RADIO ACTIVE — A Weekly Chart CHRonicle (January 5, 2020)

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. New year, same number one! However, this week’s chart is also full of some decent action and several new songs. Here’s what’s popping at the Top 40 format this week:

CIRCLING ANOTHER YEAR: Post Malone‘s “Circles” holds at #1 on the Top 40 list for the fourth nonconsecutive week, as it’s now in the books as the last #1 single at the Top 40 format for the 2010’s and the first of the 2020’s. The multi-format hit remains at #8 on the Hot AC radio chart, while it pauses at #15 on the Rhythmic list.

Starting way up at #22, Justin Bieber scores his 27th top 40 hit at the format with “Yummy”, the highly-anticipated lead single off his forthcoming studio album. Bieber also lands at #10 as a part of the Dan + Shay collaboration “10,000 Hours”. Moving from 41-32, Camila Cabello earns her 15th solo top 40 hit with the DaBaby-assisted “My Oh My”, the latter of whom picks up his first. It’s likely that these two songs will complete a 1-2 finish on Tuesday’s adds report at the format, with Bieber leading Cabello/DaBaby.

Two other collaborations of note reach the top 50 this week, led by Iggy Azalea and Alice Chater‘s “Lola” at #47. The track marks the first top 50 entry for Azalea in about two years and the first ever chart appearance for Chater. At #50, “On Chill” chills at the end of the list for Wale and Jeremih. The former #1 at the Rhythmic and Urban formats is the first top 50 single on the pop chart in 6-1/2 years for the former, while the latter scores his first in nearly four.

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NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: Releases For The Week of March 9, 2018

A logical March week.

You might not find 44 more releases you like this week, or on any given week, but there are certainly a lot of great albums and singles ready to hit the market. Here’s what you’ll find on digital services and in stores this Friday:

LOGIC – Bobby Tarantino II (iTunes)
Announced on social media yesterday, this mixtape (a sequel to a 2016 album) is expected this week. The rapper has released several tracks over the last few weeks, including “44 More”, “Overnight” and “Everyday”, a collaboration with DJ/producer Marshmello, which now has airplay at several radio formats. Given that momentum, there’s a good chance it could debut at the top of next week’s album survey.

LIL YACHTY – Lil Boat 2 (iTunes)
This popular rapper is sailing the chart waters once again with a sequel to his 2016 mixtape, featuring collaborations with performers like 2 Chainz, Offset and Quavo of Migos and many others. (A radio single hasn’t been named from the set as of yet.) His last studio album hit #5 in its opening week on the Billboard 200, and this release should easily return him to the top five.

Notable albums out this week: Calum Scott‘s Only Human (iTunes), Jake Miller‘s Silver Lining (iTunes), Liza Anne‘s Fine But Dying (iTunes), Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats‘s Tearing At The Seams (iTunes), The Neighbourhood‘s The Neighbourhood (iTunes), Three Days Grace‘s Outsider (iTunes), A Wrinkle In Time (Soundtrack) (iTunes)

Notable EPs out this week: Apollo LTD‘s Out Of Body (iTunes), Jeremih‘s The Chocolate Box (iTunes), MUNA‘s One Year On (iTunes)

New digital singles that you can buy this week include:
“Acoustic”, Billy Raffoul (iTunes)
“Aftershock (Acoustic)”, Hannah Jane Lewis (iTunes)
“Always”, Dan Farber featuring Boy Matthews (iTunes)
“Baby I’m A Queen”, Sofi Tukker (iTunes)
“Colors”, Jason Derulo (iTunes)
“Dreams (Acoustic)”, Harrison Storm (iTunes)
“Episode”, Spazz Cardigan (iTunes)
“Fire In Me”, John Newman (iTunes)
“Fly”, Marshmello featuring Leah Culver (iTunes)
“Get The F**k Off My D**k”, Vince Staples (iTunes)
“Girl Gang”, Gin Wigmore (iTunes)
“Higher” and “Three”, Lily Allen (iTunes)
“Hold My Girl”, George Ezra (iTunes)
“I Believe You”, FLETCHER (iTunes)
“Just Like That”, The Aces (iTunes)
“Look Back”, Betty Who (iTunes)
“Love Blows”, Lissie (iTunes)
“Minimum Wage”, REMMI (iTunes)
“Miss You More At Night”, Wanderer (iTunes)
“Morning Is Coming”, Sting & Shaggy (iTunes)
“New York City”, Owl City (iTunes)
“No”, Alison Wonderland (iTunes)
“OKOKOK”, Jaira Burns (iTunes)
“Once In My Life”, The Decemberists (iTunes)
“Our Favourite Song (Acoustic)”, The Beach (iTunes)
“Panic Attacks”, Elohim featuring Yoshi Flower (iTunes)
“Pink Lemonade”, James Bay (iTunes)
“Remedy”, Kiah Victoria (iTunes)
“Ride Or Die”, The Knocks featuring Foster The People (iTunes)
“Sanctify”, Years & Years (iTunes)
“Space For Two”, Mr. Probz (iTunes)
“Super Cool”, Prelow (iTunes)
“Supercut (El-P Remix)”, Lorde featuring Run The Jewels (iTunes)
“There’s A Reason”, Wet (iTunes)
“Understood”, Rich Homie Quan (iTunes)
“We Got Love”, Jessica Mauboy (iTunes)
“Young & Free”, Dermot Kennedy (iTunes)
“Your Side Of The Bed”, Loote (iTunes)

Next week: look out for new albums from Scotty McCreery, The Decemberists and more. For Adam’s personal picks of the week, listen to the PGTC Friday Faves list on Spotify!

A Gaye Old Time: The Battle Of Two “Healing” Hits

Movin’ to some Marvin.

The music of the legendary Motown singer Marvin Gaye has been appreciated by many fans and many more musicians over the years. It’s also gotten a few of those acts into some notable legal issues, but there’s no need to blur the lines here: Gaye, his music and his message remain a key part of the songs we enjoy in 2015. So, I guess it was inevitable that he’s being covered and sampled again even after some people might have been (at least temporarily) scared away from utilizing music of his catalog. In fact, we’re coming upon two different singles, both fighting for pop radio glory, that sample his 1982 smash “Sexual Healing”. Yet, this leads us to a few questions, though the answers won’t reveal themselves for some time. Will both tracks be able to coexist in the top 40 at one time? Will they cancel each other out? Will Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor‘s recent smash “Marvin Gaye”, which is now descending the chart, play any role in how these two chart runs play out? Let’s take a look at what may happen.

Already rising up into the top 20 at Rhythmic radio and heading upward is “The Fix”, a new release from Nelly that also features Jeremih. The latest tune from the St. Louis rapper has also picked up a small group of stations on the CHR radio panel, where it finds itself just below the top 50 and making some gains, albeit much smaller ones. “Fix” marks the debut single for a record label called RECORDS, which is a new partnership between SONGS Publishing and RED Music in the Sony family. Of course, this does mean that the performer is no longer with Universal, whom he was signed to for over a decade. Nearing his 41st birthday in just a few weeks, the ageism of pop radio is likely to take its toll on this track, at least to an extent, but consistent sales in the top 100 on iTunes and almost 7.5 million streams on Spotify are proving that this has some strength in the marketplace. Give it some time; it may just be a surprise sleeper song for the fall.

Of course, that sleeper status will, no doubt, be affected by the other single searching for open slots on radio playlists. This one is heading for adds at CHR radio on October 20, but it will potentially start gaining some spins earlier than that. It’s “Try Me”, sung by Jason Derulo and featuring Jennifer Lopez, along DJ/producer Matoma, who you may know from his tropical house flip of a Notorious B.I.G./Ja Rule/Ralph Tresvant song, titled as “Old Thing Back” for the new release. That single was a big hit in Norway and Sweden earlier this year. Derulo’s third single from the album Everything Is 4 is his followup to “Cheyenne”, a top 20 single that recently crashed hard due to a lack of sales momentum (and a number of late Q3 singles by top-tier acts debuting at the same time.) We’ll see if that stalling has done any damage to the era, or if “Try” can carry Derulo and company back to the top again. It’s now at 45 million streams on Spotify.

This is an interesting situation, to say the least, and it’s one where anything can truly happen given the track records of both main acts involved. We’ll keep you updated on how these new releases do at radio as the year goes on! Until then, follow and like us on various social media sites for more musical mending and record rejuvenation by clicking the Get Social! tab above.

It’s My “Birthday” (And I’ll Post If I Want To): A Chart Story

You would blog too if it happened to you.

It only happens once a year, so, let’s celebrate! Today, I turn 23, and I have no clue what’s in store for my birthday. What I do know is that there have been a few “birthday” song titles to hit the charts, and I guess I have to do what I do best. I present to you a post chock full of the top “birthday” songs straight from Billboard Magazine, who, again, forgot to send me a cake. Not even a card? Maybe next year.

We start off our list with a one-hit wonder act from my home state of Massachusetts. From the town of Woburn came The Tune Weavers, a quintet who scored with “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby”. Though it pre-dated the Hot 100 by a year, it managed to get to #5 on Billboard’s similarly formatted Top 100 chart. The group broke up several years later. A version by Ronnie Milsap became a #1 hit on the Country chart in 1986.

In the late 50’s and early 60’s, singer Neil Sedaka was a hot streak with seven top-40 hits, three of them hitting the top ten. The eighth of the former and the fourth of the latter came in January 1962, when “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” rose as high as #6. Sedaka would eventually find three #1 singles on the Hot 100 as a performer. In June of that same year, singer and actor Johnny Crawford peaked at #8 with “Cindy’s Birthday”. It was his sole top ten single, though he made the top 40 with a handful of other songs.

The last “birthday” hit of the decade was released in 1969 by the Wisconsin-based band Underground Sunshine. “Birthday” was a cover of the popular song by The Beatles, which never saw the light of day as a single, though it did get a promotional release for jukebox play. The remake went to #26 on the Hot 100 and the band never charted in the top 40 again. In fact, there weren’t many birthdays being celebrated period on the charts for another twenty years.

The song that finally broke the dry spell was Johnny Kemp‘s “Birthday Suit”, featured in the movie Sing. It was the followup to his big hit, “Just Got Paid”. However, just like his “Suit”, the results were… barren. It was a #36 peak for the song before it fell off the charts, and that was it for Kemp. Yet again, two decades passed until we could celebrate another birthday in the top 40.

The last two examples of our birthday bonanza tend to be a little more on the naughty side. Listen, you can do whatever you want to, I’m not judging. In 2009, R&B singer Jeremih hit #4 with his debut single, “Birthday Sex”. In some cases, the radio version was known as “Birthday Shhh”, and a lack of support from some programmers who didn’t feel the subject material was appropriate left it dangling just outside the top ten on CHR radio. The other missed the top 40 entirely on the format, but was a big hit at Urban radio. Rihanna, in a remix with boyfriend turned ex-boyfriend turned boyfriend Chris Brown, took a remix of “Birthday Cake” to #24 on the Hot 100 last year.

There have been other format-specific examples of “birthday” songs, like Good Charlotte‘s “Like It’s Her Birthday” from 2010 (#33 CHR) or “Birthday Song” by 2 Chainz and Kanye West (#9 Urban) from just a few months ago, but neither had enough strength to crack the top 40 on Billboard’s big survey.

That does it for our topic of the day. Hope you enjoyed unwrapping this post, and if you want more presents from the top of the pops, follow the blog by clicking the tab below or follow me on Twitter: @AdamFSoybel.