Loading summary
Transcript69 lines
- [00:00]
A
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show? In a little over three weeks, this song and the album it comes from will be competing for Prizes on the 66th annual edition of of the Grammy Awards. The artist is Solana Imani Rowe, better known as SZA. Her song, a number one smash on Billboard's Hot 100 last spring, is Kill Bill, and it's from her blockbuster number one album, sos. And if by some chance SZA sweeps all nine prizes she's up for, she will set a new record for for most Grammys won in a single night. Now that's a tall order, especially given Grammy history. A certain type of artist and recording tends to sweep the recording Academy's prizes, something espousing traditional pop values a little less hip. In case you're curious, the album that won the most Grammys in a single night was from this smooth act nearly a quarter century ago. That is, of course, smooth by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, a 12 week number one on Billboard's Hot 100 that took home record and Song of the year at the 42nd edition of the Grammy Awards in 2000 and the album credited to Santana, the rock band led by guitar God Carlos Santana, plus an army of special guests, was called Supernatural. That night in Los Angeles, Supernatural won a staggering nine Grammys, eight of them won by Carlos himself. I can picture some of you nodding and maybe a few more of you groaning. Supernatural by Santana. The winningest Grammy album of all time. That's both totally plausible and numbingly predictable. Maybe you preferred Santana's competition that night in the big categories. All by artists younger than Carlos Santana. Whether it was boy band King's, the.
- [04:10]
B
Backstreet Boys.
- [04:21]
A
Multi platinum R B trio tlc, Diamond selling country trio the Chicks, then known as the Dixie Chicks, Cowboy.
- [04:42]
C
Take Me Away Balance through as high as you can into the Wild Boys.
- [04:51]
A
Or in the record and song categories, Latin pop God turned Anglo pop hitmaker Ricky Martin. But speaking as a critic and a long time often frustrated Grammy watcher, on the scale of Grammy sweeps, I'd say Santana's was far from the most egregious. Though this Clive Davis Svengalied album seemed machine tooled to win Grammys and it Was Supernatural was a blockbuster album. It earned respectful, if not stellar reviews. It captured the moment in 1999 when Latin pop was going mainstream. And it did spin off massive hits not just at adult contemporary or rock stations, but at top 40 pop stations. The one listened to by teens and tweens. As they say Grammy's gonna Grammy. Santana's sweep in 2000 was, let's call it the median Grammy win. Not the most exciting, not the most offensive. A relatively credible consensus. When it comes to the Recording Academy, relatively credible is a win because, man, there have been some head scratchers stepping.
- [06:36]
C
Out with my baby can't go wrong cause I'm in right? Ask me when will that day.
- [06:44]
A
There have been big Grammy wins by artists long past their prime.
- [06:49]
C
Well, we used to play when we were three.
- [06:53]
B
How about a kiss for your cousin Dupree?
- [06:57]
A
How about a kiss for your records that became semi famous only after they won the Grammy.
- [07:09]
C
When I was a little country boy.
- [07:11]
A
And just occasionally there are acts who win the Grammy at exactly the right moment.
- [07:17]
C
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
- [07:27]
A
Who then win it again years later, whether they need it or not? Repeat winners are an old Grammy trope. The Recording Academy claims it only considers artistic merit when awarding prizes. But throughout Grammy history, many of the most celebrated awards went to blockbuster albums. We at Hit Parade are not against this team. Grammy is better at coronation than cool hunting. We only wish the Grammys consistently coronated the right pop kings and queens. And unlike most Grammy watchers who are grumbling at the telecast every year, we have, as the kids say, the receipts, the chart data to measure just how culturally relevant a Grammy is. So today on Hit Parade, with the awards just around the corner, we will try to explain why the Grammys are both fun and frustrating. How closely they align with the charts and how, when and why they get it right and wrong. Before we break it all down. Let's raise a glass to what was perhaps the most beloved Grammy streak of all time, the moment when a singular, wondrous artist went three for three in just four years and nobody complained. Well, except maybe Paul Simon. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending February 19, 1977, when Songs in the Key of Life became Stevie Wonder's third consecutive album of the year winner at the Grammy awards. After spending 19 straight weeks in the top three on the Billboard album chart, 14 of those weeks at number one. The Grammy Awards had never seemed more relevant, populist and on trend, a streak the recording academy would maintain for most of the next decade until the monoculture broke down and the Grammys grasped for direction. When did they lose the plot? Did they ever have it? And did they ever get it back? And how can the Grammys stay relevant, if they even should? There are no hard and fast rules for good Grammy governance, but that doesn't mean we can't try to provide our own chart nerdy advice for music's biggest night. Stick around. Whether you are an avid Grammy follower or a detractor, calling a Grammy win credible is in the eye of the beholder. It's more art than science. For example, let's first consider what is arguably the most celebrated Grammy winning album album of the Year of all time. Bonnie Rates Nick of Time. I say celebrated, not because Rate won the most Grammys in 1990, the night she took Album of the Year. As I said at the top of our show, Carlos Santana won more more on his big night, and other winners like Michael Jackson's Thriller or Norah Jones's Come Away With Me One More as well. No, what I mean is Nick of Time is the recording Academy's best Cinderella story, the album that changed an act's career most profoundly, including on the charts. You can literally divide Bonnie Raitt's career into before she won the Grammy and and after she won the Grammy. Released in 1989, Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt's 10th studio album. The singer and blues rock guitarist had been toiling away since the early 70s, never scoring a top 40 pop hit or a top 20 LP. She had battled drug and alcohol addiction, got sober in the late 80s, and signed to a new label, Capitol Records, just before Rate's 40th birthday. Capital managed to get Rate on adult contemporary radio and pushed the Nick of Time album into the top three 30.
- [13:23]
B
In the summer of 89.
- [13:25]
A
The LP went gold and by Grammy night 1990 was on its way to platinum. Not bad at all. And then and now the Album of the year.
- [13:39]
C
Nick of Time. I could never get a over this as long as I live. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
- [13:54]
A
Five weeks after Bonnie Raitt's Grammy triumph, Nick of Time climbed to number one on the Billboard album chart. It eventually went quintuple platinum.
- [14:08]
C
Are you ready for the Thing Called Love? Don't come for me. You would call some of above I.
- [14:16]
A
Bonnie Raitt never missed the album charts top 20 with a studio album ever again, and several of her 90s albums reached number one or number two. Winning a Grammy rebooted Rate's career and turned her into a pop star at age 40. She even started scoring top 40 hits.
- [14:45]
C
About Something to talk About.
- [14:50]
A
It would be churlish to begrudge Rate any of this. Her Grammy win was basically an unqualified good thing for her, for pop music and for the awards themselves. Now let's skip ahead a quarter century to the Grammys of 2015. That year's album of the year winner was at a similar juncture of his career, but the win was far less celebrated. Mourning Phase was the 12th studio album by Beck issued as he just turned 44. Like Bonnie Raitt, Beck had been plying his trade for two decades, somewhere between obscurity and megastardom. But that night, as music legend Prince announced Beck's win, a small uproar arose on the telecast and the winner is Morning Phase. Beck producer Beck Hanson.
- [16:21]
C
I need some help.
- [16:23]
A
Come back.
- [16:25]
B
That sound you just heard.
- [16:27]
A
For just a few seconds, Kanye west climbed to the stage, threatening to do to Beck what he'd done six years earlier to Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards protest the win. This time, ye thought better of it, did not take the mic and returned to his seat. And why was Kanye so exercised about Beck's win? Because Beck had just beaten Beyonce. Beyonce's game changing self titled 2013 album, the One that, as we discussed in a prior Hit Parade episode in had invented the surprise album Drop lost the Album of the Year Grammy to Beck. It would be the first of three consecutive Album of the Year nominations for Beyonce that would not turn into a win in 2015. Queen Bee's universally acclaimed fifth album had been beaten by Beck's modestly successful 12th LP. What happened? Why was Beck's triumph not as embraced as Bonnie Raitt's 25 years earlier? Okay, mostly it's the Beyonce factor. And let's add the caveat that all Kanye west opinions should be taken with a huge grain of salt. But why was there enough goodwill for Beck among Grammy voters and such indifference bordering on contempt among the general public? Why did the Morning Phase win feel like such a meh? Chart patterns, I would argue, provide some clues. Beck's Morning Phase had been a modest hit. It opened at number three on the Billboard 200 album chart in early 2014, fueled by Beck's loyal fan base. Then it tumbled. It was off the album chart entirely by the time Beck won the Grammy the following February. In prior years, Beck had been nominated for much hipper albums like 1999's Midnight Vultures or his 1996 breakthrough Odalite. These albums did not win the big prize, but they are the discs that won Beck new fans. It is doubtful Beck won many new fans on Morning Phase. His albums didn't chart better after the big Grammy win. Beck won that Grammy in 2015, likely because he was old enough to be respectable, and he was the token rock nominee in an Album of the Year ballot that also featured Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Pharrell Williams. That night, Beck felt like the default choice.
- [20:10]
B
Whereas.
- [20:21]
A
When Bonnie Raitt won in 1990, Nick of Time had been on the Billboard album chart for 10 months straight but had never climbed higher than number 22. Bonnie Raitt felt like a discovery in 1990, yet she was popular enough on the charts and the radio not to feel like Grammy voters were being contrarian or obscure. Even though she was 40, Bonnie Raitt's win was the right blend of cultural relevance and relative freshness for the 44 year old Beck. Winning the big Grammy turned a once hip artist into a hidebound veteran. See what I mean when I say there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to credible Grammy wins? It's a balance of charts and art of the Recording Academy. Reading the Room in this episode, I'm going to use both chart data and Grammy history to provide subjective guidelines for the Grammys. More or less How I would vote if I were a Voter by the way, Full disclosure. While I am a balloted Rock and Roll hall of Fame voter, I am not a member of the Recording Academy. And while I one time attended the Grammys, I have never voted for them. As a critic, I have a perhaps unorthodox opinion about the Grammys. I am in favor of them existing. It's natural for people in the arts to want to reward their own. And as shown by the many other awards shows, if the Grammys didn't exist, someone else would have created them. But here's my hot take. I feel the Grammys are best when they reward consensus music, songs and albums that are of quality, but also, yes, popular. Watching the Grammys, you shouldn't necessarily love the big winners, but you should be able to say, yeah, okay, that guy gal song or album one for a reason. And the Grammy goes to no surprise.
- [22:50]
C
Rolling in the Deep Adele.
- [22:57]
A
To be clear, I don't mean the Recording Academy should always give their golden gramophones to whatever was biggest on the Billboard charts in any given year. After all, that's what the Billboard Music Awards are for.
- [23:13]
B
And those have been around for most.
- [23:15]
A
Of the last 35 years.
- [23:17]
B
A couple of months ago, the BBMAs.
- [23:20]
A
Dropped a pile of statuettes on 2023 chart dominators Taylor Swift and Morgan Wall. That said, the Grammys have aligned with the charts a lot over their 65 year existence. Since its founding in 1957 and its first awards show in 1959, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, or NARUS, has claimed its awards are based only on artistic merit. Indeed, the original Grammy credo circulated at the awards founding in 1958 stated quote, sales and mass popularity are the yardsticks of the record business. They are not the yardsticks of this academy, unquote. Now, two things you need to know about that foundation. First, whatever their credo said, the Grammys always rewarded chart topping music. And second, they were founded by people who hated rock and roll and wanted to reward anything. But I'm all shook up. According to Henry Shipper's book Broken Record.
- [24:51]
B
The Inside Story of the Grammy Awards, narras created the Grammys to, quote, clean up and gentrify pop. The awards would reward artistry and excellence, buzzwords for people like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald while paying no heed to top selling rock and R B teens might make Elvis the king, but the Grammys would give industry experts a chance to tell the world what they thought was good. So because the Academy's founders thought that rock was, quote, a passing fad at first, they didn't even create a Grammy subcategory for rock. Jazz, classical, pop, country, Broadway, movie soundtracks, even comedy and children's music had Grammy Award categories, but no rock and roll. They did create one award for R B at the first Grammys held in May 1959 in a ballroom at the Beverly Hilton hotel, complete with a catered dinner, crooning legend Frank Sinatra was the most conspicuous presence. He'd bought two tables for his Rat Pack friends. Frank was convinced he was going to clean up. He'd been nominated for five Grammys, including Two nominations in the Album of the year category and a record of the year nomination for Witchcraft.
- [26:35]
A
Cause it's Witchcraft.
- [26:39]
C
Wicked Witchcraft and although.
- [26:44]
B
But that night Sinatra came away with almost nothing, winning only an album packaging award for his LP Only the Lonely and not a single performance. Grammy record of the year and song of the Year went instead to Eurovision crooner Domenico Moduno's Volare, which by the way was Billboard's number one year end hit of 1990 1958. And similarly the album of the year prize went to composer Henry Mancini for his smash TV soundtrack the Music from Peter Gunn. It would wind up Billboard's top selling LP of 1959. So much for those purist Grammy voters ignoring mass popularity yardsticks. Sinatra was reportedly furious. Don't feel too bad for Frank. Sinatra would go on to win album of the year three three times over the next decade and not always with his best work. Come Dance With Me and September of My Years were solid Sinatra offerings. A man and his music, however, on which Frank re recorded his old standards. Taylor's version style probably shouldn't have won.
- [28:27]
C
Love and Marriage, Love and marriage they go together like a horse and carriage this I'll tell you brother, you can't have one without.
- [28:41]
B
For most of the Grammys first decade.
- [28:45]
A
Voters seemed to be paying close attention.
- [28:48]
B
To the charts and voting accordingly. No matter what was selling comedy albums took home the big prize in both 1961 and 63, the first and last times that's ever happened in an era when comedy LPs were big business.
- [29:09]
A
How fast were you going when Mr. Adams jumped from the car? 75. And where was that? In your driveway?
- [29:24]
B
The button down Mind of Bob Newhart spent 14 weeks at number one on the LP chart in 1960, more than any other album that year. It was still number one just weeks before Newhart won album of the year in 61. Two years later the same prize was won by John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meter for his instantly dated curio the First Family. That album spent a dozen weeks at number one in 1962 and 63.
- [30:00]
A
I noticed that you didn't touch your salad either at dinner tonight or at dinner last night. Would you tell us why please?
- [30:07]
B
Well, let me say this about that now. Number one, in my opinion, the fault does not lie as much with the salad as it does with the dressing being used on the salad. Now let me say even as the academy was avoiding rock, if any young act broke through with old school music, Grammy voters eagerly rewarded it. At age 22 Barbra Streisand won Album of the Year on her very first try with the Barbra Streisand album, a number eight hit LP that sold a million copies to both young and old.
- [30:43]
C
Happy days on Ah, Here Again.
- [30:53]
B
A year later, the Grammys looked fairly hip, giving the top prize to Getz Gilberto, a collaborative LP by jazz saxophonist Stan Goetz and bossa nova king Joao Gilberto that reached number two on the album chart thanks to the top five easy listening cocktail lounge classic the Girl From Ipanema. The early 60s launch of the Best New Artist prize, the only Grammy that rewards an artist not a recording, gave the academy another way to glom onto young performers with with music the voters could comprehend. Early winners of the prize included Bobby Darin, Robert Goulet and Tom Jones.
- [31:54]
A
What's New Pussycat?
- [31:56]
C
Whoa, whoa, whoa what's new Pussycat?
- [32:04]
B
And speaking of lounge music, the mid-60s rise of trumpet king Herb Alpert, whom we covered in depth in our instrumental hits episode of Hit Parade, gave the Grammys another way to seem with it. Alpert's brassy ring, a ding dinging cover of the pop standard A Taste of Honey, a number seven hit in 1965, took 1966's record of the Year prize. Through 1966, the Grammys had been largely avoiding the Beatles. They did give Best New Artist to the group in 1965, a mild acknowledgment of Beatlemania. But it took a few years for a Beatles recording to be recognized in a major category. When one finally did win, it was classic Grammys. Paul McCartney's francophone soft pop trifle, Michelle, won the 1967 song of the Year because it was a songwriting prize, and John Lennon was credited as co writing the McCartney ditty. John won alongside Paul Michelle My bell.
- [33:34]
C
These are words that go together well my Michelle.
- [33:42]
B
As for albums, the Beatles lost twice to Frank Sinatra before finally winning in 1968. The LP that finally got the Fab Four past Sinatra was. Well, you can probably guess. It figures that the Beatles bid for adult respectability. The legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finally took Album of the Year. Moreover, as seminal as that link he was in the shift of pop promotion from singles to albums, Sgt. Pepper also seemed to bring the Grammys somewhat up to date. Over the next two decades, the recording academy would edge closer to the pop mainstream. More in a moment, the question was, did the Grammys become hipper or did pop in the 70s get softer? More the latter than the former. But to give the Recording Academy some meager credit. They stopped avoiding youth directed pop records. Of course, it was easier to be on trend when the pop mainstream sounded like this. Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, the LP and its title track were Billboard's top album and single of 1970 and accordingly they swept the album, record and Song of the Year prizes at the 1971 Grammys or in 1971. Carole King's Tapestry, the longest running number one LP of that year, swept the Grammys in 1972, album of the year plus record of the year for It's Too Late and Song of the Year for King's composition you've Got a Friend. Sure, these records were mellow and easy to like, but they were also massive hits. The following two years, both record and Song of the Year were won by Roberta Flack Recordings. The first time ever I saw your face, 1972's top Billboard hit swept at the 1973 Grammys and Killing Me Softly with his song, a four week number one in 73, cleaned up at the 74 Grammys.
- [37:02]
C
This song killing Me Softly.
- [37:05]
B
With this song, Roberta Flack's twofer rolled right into Stevie Wonder's Three Peat starting at the 1974 Grammy show. As we discussed in our Stevie Wonder episode of Hit Parade, the Grammys were both good to and good for Stevie, boosting his profile with each win. 1973's superlative Inner Visions, a number four Billboard album, took album of the year in 74. Then that summer, Wonder dropped his follow up LP Fulfillingness, first finale and this time the momentum from the Grammy win sent the album to number one and then fulfilling this, won the top prize at the 75 Grammy Awards. Eighteen months later when Wonder belatedly delivered his double LP magnum opus Songs in the Key of Life, the album opened on the charts at number one, a first for Stevie Wonder, and of course took the Grammy the following winter. The only artist not exactly rooting for Stevie was Paul Simon, whose chart topping 1975 LP Still Crazy After all these Years took advantage of Wonder's two year gap between albums to win 1976's Album of the Year. At the ceremony, Simon offered Wonder thanks with A little side of Shape.
- [39:14]
A
And most of all, I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year.
- [39:22]
B
Now to be sure, the Grammys were still rewarding. Plenty of middle of the road schlock, perhaps most notorious. The same year Songs in the Key of Life took Album of the Year, Best New Artist went to infamous one hit wonder act the Starland Vocal Band, purveyors of the Icky Afternoon Delight, a song about midday sex that sounds like it was written by your parents. For the record, the Starlanders weren't even all that happy to win the prize. Vocalist Taffy Nivert later called the Best New Artist prize, quote the kiss of Death, unquote. After the win, the Starland Vocal Band never hit the charts again and that year's Song of the Year went to the gui I write the songs.
- [40:28]
C
That make the whole world sing. I write the songs of love, special things.
- [40:38]
B
Even if you are a Barry Manilow fan, that song, contrary to its title, wasn't penned by Manilow himself. So no statue for Barry. A weird trivia point. The winning songwriter was Moonlighting Beach Boys member Bruce Johnston. Go figure. So yeah, the song and Best New Artist prizes were frequently dubious in the 70s, but if an album was culturally ubiquitous enough, Grammy voters dutifully and rightfully punched its ticket. Including the hit Packed Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, a 31 week number one album in 1977, which won album of the year in 78, Or the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack anchored by the bee Gees, a 24 week number one album in 1978, and briefly the best selling album of all time it won in 1979. And five years later, the LP that finally outsold both Rumors and Saturday Night fever and spent 37 weeks at number one, Michael Jackson's thriller took home eight Grammys in a single night. The 80s too was a decade dominated by monocultural Grammy winning albums. The two most controversial winners of that decade, both discussed in our yacht rock episode of Hit parade, were Christopher Cross's self titled debut album which swept the top four Grammys in 1981, including Best New Artist for Cross himself.
- [43:00]
C
Sailing Takes Me Way to where I.
- [43:09]
B
And Toto's Toto 4, which took Album of the Year at the 1983 Grammys as well as Record of the Year for Rosanna. If you read the rock press during the 1980s in any piece critiquing the Grammys and there were many Christopher Cross's sweep and Toto's wins were exhibits A and B of the Recording Academy's out of Touchness. To be fair, both LPs were enormously popular. The Christopher Cross album went quintuple platinum, spawned huge hits including the number two Ride like the Wind and the number one Sailing and spent more than two years on Billboard's top LPs chart. And Toto 4 went triple platinum and produced not only the number two Rosanna, but also the number one, Africa, which was sitting atop the Hot 100 just two weeks before the 1983 Grammy telecast, where Toto won Hurry, boy, it's waiting there for you.
- [44:31]
C
Gotta take a lot to drag me away from you.
- [44:37]
B
In later generations, the rehabilitation of both yacht rock as music and Africa, in particular among millennials and Gen Z, make these wins seem somewhat less egregious. Now, on the other hand, the critics had a point that the maddening thing about the Grammys was what the Academy honed in on. Among the array of popular choices at the 1985 show, for example, which rewarded the music of 1984 and late 83, among the Stellar Album of the Year nominees were Prince's Purple Rain, Cyndi Lauper's she's so Unusual, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA and Tina Turner's Private D. Not bad, right? And what did the Grammy voters choose? Lionel Richie's yuppie soul blockbuster can't slow down hello.
- [45:39]
C
Is it me you looking for? I can see it in your eyes.
- [45:47]
B
Richie's LP was a smash, equaling or exceeding the sales of a any of his fellow nominees and generating just as many culture blanketing hits. But Ritchie was also the kind of smooth showman the Academy's elders found legible. Grammys gonna Grammy. Still, the 80s were about as monoculturally acceptable a decade for the Grammys as the 70s had been, with several consensus recordings taking big prizes, whether it was Paul Simon's Afro pop meets western pop masterpiece Graceland, which took Album of the year in 1987, U2's mainstream pop rock breakthrough the Joshua Tree, which took the prize in 1988, Or George Michael's solo debut Away From Wham, the blockbuster faith winner for 1989.
- [47:07]
A
Cause I gotta have faith, I gotta have fame.
- [47:12]
B
Because. The same year Faith won, the Academy had an opportunity to reward Tracy Chapman's enduring Fast car in both the record and Song of the Year categories. And they did wisely give Chapman the best New Artist prize. But in the two big song categories, recording Academy voters went instead with acapella master Bobby McFerrin's fluke number one hit Don't Worry, Be Happy, Grammy strikes again.
- [48:06]
A
Be happy, don't worry, be happy now.
- [48:10]
B
Still, for two decades, even when Grammy voters were making dubious choices, they were focusing on current sounding hits. That would begin to change, I'd argue, not for the better, as the Grammys moved into the 90s and the 21st century. See if you can spot this one. When we come back. The Grammys go back to the future. Or maybe just back to the back as the monoculture fractures. And later I offer my top five rules for Grammy voting. There are no easy answers to making the Academy more relevant, but I can't do any worse than they are. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Derek John is executive producer of Narrative Podcasts, and we had help from Joel Meyer. Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.