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Jesus of Cool: Talking Hot 100 Blues, with Geoff Mayfield

Started by popdose · 3 months ago

Over the past several months I’ve been engaged in a Vision Quest on this tiny slice of the Internet, attempting to locate and suitably disparage the worst Number One songs of the Rock Era. That quest will reach some sort of fruition next week with a rundown of the worst-bests of our curre ... Continue reading »

10 comments

  • DwDunphy

    3 months ago

    Excellent job. Long, but excellent.
    reply
  • JonCummings

    3 months ago

    Yeah, I know, long. It's as long as "One Sweet Day"'s interminable run atop the charts. Hopefully, though, it's informative enough to keep at least a couple complete chart geeks slogging all the way through. Only I could devote 2,500 words to the travails of the 2 1/2-minute pop single...
    reply
  • steed

    3 months ago

    I got all the way through! I could have sworn off hand that Santana and Rob Thomas with "Smooth" was the #1 Hot 100 song ever. That didn't log more weeks at #1 than "One Sweet Day". Maybe that was the AC chart I'm thinking about?
    reply
  • JonCummings

    3 months ago

    "Smooth" cranked out 12 weeks at #1--though, interestingly, only 5 weeks at #1 on the airplay chart. I didn't mention it among "this decade's biggest hits" because it logged its first 10 weeks at the top during the fall of '99.

    It spent 25 loooooooong weeks atop the Adult Top 40 chart, though. That's gotta be what you're thinking about.

    But here's another frightening fact that I didn't know until just now: right behind "Smooth" with 23 weeks atop AT40 was "Wherever You Will Go" by the Calling in '02. To show you how far rock has fallen as a component of the Hot 100, that song only peaked at #5 on the big chart.
    reply
  • Steed

    3 months ago

    I can't believe "Smooth" was '99 - seems like only yesterday. And 5 weeks on the airplay chart? That thing was on the radio every minute of every day for months.

    Yep, AT40 is what I was thinking of.

    I'm sure I'd know it but I can't even recall what "wherever you will go" sounds like.
    reply
  • JonCummings

    3 months ago

    It's pretty much your standard-issue post-grunge love song-with-distortion. I always prefer the guys singing love songs to have at least half a dozen tats and just as many piercings...it creates such a romantic mood. BTW, you'd recall it instantly, if only because you've probably heard it in 50 different TV shows and movies over the last six years.

    The song that perplexes me is "Torn." It only topped the Hot 100 for 11 weeks and AT40 for 14 weeks--but I could swear, based on the stations I used to listen to in DC, that "Torn" was the most-played song for at least a year and a half...
    reply
  • JonCummings

    3 months ago

    I mean that "Torn" topped Hot 100 Airplay for 11 weeks...not the big chart itself.
    reply
  • steed

    3 months ago

    Oh, wow. Yes, I just listened to it and knew it right away.
    reply
  • rwcass

    3 months ago

    Ain't nothin' wrong with being long, fellow.
    reply
  • mojo

    3 months ago

    Phenomenal blog. It goes on my list of best #1 hits of the '00s.
    reply

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