "Funk" drops by 15 percent in overall activity and "Loud" leaps by 13 percent. Plus, with Sheeran having performed his ballad on the Grammy Awards, it should register notable sales gains reflected on next week's charts, likely setting up a closer fight for the Hot 100's summit.
"Loud" stays at No. 2 on both Digital Songs (269,000, up 22 percent, adding the top Digital Gainer award on the Hot 100) and Streaming Songs (12 million, up 1 percent) and rises 3-2 on Radio Songs (137 million, up 14 percent). As previously reported, it becomes his first No. 1 on a Billboard airplay chart, topping Adult Pop Songs.
Hozier's No. 2-peaking
"Take Me to Church" keeps at No. 3 on the Hot 100 (and crowns Hot Rock Songs for a 17th week); Maroon 5's
"Sugar" pushes 5-4, reaching a new peak; and Taylor Swift's former seven-week Hot 100 No. 1
"Blank Space" drops 4-5.
Below "FourFiveSeconds" on the Hot 100, Trainor's No. 4-peaking
"Lips Are Movin" slips 6-7; Sam Smith's
"I'm Not the Only One" descends 7-8, after reaching No. 5; and, beneath Goulding's new top 10, Swift's former four-week No. 1
"Shake It Off" drops 9-10.
Visit Billboard.com tomorrow (Feb.12), when all rankings, including the Hot 100 in its entirety and Digital Songs, Radio Songs and Streaming Songs, will refresh, as they do each Thursday. The Hot 100 will also appear in the next issue of Billboard magazine, on sale on Friday, Feb. 13.
