ADD LIB — Brace For (CHR) Impact (June 27, 2017)

Welcome to Add Lib, your Tuesday report on POP! Goes The Charts that’s mad about CHR/Top 40 adds, based on the station data provided by Mediabase 24/7 and Add Board. This week: musical madness before the Fourth of July! Ties! Impacts! More below. It may be hot outside, but it’s hotter on the charts, so let’s dig into those sounds of summer like Add Lib does best:

FOUR SCORE (AND SEVERAL ADDS AGO): With singles from Calvin Harris and DJ Khaled (and their all-star bands) in a tie for this week’s Most Added record at the format, with 46 adds each, we look just below the top spot on the report for showings from a plethora of pop artists. The aggressive battle for adds this week was largely due to the Fourth Of July, which just so happens to fall on a Tuesday this year. So, to all of you program and music directors landing some burgers on the grill a week from now, and maybe some pool or beach action too, we salute you. (Also, where’s my invite?) Let’s highlight four of these potential future hits, all starting out well:

Taking in another 35 adds in its impact week is “Glorious” by Macklemore, which features Skylar Grey. It’s the first single to be released after the rapper’s consciously uncoupling with Ryan Lewis (well, at least for now) and the likely first chart hit for Grey in four years. I’ll take a wild guess and say that you don’t remember “C’mon Let Me Ride”, which featured Eminem, which spent two weeks at #32 in February of that year. (It’s alright, I’d prefer to forget that it exists too.) Besides being the third Most Added title at this format this week, it also stands in the same position on the adds report at Rhythmic radio.

Julia Michaels has no issues with this week’s fourth Most Added song, “Uh Huh”, which starts at 31 stations. It’s the follow-up to “Issues”, which reached a new peak of #4 last week. This one is not a hot B2K cover, but their song called “Uh Huh” peaked at #22 for three weeks in May 2002. Michaels was due to release an EP called Nervous System in the spring, though you can obviously see that it’s been delayed since it hasn’t hit digital retailers yet. Whenever it’s out, I’m sure it’ll be great.

Major Lazer and their new backing band, The Mestanics, silently run with “Know No Better” towards a knowledgeable rank for the week. It’s tied for fifth place, receiving another 24 adds. “Run Up” reached #33 at the end of March, and this release is expected to do “better” than that. (Gee, I’m pretty terrible tonight. Ah, well, I have the week off next week!) Their EP of the same name came out earlier this month, and hit the top 100 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Finally, in the seventh Most Added slot, we find “Go For Broke”, the latest release for Machine Gun Kelly. Kelly’s new song has a featured vocal from James Arthur, who also scored the fourth Most Added single at Hot AC radio yesterday with “Can I Be Him”. This is likely to be Arthur’s last week on the chart with “Say You Won’t Let Go”, a former #5 hit from earlier this month. Kelly’s had a pair of songs from his latest album, Bloom, reach the chart, including the Camila Cabello-assisted “Bad Things”, a two-week #1 from February.

MOST ADDED — THIS WEEK’S TOP TEN
1. CALVIN HARRIS featuring PHARRELL WILLIAMS, KATY PERRY and BIG SEAN, “Feels” (Columbia)
1-T. DJ KHALED featuring RIHANNA and BRYSON TILLER, “Wild Thoughts” (We The Best/Epic)
3. MACKLEMORE featuring SKYLAR GREY, “Glorious” (Warner Bros.)
4. JULIA MICHAELS, “Uh Huh” (Republic)
5-T. BRUNO MARS, “Versace On The Floor” (Atlantic)
5-T. MAJOR LAZER featuring TRAVIS SCOTT, CAMILA CABELLO and QUAVO, “Know No Better” (Mad Decent/in2une)
7. MACHINE GUN KELLY featuring JAMES ARTHUR, “Go For Broke” (Bad Boy/Interscope)
8. SAM HUNT, “Body Like A Back Road” (MCA Nashville/Capitol)
9. MARTIN GARRIX & TROYE SIVAN, “There For You” (RCA)
10-T. ALL TIME LOW, “Good Times” (Fueled By Ramen/RRP)
10-T. BEBE REXHA featuring LIL WAYNE, “The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody)” (Warner Bros.)
10-T. LOGIC featuring ALESSIA CARA and KHALID, “1-800-273-8255” (Def Jam)

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RADIO ACTIVE — A Weekly Chart CHRonicle (June 25, 2017)

Welcome to Radio Active, a Sunday evening report from POP! Goes The Charts that gets to the chart of the matter: all the highlights from the CHR/Top 40 chart, as published by Mediabase 24/7 and Mediabase Research. Pride is in the air across the nation, and the pop panel is certainly showing their colors as well. With so many genres and artists represented here, the ferociously fun summer of 2017 continues with a rainbow of hit songs and stats like these:

NEVER GONNA LEAVE THIS ZEDD: Celebrating five weeks at #1, “Stay” by Zedd and Alessia Cara continues to respond as well as it can across the format’s callout reports, though it’s long past its sales and streaming peaks of earlier this summer. Though it only loses a little ground this week, in terms of both spins and audience, expect some larger decreases in the coming days. “Stay” has a nice 9-7 move on the Hot AC chart, and you’ll also find it in the top 30 on the AC chart. (Yes, even your favorite soccer mom craves an EDM jam once in a while.) Zedd‘s collaboration with Liam Payne, “Get Low”, is likely to have a strong start when it debuts next month. Of course, it’ll have to contend with Payne’s own solo single, the Quavo-assisted “Strip That Down”, which rises 24-23.

As for the next #1 on the chart, look no further than “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, up 3-2 this week. Of course, that song is still about 2,500 spins away from the top spot, but once it takes the throne, a big fiesta is likely to occur. Bieber’s other feature on “I’m The One”, by DJ Khaled & New Brohemians, takes that track up 5-3 on the current survey. (I can’t write out all their names anymore, so I figured that I might as well just make them sound like a trendy band. I’m sorry, Edie.)

WHERE THE “WILD” THINGS ARE: When you’re hot, you’re hot! The 41-year-old producer and screaming champion (if ever a competition should arise) DJ Khaled knows that well. With the aforementioned “I’m The One” on the rise, his “Wild Thoughts” is also blazing up the chart, leaping 38-27 in its second week in the top 40. The tune featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller, the latter performer scoring his first hit at the format after several big records at Rhythmic and Urban radio. Tiller’s True To Self album had a #1 debut on the Billboard 200 earlier this year, and the DJ’s new release, Grateful, could be headed there as well.

Lower in the top 40, Calvin Harris and the Sunshine Bland (“Really, Adam?”) aren’t afraid to catch up with “Feels”, launching up ten spots (42-32) on this week’s pop chart. It’s the 15th top 40 single for the Scottish performer, who first charted six years ago as a featured artist on the global hit “We Found Love”, a seven-week chart-topper (12/4/11-1/25/12 MB) for Rihanna. Joining “Feels” in the top 40 is the first main-credited hit for French Montana, “Unforgettable”, which climbs from 44-39. It features Swae Lee, who also performs with everyone’s favorite third-rate version of Kris Kross, the duo Rae Sremmurd. Of course, you’ll recall that they reached the chart with the Gucci Mane-assisted “Black Beatles”, which some people actually define as music, late last year and earlier this year, reaching a #14 peak (1/15/17 MB) at the format.

WHO’S ON “FIRST”?: Sneaking into the top 50 on the chart, DJ/producer Kygo and singer Ellie Goulding collaborate on their first track together, which just so happens to be called “First Time”. It’s already hit the top ten in countries like Belgium, Norway and Sweden, and with the Norwegian-based performer’s “It Ain’t Me” (with Selena Gomez) reaching #2 on the Top 40 chart just weeks ago, the momentum is there for this song to continue upward this summer. There’s no word on a new album from either artist, but I suppose that could change later this year. (I’m hopeful, at least.)

Previous entries at this format with the same title (excluding titles with an added “the”) include a bigger Hot AC song for Lifehouse (#16, 9/16/07 MB) and the last radio single (#36, 7/21 and 8/11-18/13 MB) from the ill-fated Jonas Brothers return album. Gee, I hope they didn’t blow a lot of money on all the unused pom poms… anyways, check back to see if Kyllie or Ellgo outpeak either song!

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RECORD REWIND: PGTC Picks, 6/18 – 6/24/17

Sunday afternoon means it’s time for the Record Rewind, highlighting the top new tracks that you might’ve missed during the work week, all from my favorite independent acts out there. If it’s on the site, it’s something that you need to check out!

Across the PGTC SoundCloud page and my playlists on Spotify, these stuck out as my favorite independent songs of the week…

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COURTSHIP. – “Perfect People” (iTunes) (Spotify)
The Los Angeles duo of Eli Hirsch and Micah Gordon continues to craft excellent cuts for the blog world, with “Love For Everyone” and “Sunroof” among my favorites from them. “Perfect” has a lovely nostalgic feel, sounding like a nod to late 70’s California rock.

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KAPTAN – “Better” (iTunes) (Spotify)
I’ve been a big supporter of Andrew de Torres’s current project on the blog for a couple of years now, though he hasn’t appeared in a Rewind post since “Numbers” in July 2016. Well, you can re-examine those numbers now, as his alternative pop jam gets started.

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For more great new music, these tunes are worth a listen…
Bel Heir – “California High” (SoundCloud)
RKCB – “Vice” (SoundCloud)
Sam Tinnesz featuring Super Duper – “Babel” (SoundCloud)
Super Duper featuring Daniella Mason – “Nothing Scares Us” (SoundCloud)
VÉRITÉ – “Control” (SoundCloud)

Want to be featured on this weekly wrap-up? Submit your music to adamfsoybel@gmail.com and I’ll check our your tunes. Thanks!

Highlights from Adam’s Top 40: June 25, 2017

From dusk till Shawn.

DEBUTS
40. George Ezra – Don’t Matter Now
39. Barns Courtney – Golden Dandelions | HIGHEST DEBUT

TOP GAINERS
28. Andy Grammer – Give Love (34)
26. Julia Michaels – Uh Huh (33)
22. Lorde – Perfect Places (29)
16. Arcade Fire – Everything Now (24) | BIGGEST MOVER

THIS WEEK’S TOP TEN
10. Tom Walker – Just You And I (11) | PEAK: #10
09. Train – Drink Up (09) | PEAK: #09
08. Foster The People – Doing It For The Money (10) | PEAK: #08
07. Scott Helman – Kinda Complicated (06) | PEAK: #04
06. Miley Cyrus – Malibu (07) | PEAK: #06
05. Paramore – Hard Times (05) | PEAK: #05
04. Bleachers – Don’t Take The Money (03) | PEAK: #01 for five weeks
03. Harry Styles – Sign Of The Times (02) | PEAK: #01 for one week
02. Niall Horan – Slow Hands (04) | PEAK: #02
01. Shawn Mendes – There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back (01) | PEAK: #01 for two weeks

Top 10 Next In Line:
1. Hanson – I Was Born (2)
2. LeAnn Rimes – Love Is Love Is Love (4)
3. Loote – High Without Your Love (6)
4. John Mayer – In The Blood (1)
5. Robin Schulz featuring James Blunt – OK (9)
6. Billy Raffoul – Driver (7)
7. Fitz & The Tantrums – Fool (-)
8. Rag’N’Bone Man – Skin (5)
9. All Time Low – Good Times (10)
10. Shania Twain – Life’s About To Get Good (-)

In The Mix:
BANNERS – Someone To You
Dagny – Wearing Nothing
Jorge Blanco – Summer Soul
Katy Perry – Save As Draft (new)
Lauv – I Like Me Better
Liam Gallagher – Wall Of Glass
Lights – Giants (new)
Rachel Crow – Dime
Secret Weapons – Ghost (new)
Sheppard – Edge Of The Night (new)
The Killers – The Man
Welshly Arms – Legendary

Chart Notes:

• This week’s Highest Debut is the third top 40 single for the 26-year-old out of Aylesbury, England named Barns Courtney. “Golden Dandelions” blooms at #39. Courtney had my #3 song of 2016 with “Fire”, which spent four weeks at #1. That single also reached the top five at Triple A radio and top 20 on the Alternative chart. He hasn’t released a full-length album yet. (An EP of his, The Dull Drums, was out earlier this year.)
• The week’s other new entry is by another English singer and songwriter, 23-year-old Hertford-born George Ezra. He heads onto the survey at #40 with “Don’t Matter Now”. Of course, Ezra’s album Wanted On Voyage, released three years ago, gave him a handful of chart hits in Europe, including “Blame It On Me” and “Budapest”. Ezra’s second set is due later this year.

(See my full chart on Crownnote)

ADAM’S TOP 40 FLASHBACK: June 22, 2008

Viva 2008!

It’s the start of another weekend, which means it’s time for another trip back into the archives on Adam’s Top 40 Flashback! Every Saturday, the day before my latest top 40 goes up for the week, I feature the highlights of a past countdown. They’re all here — the hit songs, the songs that flopped, and the songs that may be a little embarrassing to reflect on.

This week, we stroll back nine years and find out what was topping my chart for the week of June 22, 2008…

Debuts:
40. BRENDAN JAMES, “Green”

Biggest Movers:
CAROLINA LIAR, “I’m Not Over” (30-18, twelve spots)

10. 3 DOORS DOWN, “It’s Not My Time” (steady, third week)
Album: 3 Doors Down (2008, Universal Republic Records)
Peak: #10 for four weeks

09. WEEZER, “Pork And Beans” (down 1)
Album: Weezer (Red Album) (2008, Geffen Records)
Peak: #8

08. COLDPLAY, “Viva La Vida” (up 3)
Album: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (2008, Capitol Records)
Peak: #1 for two weeks

07. DAVID COOK, “The Time Of My Life” (steady, second week)
Album: David Cook (2008, 19/RCA Records)
Peak: #1 for three weeks

06. NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, “Summertime” (steady, second week)
Album: The Block (2008, Interscope Records)
Peak: #4 for three weeks

05. GAVIN DEGRAW, “In Love With A Girl” (steady, third week)
Album: Gavin DeGraw (2008, J/RMG Records)
Peak: #5 for three weeks

04. JASON MRAZ, “I’m Yours” (steady, second week)
Album: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008, Atlantic/RRP Records)
Peak: #1 for one week

03. LEONA LEWIS, “Bleeding Love” (steady, second week)
Album: Spirit (2008, Syco/J/RMG Records)
Peak: #1 for fourteen weeks

02. DUFFY, “Mercy” (steady, second week)
Album: Rockferry (2008, Mercury/IDJMG Records)
Peak: #2 for three weeks

01. COLBIE CAILLAT, “Realize” (steady, second week)
Album: Coco (2007, Universal Republic Records)
Peak: #1 for five weeks

Check back next Saturday for another Adam’s Top 40 Flashback countdown and don’t forget to follow the blog by using the tab below or find PGTC on social media by clicking the “Get Social!” tab at the top of the page.

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: Releases For The Week of June 23, 2017

Oh, baby, it’s a hit.

If you feel like screaming about the weekly New Music Friday update, here’s anotha one to get your vocal cords going. From a hot DJ and producer’s all-star urban collection, to four rockers on a mythical musical adventure, we’ve got ’em all right here, this week’s top releases:

DJ KHALED – Grateful (iTunes)
WE THE BEST RELEASE DATE! (ahem) Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. One could say that DJ and producer Khaled Khaled is capable of yelling any portion of the phone book, and people would probably throw their money at it. Well, you’ll have to wait on a spoken word set from him, but a number of singles from this release have charted across multiple radio formats, including “Shining” (featuring Beyoncé and Jay Z), “I’m The One” (featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne) and its most recent airplay cut, “Wild Thoughts” (featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller). Streaming-equivalent units on this one could be giant, so stayed to see how high it goes!

IMAGINE DRAGONS – Evolve (iTunes)
If there’s any act releasing this week that has a whole lot of believers, it’s this Las Vegas quartet, who found that their song “Believer” was destined to become a huge Alternative crossover hit. Though some online reaction to other songs has been mixed (I’m looking at you, “Thunder”) thus far, the album should have a healthy sales week, debuting at the top or runner-up position.

More albums out this week: 311‘s Mosaic (iTunes), Bone Thugs-N-Harmony‘s New Waves (iTunes), James Fortune & FIYA‘s Dear Future Me (iTunes), Jaymes Young‘s Feel Something (iTunes), Joe Bonamassa‘s Live At Carnegie Hall – An Acoustic Evening (iTunes), Prince & The Revolution‘s Purple Rain (Deluxe Reissue) (iTunes),
Quavo‘s ATL (iTunes), Stokley‘s Introducing Stokley (iTunes), VÉRITÉ‘s Somewhere In Between (iTunes), Vince Staples‘s Big Fish Theory (iTunes), Baby Driver (Soundtrack) (iTunes), Despicable Me 3 (Soundtrack) (iTunes)

More EPs out this week: TBA

New digital-only singles that you can buy this week include:
“All I Think About Is You”, Ansel Elgort (iTunes)
“Babel”, Sam Tinnesz featuring Super Duper (iTunes)
“Bad 4 Us”, Superfruit (iTunes)
“Baby Love”, Samantha J. featuring R. City (iTunes)
“Better”, KAPTAN (iTunes)
“Boyfriend”, Lissie (iTunes)
“Break A Little (Madison Mars Remix)”, Kirstin (iTunes)
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”, Artists For Grenfell (iTunes)
“Brother”, Kodaline (iTunes)
“Champion”, Fall Out Boy (iTunes)
“Change”, Sir Sly (iTunes)
“Come Over”, Dylan Rockoff (iTunes)
“Edge Of The Night”, Sheppard (iTunes)
“Electric Touch (Grant Remix)”, A R I Z O N A (iTunes)
“Fool”, Fitz & The Tantrums (iTunes)
“Giants”, Lights (iTunes)
“Gimme Heartbreak”, David Cook (iTunes)
“Ghost”, Secret Weapons (iTunes)
“Golden Dandelions (Acoustic)”, Barns Courtney (iTunes)
“How You Gon’ Do That”, Flosstradamus featuring Cara Salimando (iTunes)
“Intrigued”, Nico & Vinz (iTunes)
“Keep Me Sane”, Kacy Hill (iTunes)
“Listen To What The Man Said” and “Waving Through A Window”, Owl City (iTunes)
“Little Of Your Love”, HAIM (iTunes)
“Malibu (Tiësto Remix)”, Miley Cyrus (iTunes)
“Moonlight”, Grace VanderWaal (iTunes)
“Naughty Ride”, WizKid featuring Major Lazer (iTunes)
“Nothing Scares Us”, Super Duper featuring Daniella Mason (iTunes)
“Somebody New”, Cedric Gervais featuring Liza Owen (iTunes)
“Someone To You (Acoustic)”, BANNERS (iTunes)
“Slow Hands (Basic Tape Remix)”, Niall Horan (iTunes)
“Waterfalls”, Luke Christopher (iTunes)
“Wearing Nothing (Acoustic)”, Dagny (iTunes)
“What If (Acoustic)”, Adam Friedman (iTunes)

We’ll see you next week for new albums from Calvin Harris, Jay-Z and more. Listen to the PGTC Friday Faves list on Spotify!

ADD LIB — Brace For (CHR) Impact (June 20, 2017)

Welcome to Add Lib, your Tuesday report on POP! Goes The Charts that’s mad about CHR/Top 40 adds, based on the station data provided by Mediabase 24/7 and Add Board. This week: DJ Khaled enlists Rihanna and Bryson Tiller for a “wild” song, and it challenges Calvin Harris‘s touchy feely new single with Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry and Big Sean. Gee, save some feature slots for someone else’s collaboration, will you? Anyways, let’s see what’s going down on Add Lib featuring Most Added Songs, Lots Of Chart Stats and Plenty Of Bad Puns:

“WILD” AND CRAZY KIDS: It’s anotha (number) one for yelling enthusiast DJ Khaled and his current hit from Grateful. The song is called “Wild Thoughts”, and it scores 115 stations on impact, making it the Most Added record at the CHR/Top 40 format. It also earns the Most Added title on this week’s CHR/Rhythmic and Urban add reports, posting 50 and 49 new stations, respectively. Of course, Rihanna and Bryson Tiller provide the non-screaming vocals on this song, which hit #2 on iTunes upon release. This is the follow-up to “I’m The One”, which is still going strong in the top five on the pop chart. (We’ll see if “Wild” affects it in the next few weeks.) If you think you’ve heard this single before, it might be because it heavily samples “Maria Maria” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, the Grammy-winning Supernatural hit that spent four weeks at #2 (3/31-4/21/00 R&R) at the format. Oh, to be ten again… in any case, look for “Wild” to be a huge multi-format success all summer long. That Rihanna reign just won’t let up!

“FEELS” LIKE A WINNER: Harris, Williams, Perry & Sean sounds like it might be one of those terrible law firms from the land of daytime TV, but it’s actually Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry and Big Sean coming together for a new hit off Harris’ forthcoming album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1. “Feels” feels like a great collaboration for the format, and it has a stellar first week too, taking in 104 adds on impact. Along with “Wild Thoughts” above, eight of the top ten Most Added songs this week include a featured artist or are performed by multiple artists, which speaks to the continued support and success of these types of tracks. In time, however, this could result in some backlash toward the concept. We’ll just have to see what happens later this year. Next week should bring an additional collaboration into the top ten, from Machine Gun Kelly and James Arthur, while the song in the #7 spot this week, by Macklemore and Skylar Grey, should repeat its top ten status when it officially impacts at the format.

MOST ADDED — THIS WEEK’S TOP TEN
1. DJ KHALED featuring RIHANNA and BRYSON TILLER, “Wild Thoughts” (We The Best/Epic)
2. CALVIN HARRIS featuring PHARRELL WILLIAMS, KATY PERRY and BIG SEAN, “Feels” (Columbia)
3. DAVID GUETTA featuring JUSTIN BIEBER, “2U” (Atlantic-Def Jam)
4. BRUNO MARS, “Versace On The Floor” (Atlantic)
5-T. BEBE REXHA featuring LIL WAYNE, “The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody)” (Warner Bros.)
5-T. FIFTH HARMONY featuring GUCCI MANE, “Down” (Syco/Epic)
7. MACKLEMORE featuring SKYLAR GREY, “Glorious” (Warner Bros.)
8. CHILDISH GAMBINO, “Redbone” (Glassnote)
9. LIAM PAYNE featuring QUAVO,  “Strip That Down” (Republic)
10. LOGIC featuring ALESSIA CARA and KHALID, “1-800-273-8255” (Def Jam)

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