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[00:00]
Chris Melanfi
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Welcome back 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 our last episode, we started the celebration of Hit Parade's fifth birthday with a recap of some core principles of our show and a spin through some of your favorite artists and musical factoids. Now it's time for the Moment of Truth, the official countdown of your favorite episodes. A few words about our survey we are not Billboard magazine or Nielsen or MRC or Luminate or any of the other data collectors. Throughout chart history, our tally was not all that rigorous. Some of you gave us a solid top five episodes list exactly what we asked for. Some provided generously a top 10 more than we asked for. Many of you forced yourself to limit your lists to just five episodes, but then you included a handful of honorable mentions. I like to think of these as the bubbling undervotes of our survey, kind of like that Gary Newman hit after cars in 1980 that bubbled under the hot 100 at number 100. Basically, when it came to the voting, we counted it all. I played with the math to accommodate everything and everyone. We were more interested in including every vote you gave us somehow than limiting voters to a strict top five. If you only ranked five episodes that counted more than if you ranked 10. If you gave your list in no particular order, we assigned them all the same point value. And if you had honorable mentions, those counted but less than your ranked episodes did. Call our methodology a little slipshod, but I compare it to that week in 1969 when Billboard changed the Hot 100 rules to count A and B sides together in the same position, which instantly gave the Beatles come together.
[02:58]
Kevin Bendis
Right now.
[03:01]
Chris Melanfi
Over me, a two sided number one hit they otherwise wouldn't have had. If this Beatles B side factoid is new to you, you probably never listened to our B side's edition of Hit Parade, taped live in front of an audience at the Bell House in Brooklyn four years ago, an evening that was packed with trivia. Which of these 1967 number one hits did not start out as the B side to another song? A Lulu to Sir With Love, B the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense and Peppermints C the Doors Light My Fire or D Bobby Gentry Ode to Billy Joe See the Doors Light My Fire. He got it, everybody. The correct answer is C Light My Fire.
[04:01]
Kevin Bendis
Way to go, dad.
[04:04]
Chris Melanfi
Doesn't that sound like fun. Judging by the evidence of our vote, maybe most of you didn't listen to this episode. There were just three Hit Parade episodes out of our 56 shows that received no votes at all. As Monty Python would say, not a sausage bugger all. And two of them were our live episodes. The aforementioned B sides edition from January 2018, and the posthumous hits edition recorded live at the Pop Conference in Seattle in April 2019. All of these 1997 hits feature rapping by the late Notorious B.I.G. but only one opens with him rapping. Which one? A Been around the world, B Mo money mo problems, C Hypnotize or D It's all about the Benjamins remix? Well, we know Puffy has to put his fingers on a lot of stuff, right? So C Hypnotize. And that is correct. The correct answer is C Hypnotize. Nice job.
[05:13]
Kevin Bendis
Come on.
[05:15]
Chris Melanfi
Hmm, I guess you had to be there. I'm not all that surprised. Our live shows don't rank among anyone's favorites, but the third totally blanked episode was our Gaga is born edition from January 2019. That's right, no votes for Stephanie Germanotta, Oscar winner. I guess Hit Parade listeners are a little Gaga ed out. Still, let's look at the glass as 5356 full. At least one of you loved each of our other episodes enough to rank it. That's damn good. Now, while I'm discussing the shows that placed out of the money, can I reveal a few surprising underperformers? Neither of our Beatles related episodes made the top 10, including the Fab Four sweep edition about the historic week in 1964 when the Beatles locked down the entire top five. Nor are without the beat. Beatles edition about the three Lennon McCartney songs that went to number one by other artists, including John Lennon's buddy Elton John. Indeed, when choosing your favorites, you guys seemed more interested in learning about rock and pop's lesser lights. Other episode subjects that fell well short of our top 10 included Madonna, Nirvana, Britney spears, Billy joel, Taylor sw. Number two kings, credence clearwater revival, Both Whitney Houston. And mariah carey, Janet jackson, And even Stevie Wonder. Mind you, episodes about these superstars did receive considerable numbers of votes, and anecdotally I hear all the time from listeners who appreciate our single artist deep dives. But all of them finished below the top 20. Clearly, the most impassioned Hit Parade listeners are not swayed by a boldface name alone. Folks tell me that they learn a lot from this show, and apparently what you are happiest learning about is an unusual chart concept, a new genre name, or how two, three or even four superstars careers paralleled each other.
[09:09]
Kevin Bendis
Foreign.
[09:14]
Chris Melanfi
By the way, our episode about Cyndi Lauper, the Bengals and Amy Mann fell just shy of the top 20, peaking at number 21. Speaking of which, what are we going to count down? Well, I figure the Hot 100 was 100 positions and Casey Kaysen counted down the top 40 of those positions. We have a list of episodes that numbers just over half the size of the Hot 100. So let's do a top 20 with special attention paid, as any chart follower would, to the top 10. So away we go. And since we at Hit Parade are obviously Fans of Casey Kasem's American Top 40, we're going to have those numbers.
[10:06]
Kevin Bendis
Sung.
[10:08]
Chris Melanfi
At number 20 is an episode that frankly, pleasantly surprises me with its placement. Our November 2020 take on the chart history of country music. From the urban cowboy phenomenon to the amazing 90s chart run by Garth Brooks, the biggest album selling soloist in US History. It's one of our deepest deep dives and it cracks the top 20 hit parades, friends in Places edition, Placing just above Garth and the country episode number 19 is the show we did in September 2021 to celebrate a lot of 50s. Our 50th episode, a musical 50th anniversary and a certain person's birthday. It commemorated the music of 1971, a widely acclaimed year for rock, pop and soul and one in which legends topped the charts from Janis Joplin to Isaac Hayes, the Stones to Sly Stone and a whole lot of Carole King coming in at number 19. It's our Spirit of 71 edition of.
[11:35]
Kevin Bendis
Hit Parade and it's too late, baby, now it's too late. Though we really did try to make it something inside.
[11:48]
Chris Melanfi
Then we make a big jump from the music of the early 70s to the music of the turn of the millennium. Number 18 with a show we did just one month of later in October 2021. It was about the parallel scenes of pop, punk and emo sub genres that were defining and redefining themselves as a string of punchy, bratty, brainy and theatrical bands took their turns on the stage. Green Day, the Offspring, Weezer, Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Fallout Boy, Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance and Paramore. Taking our number 18 spot, it's the I Write Sins, Not Tragedies edition of Hit Parade.
[12:38]
Kevin Bendis
I chime in with the Havens you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door? No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of voice and rationality.
[12:51]
Chris Melanfi
And speaking of the theatrical number 17, coming in at number 17 is the twisted story of German impresario Frank Farian and the flamboyant but fraudulent acts he created that scored real genuine hits. Bony m in the 70s and a decade later, the infamous Milli Vanilli, maybe Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan. The Milli Vanilli frontmen weren't singing a note all of those hits, but the group seriously did help pivot pop toward the sounds of hip hop at the turn of the 90s. Released in May 2021, its hit parades Blame it on the F Edition. You ranked em hit parade counts em down. Number 16 Taking the number 16 spot is one of our most technical episodes. A February 2021 show about an obscure but very real chart phenomenon, slow growing albums that are followed by instant smash successors. It's about how Jimi Hendrix's number one album wasn't Are youe Experienced? But the LP after Are youe Experienced? Billy Jo, first number one coming not with the Stranger, but its successor, 52nd Street, Pat Benatar. Following the hit packed Crimes of Passion with the chart topping but less hit packed Precious Time. All of these artists scored their first or only number one LP with the follow up to a better remembered classic. Jackson Brown, Boston Van Halen, Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga, and most famously, AC DC, who topped the chart not with the 20 times platinum 1980 album Back in Black, but its shorter lived 1981 successor. For those about to rock, we salute you. Yep, it's a high concept show, but my fellow chart nerds love this one. It's our AC DC Rule edition of Hit Parade. Then coming up next, a show about a band that was more like a universe.
[15:34]
Kevin Bendis
Number 15.
[15:36]
Chris Melanfi
It's the former gang of Prague rockers who spun off a slew of hit making careers. Peter Gabriel, Mike and the Mechanics, Steve Hackett, and maybe you've heard of this guy, Phil Collins. He launched a solo career and scored a string of number ones without leaving the band that propelled him to fame. A band appropriately enough called Genesis. And as I noted earlier in this episode, when Peter Gabriel finally scored a number one hit of his own, he did it by knocking his old bandmates out of the top slot. You can't make this up, folks. Coming in at number 15, our May 2019 story of the Genesis Family tree, the invisible miracle Sledgehammer edition of Hit Parade.
[16:29]
Kevin Bendis
Why does it always seem to be me looking at you with you looking at me? It's always the same. It's Just a shame, that's all.
[16:40]
Chris Melanfi
We're getting gotten closer to the top 10.
[16:43]
Kevin Bendis
Number 14.
[16:45]
Chris Melanfi
Here's the highest placing episode, about the biggest rock group of all time. One week in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, the Fab Four locked down the entire Hot 100 top five. A chart feat that wouldn't be duplicated until the streaming era more than 50 years later. But this rare chart quinfecta was an accident of music business history. The result of an American label losing control of the output of the kings of the British invasion. It's a story of fandom, foolishness and phenomenal music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the second ever episode of Hit Parade from May 2017, the Fab Four sweep edition. Next, coming in at the unluckiest number, a guy who took nearly a decade to get lucky.
[17:57]
Kevin Bendis
Number 13.
[17:59]
Chris Melanfi
They called him the Boss. But he wasn't boss of the charts in the 70s. That was the decade he got signed, formed the E Street Band, recorded the classic Born to Run, and reinvented rock for a new generation. Bruce Springsteen gave away many of his biggest would be 70s hits to Manford Mann, Patti Smith, the Pointer Sisters, and almost the Ramones. Then in the 80s, well into his 30s, Bruce became the quintessential American rocker and a pop icon. But he continued to be appropriated and misunderstood, even by the fans who loved him. Coming in at Lucky 13 from July 2021, it's our Springsteen episode, the Tramps. Like us, Ed.
[18:57]
Kevin Bendis
You can't start a fight without a spot. This gun's for hire.
[19:04]
Chris Melanfi
One spot above Bruce is another act that like him, spent the 70s trying to figure it all out before dominating the charts in the 80s. Number 12. It's our most recent Hit Parade episode in the top 20. It came out in January 2022 and it's about the biggest duo in the history of the charts, Darryl hall and John oates. In the 70s, they tried everything, folk, rock, soul, Prague, even a little disco and punk. It was only when hall and Oates defined their own new wave music that they called rock and soul that they began topping the Hot 100 on the regular and even the R and B chart. They were the ultimate blue eyed soul act of their era. Taking the number 12 spot, it's hall and Oats with our rock and soul edition of Hit Parade. And coming in just one spot shy of the top 10, number 11. It's yet another story of chart success in the 70s and 80s and beyond. This time about two separate careers that paralleled each other. Across the decades. Elton John, the extravagant Captain Fantastic, who dominated the charts for the first half of the 70s until a 1976 tiptoe out of the closet sent his career momentarily into the wilderness, and George Michael, frontman of 80s teen idol duo Wham. Like Elton, he was a consummate pop craftsman, but George also had to navigate the shoals of pin up status on one side and his secret identity on the other. They supported each other, dueted with each other, even competed on the charts. It's a great story. Our first ever Pride month episode in June 2017, the Imperial Elton and George edition of Hit Parade. Coming up, we enter the top 10 with Goths, Gibbs, Prince, Princes and Queens. Now on with the Countdown for our top 10 episodes as ranked by you. I've asked producer Kevin Bendis to review these old shows and pick out a highlight from each one. Hopefully these clips will bring back memories for those of you who voted for them and whet the appetites of those who haven't experienced them yet. We open our top 10 with an episode about a wave of bands who seemed like they were never meant to be on a Billboard chart at all. From October 2019, it's our episode about how a generation of post punk, goth and just plain doomy rock bands the Cure, Susie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and New Order transitioned from punk clubs and alienated teen bedrooms to the top of the charts, kicking off Our Countdown Top 10, it's hit parades, Lost and Lonely Edition. In 1988, Depeche Mode signed on to be the subject of a film by legendary documentarian D.A. pennebaker, who a generation earlier had pioneered the music documentary with Bob Dylan's Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. For 101, Pennebaker shot the finale of Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses tour, whose 101st show took place at the Rose bowl in Pasadena, California. The film captured the extreme devotion of fans traveling cross country to see the show, as well as the frenzy at the concert itself.
[24:28]
Kevin Bendis
6X of humor and when I die I expect to find in my dream.
[24:37]
Chris Melanfi
Next on the Countdown, we shift from one set of British rockers to another. Only these guys blew up in the 70s, and they were not so much doomy as danceable. Number nine from September 2018 scene it's our story about the Brothers Gibb, harmonizing siblings who were born on the Isle of Man, raised in Australia, broke through in the 60s, with the British Invasion, and then, in one of the most improbable musical shifts in pop history, adopted falsetto vocals and dance rhythms to dominate the disco era. Coming in at number nine, our Bee Gees episode of Hit Parade, the Nights on Broadway edition. Every day, when the Gibbs drove to Criteria Studios, crossing the causeway that connected Biscayne Bay to Miami, the wheels of their car made a distinctive chicka chicka rhythm. Barry's wife Linda once told her husband, quote, listen to that noise.
[25:52]
Kevin Bendis
Noise.
[25:52]
Chris Melanfi
It's our drive talking. Barry instantly turned that phrase into a song, building the chicka chicka sound into its opening rhythm and collaborating on the melody and harmonies with Morris and Robin. For the finishing touch, a new studio collaborator brought in by Arif Mardo, Welsh keyboardist Blue Weaver played a distinctive synthesizer hook that recalled the Sinclair playing of Stevie Wonder. It was the breakthrough disco smash of 1975. Jive talked the Hot 100 in August 1975. Four months later, nights on Broadway followed it into the top 10, peaking at number seven. More important, it had established the template for the Bee gees in the second half of the 70s. And one thing was certain, they were bringing back the piercing falsetto of Nights on Broadway and applying it to all of their material.
[27:09]
Kevin Bendis
Dancing.
[27:13]
Chris Melanfi
Next on our survey, it's another of our parallel careers episodes, juxtaposing two rock legends who wouldn't seem to have all that much in common.
[27:25]
Kevin Bendis
Number eight.
[27:27]
Chris Melanfi
In October 2017, just weeks after the passing of Tom Petty, we did an episode juxtaposing his storied career with that of another legend who just died the year before Prince. Famously, in 2004, Prince joined Petty on stage at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame for what is now regarded as the institution's greatest live performance. But Prince's and Petty's similarities go much deeper, from their fights with the music industry to their hits across genres and generations. Coming in at number eight, it's Le Pet Prince edition of Hit Parade. Prince sat with Rolling Stone for the interview that put him back on the COVID of the magazine. Asked to reflect on his triumphant Rock and Roll hall of Fame performance, Prince, in his typically succinct, direct and no nonsense way, didn't comment upon the hall itself, or his blazing guitar solo, or even the George Harrison Beatles song he'd performed. Instead, he reserved his praise for the man who was ringmaster of the performance. It was an honor to play with Tom Petty. Free Fallin is one of my favorite songs. The admiration was mutual. Tom Petty was asked to reflect on that magical rock hall induction performance in 2016, less than a week after Prince's death and as it turns out, just 18 months before Petty's own. Petty called Prince's 2004 performance thrilling, but Petty also had the last word in the article about Prince himself. It's funny because just a few days ago he was in my mind all afternoon. I was thinking about him. I had just been talking with Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. He wrote their Manic Monday song and I was thinking about him a lot that day and I almost told myself I was going to call him and just see how he was. I'm starting to think you should just act on those things all the time. Next it's the highest placement on our survey for a show devoted to a single female artist. Number seven coming in at Lucky 7 is my mash note to 70s vocal queen and club club culture auteur Donna Summer. She was a hitmaker for two decades and a dance floor deity for more than three, and her collaborations with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotti were formative in dance, electronic and rock music. Our episode examines how Sommer became the ultimate disco diva and how she transcended that role altogether. One of my all time personal favorites from our podcast, it's our Queen of Disco edition of Hit Parade. That's I Feel Love. It reached number six on the Hot 100, but the shadow I Feel Love casts on popular music can scarcely be overstated. The brainchild of Bellotti and Maroder, I Feel Love is generally agreed to have single handedly invented electronic dance music. While it took inspiration from contemporaneous electro rock bands like Kraftwerk, I Feel Love was the first ever hit single with an entirely synthesized backing track. The only organic thing on it was Donna Summer's voice. Summer helped Moroder and Bellotti arrange the song's complex vocal melody because, as Maroder told veteran music critic Simon Reynolds, I Feel Love is a difficult song to.
[32:17]
Kevin Bendis
Foreign.
[32:22]
Chris Melanfi
Next, parked just outside the Top five, we've got an episode packed with even more chart rules than my AC DC rule number six. For decades, my fellow chart nerds have debated what qualifies an artist for the ignominious term one hit wonder. And for about 10 years, I have had my own set of rules whether a second Hot 100 hit should count how high that second hit has to go to remove the act from one hit wonder status, and what to do about a band like Aha. From September 2020, it's our much beloved, much debated, widely cited One and Done edition of Hit Parade. Not familiar with that one. This song is called Automatic man and it peaked at number 34 in November 1983. So an actual top 40 hit. And it was by Michael Zambelo. And the reason Automatic man hit the the top 40 was that Zambelo was coming off a number one hit from two months earlier. That, of course, is Mania from the smash soundtrack to the movie Flashdance. Maniac Mac not only spent a fortnight on top of the Hot 100, Billboard ranked it as the ninth biggest hit of 1983. And by the way, after 1983, Zambelo never touched the Hot 100 again. So I'll ask the Is Michael Zambelo a one hit wonder? His immediate follow up single did crack the top 40. But no offense Mr. Zambelo, automatic man is a footnote in pop history compared with Mania. We've got just five big ones left until your number one Hit Parade episode. And next, another story of the disco era and beyond.
[34:53]
Kevin Bendis
Number five.
[34:55]
Chris Melanfi
Say the band name Chicago and folks might think of polyester suits and smooth disco grooves. Say the names Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers, however, and it opens up a plethora of hits for Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, Robert Palmer, the B52s, and even daft Punk. The chic universe of hits lasted far beyond the disco era and even formed the basis for Hip hop hop from January 2021. It's our these are the Good Times edition of Hit Parade. Of course, if that Bernard Edwards baseline sounds familiar to you, it's because you've probably heard it before, and not just on that chic song. The Good Times Times bassline traveled everywhere, most famously or infamously, depending on your point of view, on this historic single, One of the first recorded rap singles and the first period to crack the Billboard Hot Hot 100, where it peaked at number 36. Rapper's Delight is notorious for borrowing or biting, or let's just say it, stealing the baseline from Good Times. Even re recorded, it's the same baseline the Sugar Hill team meant to recreate Good Times. That was the point.
[36:46]
Kevin Bendis
Legend must have been true. I said, by the way baby, what's your name?
[36:49]
Chris Melanfi
Said I go by the name Lois Lane Rogers. Still to this day will throw in rhymes from Rapper's Delight into his live performances of Good Times. There are a lot of behind the scenes figures in our Top five. Right next to our Chic episode is a story of an even more iconoclastic producer and songwriter. Number four no hit making Mastermind has had a more specific sound than Jim Steinman pounding pianos, revving motorcycles, sometimes literal thunder, and power vocalists singing passionate, almost nonsensical lyrics. Steinman fused his compositions with a singer who called himself Meatloaf, and together they created the blockbuster song cycle Bat out of Hell. Before Steinman spread that same brand of pop rock to Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, and even Celine Dion. Forever's gonna start tonight in our Turn Around Bright Eyes edition of Hit Parade. Debuting on the Hot 100 at number 75 in July of 1983, Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart took a dozen weeks to reach number one. Rising alongside Total Eclipse of the Heart was another bombastic ultra power ballad from the Jim Steinman cinematic universe. Jim Steinman agreed to produce Air Supplies Making Love out of Nothing at all, and it would give lead singer Russell Hitchcock the biggest vocal workout of his life. Bonnie Tyler's and Air Supply's respective singles scaled the Hot 100 together. It was a total Jim Steinman chart conquest. The week ending October 8, 1983, when Tyler's Total Eclipse was in its second week at number one, Air Supply's Making Love rose to number two, giving Steinman, who was the sole producer and sole songwriter of both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the charts, which he held for three weeks.
[39:38]
Kevin Bendis
Beating Up My Heart Is a Drum and It's Lost.
[39:44]
Chris Melanfi
We'Re down to our top three and I must say I was shocked at how many people name checked this next episode. I thought our Cure Depeche Mode show would be your favorite. On the subject of of alternative rock. Guess again.
[40:03]
Kevin Bendis
Number three.
[40:05]
Chris Melanfi
At the start of the 1980s, two bands with very different styles put the southern college town of Athens, Georgia on the map as a rock and roll Mecca. The B52s avatars of kitsch proudly queer the ultimate party band. And remember the college rock godfathers with jangly guitars and elliptical lyrics. Together, these bands made Athens the epicenter of alternative cool in the 80s and early 90s. And they became unlikely hit makers after years on the indie circuit, shifting from Rock Lobster and Radio Free Europe to Love Shack and Losing my religion from June 2018, one of our proudest Pride Month episodes, the deadbeat Club edition of Hit Parade. Released as a Warner Brothers single In the summer of 79, rock rock lobster was either a massive success or a pop underperformer, depending on your expectations. In the United Kingdom, it scraped the top 40, reaching number 37 in August of 1979. In America, lobster took considerably longer to break, not even making the hot 100 until the spring of 1980. And only reaching a peak of number 56 in May of that year. Not bad for such a cutting edge single by a brand new band. The LP rode Billboard's album chart for more than a year and by the fall of 1980 the B52s had gone gold for sales of a half million copies on its way to platinum. Earlier in 1980, the band were even invited to perform on Saturday Night Live. Later Ladies and gentlemen, the B52. We were at a party. Just two left in our survey and we're up to perhaps the most referenced episode in Hit Parade history. You might even call it our earliest expose. Number two Listeners tell me that this episode solved a mystery for them. Why in the 1990s were they forced to pay full price for a full length CD just to acquire one hit song? I called it the Great War against the Single, a decade long experiment by the music business to eliminate retail singles and compel a full length album purchase. From MC Hammer to Alanis Morissette, the Rembrandts to no Doubt, Chumbawamba to Sugar Ray, a slew of 90s hitmakers underperformed on or disappeared altogether from the Hot 100 because you couldn't buy their songs, only their albums. It was a tactic that led to consumer backlash and arguably Napster. From September 2017, our formative podcast Defining the Great War against the Single edition of Hit Parade. Barbie Girl, a novelty dance pop single by the Scandinavian group Aqua, built weeks of airplay before their American label MCA issued the single in a limited edition in the fall of 1997. Copies of the retail single were exhausted quickly, but by Christmas, Aqua's album Aquarium was double platinum. Within two years the album was triple platinum. Torn, by Australian model, soap opera actress and pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, spent 11 weeks in 1998 as American radio's top song. Torn was never issued as a single and as a result Imbruglia's album Left of the Middle went double platinum.
[45:13]
Kevin Bendis
A little bit of Monica in my life, A little bit of Erica by my side, A little bit of.
[45:25]
Chris Melanfi
Lou Bega, a German born Latin pop musician proffering a kitschy brand of modern mambo, scored a global hit in the summer of 1999 with his dance pop take on Perez Prado's 1950s classic Mambo no. 5. Amazingly, even Bega's gleefully junky record went unreleased on CD singles, compelling more than 3 million Americans to buy his album A Little Bit of Mambo. Now we're up to the number one episode, the one that you, our listenership voted for the most in our five year Hit Parade survey. And let me just say, the vote wasn't close. This episode beat the Great War against the single, our number two show by nearly 25%. And like great War, it's an explainer, the kind of nerdy deep dive that you all tell me Hit Parade does best. It's an episode we first broadcast in the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic because we had to paywall it in that challenging summer and so many of you told us it brought you comfort. That year we rebroadcast it, this time with ads for all Hit Parade listeners in the summer of 2021. You might say this episode has it all Chart topping hits, musicological backstory, a wealth of trivia, and like the AC DC rule or one and done editions, a definition explanation of a chart and musical phenomenon the world needed a name for. In this case, I didn't make up that name. Four LA based actors and writers dreamed it up in the 2000s when they shot a comical video series themed around a certain brand of real life Late 70s and early 80s smooth music songs they could picture being played on the most high end of watercraft. And now that invented genre that took the Internet by storm is the theme of the top episode in Hit Parade history. The number one episode of Hit Parade's first five years is the what a Fool Believes edition, our story of the history of yacht rock. By the mid-70s, Steely Dan, named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs Beat Generation novel Naked Lunch, had stopped touring entirely to focus on Studio and LPs. Fagan and Becker's albums showcased a who's who of LA session musicians and performers from other groups, including Future Toto members Jeff Porcaro and David Page, Poco singer and Future Eagle Timothy B. Schmidt and guitarist Jeff Skunk Baxter, who would eventually leave Steely Dan to join the Doobie Brothers. Another Future Doobie who broke through with the duo was the uniquely buried baritone Michael McDonald, who began singing prominently on the Dan's 1975 album Katy Live. So that's our number one. Speaking of which, before I close this commemorative edition of our show, I want to say a word about the one, something I have invoked at the end of every Hit Parade episode since the podcast's launch. I always saw this show as a de facto homage to American top 40 and Casey Kasem at the end of every at 40, Casey would close with this bit of homespun wisdom. Till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the stars. It's an inspiring phrase and maybe a slightly nonsensical one. What does it mean? Basically, whatever you want it to mean. I wanted a bit of kind hearted doggerel like that for the end of each Hit Parade. And my idea to invoke the number one hits we so often chronicle on this show was to cross the parade image of marching with James Brown's legendary concept of the One.
[50:29]
Kevin Bendis
Everybody hit it. Good God. Previously, with rhythm and blues, rock and.
[50:38]
Chris Melanfi
Roll, and soul music, the emphasis had.
[50:40]
Kevin Bendis
Been on the second and fourth beats of the bar.
[50:42]
Chris Melanfi
What James Brown did was to stress the first beat.
[50:46]
Kevin Bendis
This became the bedrock of funk music.
[50:48]
Chris Melanfi
The Rhythm of the One to the Godfather of Soul, the One wasn't just a way to measure rhythm in an exceptionally funky pop song. It was a cosmic concept. To James, getting on the One was a mode for living a way of life. And that's what I share with you all at the end of every episode. James Brown was famously a little incomprehensible. So is my monthly Hit Parade sign off, but I think you know what I mean by Keep On Marching on the One. I'm going to keep on marching because this podcast has so many more stories to tell. Here's to marching on the One for another mother.
[51:38]
Kevin Bendis
Five. So many mothers dying.
[51:50]
Chris Melanfi
News had just come over. We had five years left crying. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly hip parade, the Bridge shows, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I talked to podcast producer Steve Lichti, who helped get our podcast off the ground a half decade ago and and has his own list of all time favorite Hit Parade episodes. To sign up for Slate plus and hear that show and all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hitparade + Alicia Montgomery is the Executive Producer of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcast 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. Until then, Keep On Marching on the One. I'm Chris Melanie.
[53:20]
Kevin Bendis
Your mind We've got five years. My praise hurts a lot. Five years. That's all we've got. Five years. Five years. What a surprise. We've done five years. Five years else that we got. We got five years. Not great.

Summary7 min read

Hit Parade | "I Got Five on It Part 2"

Host: Chris Molanphy
Producer/Contributor: Kevin Bendis
Podcast Release Date: April 29, 2022

Episode Overview

Celebrating the fifth anniversary of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy takes listeners through the essential and most beloved episodes of the podcast’s history as voted by the show’s audience. This episode functions both as a retrospective and a countdown, revealing which explorations into pop chart history, musical trivia, and storytelling have resonated most deeply with fans. Along the way, Molanphy offers behind-the-scenes insight into the episode ranking methodology, shares memorable moments, and highlights the core themes that have defined Hit Parade over its first five years.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Survey Methodology and Philosophy

Chris opens by detailing the survey's rules and playful "data science":

"We were more interested in including every vote you gave us somehow than limiting voters to a strict top five." (01:27)
- Listeners submitted their favorite episodes in ranked and unranked lists; all were counted with varying point values depending on order and whether they were marked as honorable mentions.
Chris likens the flexible methodology to moments in Billboard Hot 100 history, e.g., when A and B sides were combined (02:45):

"I compare it to that week in 1969 when Billboard changed the Hot 100 rules..."

2. Surprising Results and Notable Snubs

Some episodes received no votes, notably the "Gaga is Born" edition and two live shows, surprising Chris:

"There were just three Hit Parade episodes out of our 56 shows that received no votes at all...I guess Hit Parade listeners are a little Gaga-ed out." (05:16)
Chris notes the trend that listeners preferred episodes that explored "unusual chart concepts" or examined "parallel careers," rather than profiles focusing on superstar artists:

"Clearly, the most impassioned Hit Parade listeners are not swayed by a boldface name alone." (08:45)

3. The Top 20 Countdown

Chris begins a Casey Kasem–inspired countdown, highlighting and discussing the unique elements of each top episode:

📈 20–11: Chart Deep Dives & Musical Movements

#20 Friends in Places: Country music's evolution, from Urban Cowboy to Garth Brooks. (10:08)
#19 Spirit of 71: A tribute to the pivotal year of 1971 and its iconic chart-toppers. (11:47)
#18 I Write Sins, Not Tragedies: The rise of pop-punk and emo in the 2000s. (12:50)
#17 Blame it on the F: The saga of Frank Farian and the Milli Vanilli scandal. (15:36)
#16 AC/DC Rule: How classic albums are often followed by less-remembered chart-topping successors, e.g., AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock. (16:45)
#15 Invisible Miracle Sledgehammer: The interconnected careers between Genesis members Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.
#14 Fab Four Sweep: The Beatles dominate the entire Top 5 (one of the earliest episodes). (17:57)
#13 Tramps Like Us: Bruce Springsteen's struggle for chart domination and persistent reinvention. (18:56)
#12 Rock and Soul: Hall & Oates' genre-fusing rise and blue-eyed soul dominance. (19:03)
#11 Imperial Elton and George: Parallels between the careers of Elton John and George Michael, touching on sexuality and stardom. (19:50)

🔝 Top 10 Episodes — Listener Favorites

10. Lost and Lonely Edition —

Goth to Chart Heroes
A dive into post-punk and goth bands (The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths) who improbably broke through to mainstream charts. (24:28)

Memorable Quote:

"Depeche Mode signed on to be the subject of a film by legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker...The film captured the extreme devotion of fans..." (23:57)

9. Nights on Broadway Edition —

The Bee Gees Reinvent Themselves
The Gibb brothers' disco transformation and enduring falsetto impact. (25:51)

Anecdote: Barry Gibb heard the car "chicka chicka" and turned it into "Jive Talkin'."
Quote:

"Barry instantly turned that phrase into a song..." (26:00)

8. Le Pet Prince Edition —

Tom Petty & Prince, Parallels in Pop
Exploring the similarities between Petty and Prince, including their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance. (27:27)

Quote:

"It was an honor to play with Tom Petty. 'Free Fallin' is one of my favorite songs.'" — Prince (28:56)
"I'm starting to think you should just act on those things all the time." — Tom Petty, reflecting on almost calling Prince before his death (29:45)

7. Queen of Disco Edition —

Donna Summer and the Birth of Electronic Dance
Donna Summer’s chart prowess and her collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, credited for inventing electronic dance music with "I Feel Love." (32:22)

Insider Fact:

"I Feel Love is generally agreed to have single handedly invented electronic dance music..." (32:00)

6. One and Done Edition —

What Is a One-Hit Wonder?
Unpacking the definition and rules for "one-hit wonders," with examples like Michael Sembello and "Maniac." (34:52)

Quote:

"His immediate follow up single did crack the Top 40. But...is Michael Sembello a one hit wonder?" (35:53)

5. These Are the Good Times Edition —

Chic's Legacy in Pop and Hip-Hop
The vast influence of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, from Sister Sledge to Daft Punk, and how "Good Times" bassline spawned hip-hop’s "Rapper's Delight." (36:45)

Quote:

"The Good Times bassline traveled everywhere, most famously...on this historic single..." (36:45)

4. Turn Around Bright Eyes Edition —

Jim Steinman’s Maximalist Pop
The production genius behind Meatloaf’s "Bat Out of Hell," Bonnie Tyler’s "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and more. (39:43)

Notable Fact:

"Steinman, sole producer and sole songwriter of both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the charts..." (38:00)

3. Deadbeat Club Edition —

Athens, Georgia: Alt-Rock Capital
The intertwined stories of The B-52s and R.E.M., tracing their transition from underground icons to hitmakers. (40:05)

Quote:

"Together, these bands made Athens the epicenter of alternative cool in the 80s and early 90s..." (40:12)

2. The Great War Against the Single Edition —

When Singles Disappeared from Stores
Explains the industry’s effort in the ‘90s to eliminate retail singles and push full album purchases, ultimately fueling piracy and digital disruption. (45:24)

Memorable Moment:

"Lou Bega...scored a global hit...even Bega's gleefully junky record went unreleased on CD singles, compelling more than 3 million Americans to buy his album." (45:24)
Listener Reaction:

"Listeners tell me that this episode solved a mystery for them. Why in the 1990s were they forced to pay full price for a full length CD just to acquire one hit song?" (43:26)

1. What a Fool Believes Edition: The Story of Yacht Rock

Chart-Topping Smoothness and a Viral Genre
The ultimate fan favorite, this episode delves into the soft-rock trend dubbed "Yacht Rock" (e.g., Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald), explaining the origins, sound, and enduring memeification of the genre. (47:15)

Chris explains:

"It's an episode we first broadcast in the summer of 2020...because we had to paywall it in that challenging summer and so many of you told us it brought you comfort." (47:20)
Listener love: This episode received nearly 25% more votes than the runner-up.
Quote:

"You might say this episode has it all: Chart topping hits, musicological backstory, a wealth of trivia, and...a definition explanation of a chart and musical phenomenon the world needed a name for." (47:35)

Memorable Moments & Quotes

On Hit Parade's appeal:

"Folks tell me that they learn a lot from this show, and apparently what you are happiest learning about is an unusual chart concept, a new genre name, or how two, three or even four superstars careers paralleled each other." — Chris Molanphy (08:30)
On the importance of “the One”:

"For James (Brown), getting on the One was a mode for living—a way of life. And that's what I share with you at the end of every episode...Keep On Marching on the One." (50:47)

Structure & Flow

The episode intersperses playful banter between Chris and producer Kevin Bendis, as Kevin cues up relevant song snippets and iconic musical moments after each episode mention, echoing the countdown traditions of classic radio.
Chris maintains an engaged and sometimes self-deprecating tone, laughing about the quirks of his audience and the show’s nerdy niche.

Timestamps for Major Segments

00:00–01:27: Introduction & survey methodology
04:03–08:50: Episodes with no votes & surprising snubs
10:08–19:50: The Top 20–11 countdown
24:15–36:48: The Top 10–5 countdown—memorable highlights and song history
39:43–50:47: The Top 4–1, including anecdotes, listener responses, music industry lessons
50:47–52:00: Closing thoughts: Tribute to Casey Kasem and the meaning of “the One”

Summary Takeaways

Listeners deeply appreciate Hit Parade’s deep dives into obscure chart rules, genre origins, and career parallels more than straightforward profiles of superstar artists.
The show's tone remains both nerdy and celebratory; Chris Molanphy’s blend of pop trivia, storytelling, and personal reflection keeps it engaging and informative.
The “What a Fool Believes/Yacht Rock” episode reigns supreme due to its comfort, trivia, and storytelling during a challenging time (the 2020 pandemic).
Hit Parade is as much about exploring music history as sharing the joy of nerdy musical connections.

Final Words from Chris

"I think you know what I mean by Keep On Marching on the One. I'm going to keep on marching because this podcast has so many more stories to tell. Here's to marching on the One for another...five." (51:26)

For newcomers and longtime fans alike, this episode is both an essential primer on what makes Hit Parade unique and a celebration of the many musical tales yet to come.

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Transcript54 lines

[00:00]
Chris Melanfi
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Welcome back 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 our last episode, we started the celebration of Hit Parade's fifth birthday with a recap of some core principles of our show and a spin through some of your favorite artists and musical factoids. Now it's time for the Moment of Truth, the official countdown of your favorite episodes. A few words about our survey we are not Billboard magazine or Nielsen or MRC or Luminate or any of the other data collectors. Throughout chart history, our tally was not all that rigorous. Some of you gave us a solid top five episodes list exactly what we asked for. Some provided generously a top 10 more than we asked for. Many of you forced yourself to limit your lists to just five episodes, but then you included a handful of honorable mentions. I like to think of these as the bubbling undervotes of our survey, kind of like that Gary Newman hit after cars in 1980 that bubbled under the hot 100 at number 100. Basically, when it came to the voting, we counted it all. I played with the math to accommodate everything and everyone. We were more interested in including every vote you gave us somehow than limiting voters to a strict top five. If you only ranked five episodes that counted more than if you ranked 10. If you gave your list in no particular order, we assigned them all the same point value. And if you had honorable mentions, those counted but less than your ranked episodes did. Call our methodology a little slipshod, but I compare it to that week in 1969 when Billboard changed the Hot 100 rules to count A and B sides together in the same position, which instantly gave the Beatles come together.
[02:58]
Kevin Bendis
Right now.
[03:01]
Chris Melanfi
Over me, a two sided number one hit they otherwise wouldn't have had. If this Beatles B side factoid is new to you, you probably never listened to our B side's edition of Hit Parade, taped live in front of an audience at the Bell House in Brooklyn four years ago, an evening that was packed with trivia. Which of these 1967 number one hits did not start out as the B side to another song? A Lulu to Sir With Love, B the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense and Peppermints C the Doors Light My Fire or D Bobby Gentry Ode to Billy Joe See the Doors Light My Fire. He got it, everybody. The correct answer is C Light My Fire.
[04:01]
Kevin Bendis
Way to go, dad.
[04:04]
Chris Melanfi
Doesn't that sound like fun. Judging by the evidence of our vote, maybe most of you didn't listen to this episode. There were just three Hit Parade episodes out of our 56 shows that received no votes at all. As Monty Python would say, not a sausage bugger all. And two of them were our live episodes. The aforementioned B sides edition from January 2018, and the posthumous hits edition recorded live at the Pop Conference in Seattle in April 2019. All of these 1997 hits feature rapping by the late Notorious B.I.G. but only one opens with him rapping. Which one? A Been around the world, B Mo money mo problems, C Hypnotize or D It's all about the Benjamins remix? Well, we know Puffy has to put his fingers on a lot of stuff, right? So C Hypnotize. And that is correct. The correct answer is C Hypnotize. Nice job.
[05:13]
Kevin Bendis
Come on.
[05:15]
Chris Melanfi
Hmm, I guess you had to be there. I'm not all that surprised. Our live shows don't rank among anyone's favorites, but the third totally blanked episode was our Gaga is born edition from January 2019. That's right, no votes for Stephanie Germanotta, Oscar winner. I guess Hit Parade listeners are a little Gaga ed out. Still, let's look at the glass as 5356 full. At least one of you loved each of our other episodes enough to rank it. That's damn good. Now, while I'm discussing the shows that placed out of the money, can I reveal a few surprising underperformers? Neither of our Beatles related episodes made the top 10, including the Fab Four sweep edition about the historic week in 1964 when the Beatles locked down the entire top five. Nor are without the beat. Beatles edition about the three Lennon McCartney songs that went to number one by other artists, including John Lennon's buddy Elton John. Indeed, when choosing your favorites, you guys seemed more interested in learning about rock and pop's lesser lights. Other episode subjects that fell well short of our top 10 included Madonna, Nirvana, Britney spears, Billy joel, Taylor sw. Number two kings, credence clearwater revival, Both Whitney Houston. And mariah carey, Janet jackson, And even Stevie Wonder. Mind you, episodes about these superstars did receive considerable numbers of votes, and anecdotally I hear all the time from listeners who appreciate our single artist deep dives. But all of them finished below the top 20. Clearly, the most impassioned Hit Parade listeners are not swayed by a boldface name alone. Folks tell me that they learn a lot from this show, and apparently what you are happiest learning about is an unusual chart concept, a new genre name, or how two, three or even four superstars careers paralleled each other.
[09:09]
Kevin Bendis
Foreign.
[09:14]
Chris Melanfi
By the way, our episode about Cyndi Lauper, the Bengals and Amy Mann fell just shy of the top 20, peaking at number 21. Speaking of which, what are we going to count down? Well, I figure the Hot 100 was 100 positions and Casey Kaysen counted down the top 40 of those positions. We have a list of episodes that numbers just over half the size of the Hot 100. So let's do a top 20 with special attention paid, as any chart follower would, to the top 10. So away we go. And since we at Hit Parade are obviously Fans of Casey Kasem's American Top 40, we're going to have those numbers.
[10:06]
Kevin Bendis
Sung.
[10:08]
Chris Melanfi
At number 20 is an episode that frankly, pleasantly surprises me with its placement. Our November 2020 take on the chart history of country music. From the urban cowboy phenomenon to the amazing 90s chart run by Garth Brooks, the biggest album selling soloist in US History. It's one of our deepest deep dives and it cracks the top 20 hit parades, friends in Places edition, Placing just above Garth and the country episode number 19 is the show we did in September 2021 to celebrate a lot of 50s. Our 50th episode, a musical 50th anniversary and a certain person's birthday. It commemorated the music of 1971, a widely acclaimed year for rock, pop and soul and one in which legends topped the charts from Janis Joplin to Isaac Hayes, the Stones to Sly Stone and a whole lot of Carole King coming in at number 19. It's our Spirit of 71 edition of.
[11:35]
Kevin Bendis
Hit Parade and it's too late, baby, now it's too late. Though we really did try to make it something inside.
[11:48]
Chris Melanfi
Then we make a big jump from the music of the early 70s to the music of the turn of the millennium. Number 18 with a show we did just one month of later in October 2021. It was about the parallel scenes of pop, punk and emo sub genres that were defining and redefining themselves as a string of punchy, bratty, brainy and theatrical bands took their turns on the stage. Green Day, the Offspring, Weezer, Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Fallout Boy, Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance and Paramore. Taking our number 18 spot, it's the I Write Sins, Not Tragedies edition of Hit Parade.
[12:38]
Kevin Bendis
I chime in with the Havens you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door? No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of voice and rationality.
[12:51]
Chris Melanfi
And speaking of the theatrical number 17, coming in at number 17 is the twisted story of German impresario Frank Farian and the flamboyant but fraudulent acts he created that scored real genuine hits. Bony m in the 70s and a decade later, the infamous Milli Vanilli, maybe Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan. The Milli Vanilli frontmen weren't singing a note all of those hits, but the group seriously did help pivot pop toward the sounds of hip hop at the turn of the 90s. Released in May 2021, its hit parades Blame it on the F Edition. You ranked em hit parade counts em down. Number 16 Taking the number 16 spot is one of our most technical episodes. A February 2021 show about an obscure but very real chart phenomenon, slow growing albums that are followed by instant smash successors. It's about how Jimi Hendrix's number one album wasn't Are youe Experienced? But the LP after Are youe Experienced? Billy Jo, first number one coming not with the Stranger, but its successor, 52nd Street, Pat Benatar. Following the hit packed Crimes of Passion with the chart topping but less hit packed Precious Time. All of these artists scored their first or only number one LP with the follow up to a better remembered classic. Jackson Brown, Boston Van Halen, Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga, and most famously, AC DC, who topped the chart not with the 20 times platinum 1980 album Back in Black, but its shorter lived 1981 successor. For those about to rock, we salute you. Yep, it's a high concept show, but my fellow chart nerds love this one. It's our AC DC Rule edition of Hit Parade. Then coming up next, a show about a band that was more like a universe.
[15:34]
Kevin Bendis
Number 15.
[15:36]
Chris Melanfi
It's the former gang of Prague rockers who spun off a slew of hit making careers. Peter Gabriel, Mike and the Mechanics, Steve Hackett, and maybe you've heard of this guy, Phil Collins. He launched a solo career and scored a string of number ones without leaving the band that propelled him to fame. A band appropriately enough called Genesis. And as I noted earlier in this episode, when Peter Gabriel finally scored a number one hit of his own, he did it by knocking his old bandmates out of the top slot. You can't make this up, folks. Coming in at number 15, our May 2019 story of the Genesis Family tree, the invisible miracle Sledgehammer edition of Hit Parade.
[16:29]
Kevin Bendis
Why does it always seem to be me looking at you with you looking at me? It's always the same. It's Just a shame, that's all.
[16:40]
Chris Melanfi
We're getting gotten closer to the top 10.
[16:43]
Kevin Bendis
Number 14.
[16:45]
Chris Melanfi
Here's the highest placing episode, about the biggest rock group of all time. One week in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, the Fab Four locked down the entire Hot 100 top five. A chart feat that wouldn't be duplicated until the streaming era more than 50 years later. But this rare chart quinfecta was an accident of music business history. The result of an American label losing control of the output of the kings of the British invasion. It's a story of fandom, foolishness and phenomenal music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the second ever episode of Hit Parade from May 2017, the Fab Four sweep edition. Next, coming in at the unluckiest number, a guy who took nearly a decade to get lucky.
[17:57]
Kevin Bendis
Number 13.
[17:59]
Chris Melanfi
They called him the Boss. But he wasn't boss of the charts in the 70s. That was the decade he got signed, formed the E Street Band, recorded the classic Born to Run, and reinvented rock for a new generation. Bruce Springsteen gave away many of his biggest would be 70s hits to Manford Mann, Patti Smith, the Pointer Sisters, and almost the Ramones. Then in the 80s, well into his 30s, Bruce became the quintessential American rocker and a pop icon. But he continued to be appropriated and misunderstood, even by the fans who loved him. Coming in at Lucky 13 from July 2021, it's our Springsteen episode, the Tramps. Like us, Ed.
[18:57]
Kevin Bendis
You can't start a fight without a spot. This gun's for hire.
[19:04]
Chris Melanfi
One spot above Bruce is another act that like him, spent the 70s trying to figure it all out before dominating the charts in the 80s. Number 12. It's our most recent Hit Parade episode in the top 20. It came out in January 2022 and it's about the biggest duo in the history of the charts, Darryl hall and John oates. In the 70s, they tried everything, folk, rock, soul, Prague, even a little disco and punk. It was only when hall and Oates defined their own new wave music that they called rock and soul that they began topping the Hot 100 on the regular and even the R and B chart. They were the ultimate blue eyed soul act of their era. Taking the number 12 spot, it's hall and Oats with our rock and soul edition of Hit Parade. And coming in just one spot shy of the top 10, number 11. It's yet another story of chart success in the 70s and 80s and beyond. This time about two separate careers that paralleled each other. Across the decades. Elton John, the extravagant Captain Fantastic, who dominated the charts for the first half of the 70s until a 1976 tiptoe out of the closet sent his career momentarily into the wilderness, and George Michael, frontman of 80s teen idol duo Wham. Like Elton, he was a consummate pop craftsman, but George also had to navigate the shoals of pin up status on one side and his secret identity on the other. They supported each other, dueted with each other, even competed on the charts. It's a great story. Our first ever Pride month episode in June 2017, the Imperial Elton and George edition of Hit Parade. Coming up, we enter the top 10 with Goths, Gibbs, Prince, Princes and Queens. Now on with the Countdown for our top 10 episodes as ranked by you. I've asked producer Kevin Bendis to review these old shows and pick out a highlight from each one. Hopefully these clips will bring back memories for those of you who voted for them and whet the appetites of those who haven't experienced them yet. We open our top 10 with an episode about a wave of bands who seemed like they were never meant to be on a Billboard chart at all. From October 2019, it's our episode about how a generation of post punk, goth and just plain doomy rock bands the Cure, Susie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and New Order transitioned from punk clubs and alienated teen bedrooms to the top of the charts, kicking off Our Countdown Top 10, it's hit parades, Lost and Lonely Edition. In 1988, Depeche Mode signed on to be the subject of a film by legendary documentarian D.A. pennebaker, who a generation earlier had pioneered the music documentary with Bob Dylan's Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. For 101, Pennebaker shot the finale of Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses tour, whose 101st show took place at the Rose bowl in Pasadena, California. The film captured the extreme devotion of fans traveling cross country to see the show, as well as the frenzy at the concert itself.
[24:28]
Kevin Bendis
6X of humor and when I die I expect to find in my dream.
[24:37]
Chris Melanfi
Next on the Countdown, we shift from one set of British rockers to another. Only these guys blew up in the 70s, and they were not so much doomy as danceable. Number nine from September 2018 scene it's our story about the Brothers Gibb, harmonizing siblings who were born on the Isle of Man, raised in Australia, broke through in the 60s, with the British Invasion, and then, in one of the most improbable musical shifts in pop history, adopted falsetto vocals and dance rhythms to dominate the disco era. Coming in at number nine, our Bee Gees episode of Hit Parade, the Nights on Broadway edition. Every day, when the Gibbs drove to Criteria Studios, crossing the causeway that connected Biscayne Bay to Miami, the wheels of their car made a distinctive chicka chicka rhythm. Barry's wife Linda once told her husband, quote, listen to that noise.
[25:52]
Kevin Bendis
Noise.
[25:52]
Chris Melanfi
It's our drive talking. Barry instantly turned that phrase into a song, building the chicka chicka sound into its opening rhythm and collaborating on the melody and harmonies with Morris and Robin. For the finishing touch, a new studio collaborator brought in by Arif Mardo, Welsh keyboardist Blue Weaver played a distinctive synthesizer hook that recalled the Sinclair playing of Stevie Wonder. It was the breakthrough disco smash of 1975. Jive talked the Hot 100 in August 1975. Four months later, nights on Broadway followed it into the top 10, peaking at number seven. More important, it had established the template for the Bee gees in the second half of the 70s. And one thing was certain, they were bringing back the piercing falsetto of Nights on Broadway and applying it to all of their material.
[27:09]
Kevin Bendis
Dancing.
[27:13]
Chris Melanfi
Next on our survey, it's another of our parallel careers episodes, juxtaposing two rock legends who wouldn't seem to have all that much in common.
[27:25]
Kevin Bendis
Number eight.
[27:27]
Chris Melanfi
In October 2017, just weeks after the passing of Tom Petty, we did an episode juxtaposing his storied career with that of another legend who just died the year before Prince. Famously, in 2004, Prince joined Petty on stage at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame for what is now regarded as the institution's greatest live performance. But Prince's and Petty's similarities go much deeper, from their fights with the music industry to their hits across genres and generations. Coming in at number eight, it's Le Pet Prince edition of Hit Parade. Prince sat with Rolling Stone for the interview that put him back on the COVID of the magazine. Asked to reflect on his triumphant Rock and Roll hall of Fame performance, Prince, in his typically succinct, direct and no nonsense way, didn't comment upon the hall itself, or his blazing guitar solo, or even the George Harrison Beatles song he'd performed. Instead, he reserved his praise for the man who was ringmaster of the performance. It was an honor to play with Tom Petty. Free Fallin is one of my favorite songs. The admiration was mutual. Tom Petty was asked to reflect on that magical rock hall induction performance in 2016, less than a week after Prince's death and as it turns out, just 18 months before Petty's own. Petty called Prince's 2004 performance thrilling, but Petty also had the last word in the article about Prince himself. It's funny because just a few days ago he was in my mind all afternoon. I was thinking about him. I had just been talking with Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. He wrote their Manic Monday song and I was thinking about him a lot that day and I almost told myself I was going to call him and just see how he was. I'm starting to think you should just act on those things all the time. Next it's the highest placement on our survey for a show devoted to a single female artist. Number seven coming in at Lucky 7 is my mash note to 70s vocal queen and club club culture auteur Donna Summer. She was a hitmaker for two decades and a dance floor deity for more than three, and her collaborations with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotti were formative in dance, electronic and rock music. Our episode examines how Sommer became the ultimate disco diva and how she transcended that role altogether. One of my all time personal favorites from our podcast, it's our Queen of Disco edition of Hit Parade. That's I Feel Love. It reached number six on the Hot 100, but the shadow I Feel Love casts on popular music can scarcely be overstated. The brainchild of Bellotti and Maroder, I Feel Love is generally agreed to have single handedly invented electronic dance music. While it took inspiration from contemporaneous electro rock bands like Kraftwerk, I Feel Love was the first ever hit single with an entirely synthesized backing track. The only organic thing on it was Donna Summer's voice. Summer helped Moroder and Bellotti arrange the song's complex vocal melody because, as Maroder told veteran music critic Simon Reynolds, I Feel Love is a difficult song to.
[32:17]
Kevin Bendis
Foreign.
[32:22]
Chris Melanfi
Next, parked just outside the Top five, we've got an episode packed with even more chart rules than my AC DC rule number six. For decades, my fellow chart nerds have debated what qualifies an artist for the ignominious term one hit wonder. And for about 10 years, I have had my own set of rules whether a second Hot 100 hit should count how high that second hit has to go to remove the act from one hit wonder status, and what to do about a band like Aha. From September 2020, it's our much beloved, much debated, widely cited One and Done edition of Hit Parade. Not familiar with that one. This song is called Automatic man and it peaked at number 34 in November 1983. So an actual top 40 hit. And it was by Michael Zambelo. And the reason Automatic man hit the the top 40 was that Zambelo was coming off a number one hit from two months earlier. That, of course, is Mania from the smash soundtrack to the movie Flashdance. Maniac Mac not only spent a fortnight on top of the Hot 100, Billboard ranked it as the ninth biggest hit of 1983. And by the way, after 1983, Zambelo never touched the Hot 100 again. So I'll ask the Is Michael Zambelo a one hit wonder? His immediate follow up single did crack the top 40. But no offense Mr. Zambelo, automatic man is a footnote in pop history compared with Mania. We've got just five big ones left until your number one Hit Parade episode. And next, another story of the disco era and beyond.
[34:53]
Kevin Bendis
Number five.
[34:55]
Chris Melanfi
Say the band name Chicago and folks might think of polyester suits and smooth disco grooves. Say the names Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers, however, and it opens up a plethora of hits for Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, Robert Palmer, the B52s, and even daft Punk. The chic universe of hits lasted far beyond the disco era and even formed the basis for Hip hop hop from January 2021. It's our these are the Good Times edition of Hit Parade. Of course, if that Bernard Edwards baseline sounds familiar to you, it's because you've probably heard it before, and not just on that chic song. The Good Times Times bassline traveled everywhere, most famously or infamously, depending on your point of view, on this historic single, One of the first recorded rap singles and the first period to crack the Billboard Hot Hot 100, where it peaked at number 36. Rapper's Delight is notorious for borrowing or biting, or let's just say it, stealing the baseline from Good Times. Even re recorded, it's the same baseline the Sugar Hill team meant to recreate Good Times. That was the point.
[36:46]
Kevin Bendis
Legend must have been true. I said, by the way baby, what's your name?
[36:49]
Chris Melanfi
Said I go by the name Lois Lane Rogers. Still to this day will throw in rhymes from Rapper's Delight into his live performances of Good Times. There are a lot of behind the scenes figures in our Top five. Right next to our Chic episode is a story of an even more iconoclastic producer and songwriter. Number four no hit making Mastermind has had a more specific sound than Jim Steinman pounding pianos, revving motorcycles, sometimes literal thunder, and power vocalists singing passionate, almost nonsensical lyrics. Steinman fused his compositions with a singer who called himself Meatloaf, and together they created the blockbuster song cycle Bat out of Hell. Before Steinman spread that same brand of pop rock to Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, and even Celine Dion. Forever's gonna start tonight in our Turn Around Bright Eyes edition of Hit Parade. Debuting on the Hot 100 at number 75 in July of 1983, Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart took a dozen weeks to reach number one. Rising alongside Total Eclipse of the Heart was another bombastic ultra power ballad from the Jim Steinman cinematic universe. Jim Steinman agreed to produce Air Supplies Making Love out of Nothing at all, and it would give lead singer Russell Hitchcock the biggest vocal workout of his life. Bonnie Tyler's and Air Supply's respective singles scaled the Hot 100 together. It was a total Jim Steinman chart conquest. The week ending October 8, 1983, when Tyler's Total Eclipse was in its second week at number one, Air Supply's Making Love rose to number two, giving Steinman, who was the sole producer and sole songwriter of both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the charts, which he held for three weeks.
[39:38]
Kevin Bendis
Beating Up My Heart Is a Drum and It's Lost.
[39:44]
Chris Melanfi
We'Re down to our top three and I must say I was shocked at how many people name checked this next episode. I thought our Cure Depeche Mode show would be your favorite. On the subject of of alternative rock. Guess again.
[40:03]
Kevin Bendis
Number three.
[40:05]
Chris Melanfi
At the start of the 1980s, two bands with very different styles put the southern college town of Athens, Georgia on the map as a rock and roll Mecca. The B52s avatars of kitsch proudly queer the ultimate party band. And remember the college rock godfathers with jangly guitars and elliptical lyrics. Together, these bands made Athens the epicenter of alternative cool in the 80s and early 90s. And they became unlikely hit makers after years on the indie circuit, shifting from Rock Lobster and Radio Free Europe to Love Shack and Losing my religion from June 2018, one of our proudest Pride Month episodes, the deadbeat Club edition of Hit Parade. Released as a Warner Brothers single In the summer of 79, rock rock lobster was either a massive success or a pop underperformer, depending on your expectations. In the United Kingdom, it scraped the top 40, reaching number 37 in August of 1979. In America, lobster took considerably longer to break, not even making the hot 100 until the spring of 1980. And only reaching a peak of number 56 in May of that year. Not bad for such a cutting edge single by a brand new band. The LP rode Billboard's album chart for more than a year and by the fall of 1980 the B52s had gone gold for sales of a half million copies on its way to platinum. Earlier in 1980, the band were even invited to perform on Saturday Night Live. Later Ladies and gentlemen, the B52. We were at a party. Just two left in our survey and we're up to perhaps the most referenced episode in Hit Parade history. You might even call it our earliest expose. Number two Listeners tell me that this episode solved a mystery for them. Why in the 1990s were they forced to pay full price for a full length CD just to acquire one hit song? I called it the Great War against the Single, a decade long experiment by the music business to eliminate retail singles and compel a full length album purchase. From MC Hammer to Alanis Morissette, the Rembrandts to no Doubt, Chumbawamba to Sugar Ray, a slew of 90s hitmakers underperformed on or disappeared altogether from the Hot 100 because you couldn't buy their songs, only their albums. It was a tactic that led to consumer backlash and arguably Napster. From September 2017, our formative podcast Defining the Great War against the Single edition of Hit Parade. Barbie Girl, a novelty dance pop single by the Scandinavian group Aqua, built weeks of airplay before their American label MCA issued the single in a limited edition in the fall of 1997. Copies of the retail single were exhausted quickly, but by Christmas, Aqua's album Aquarium was double platinum. Within two years the album was triple platinum. Torn, by Australian model, soap opera actress and pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, spent 11 weeks in 1998 as American radio's top song. Torn was never issued as a single and as a result Imbruglia's album Left of the Middle went double platinum.
[45:13]
Kevin Bendis
A little bit of Monica in my life, A little bit of Erica by my side, A little bit of.
[45:25]
Chris Melanfi
Lou Bega, a German born Latin pop musician proffering a kitschy brand of modern mambo, scored a global hit in the summer of 1999 with his dance pop take on Perez Prado's 1950s classic Mambo no. 5. Amazingly, even Bega's gleefully junky record went unreleased on CD singles, compelling more than 3 million Americans to buy his album A Little Bit of Mambo. Now we're up to the number one episode, the one that you, our listenership voted for the most in our five year Hit Parade survey. And let me just say, the vote wasn't close. This episode beat the Great War against the single, our number two show by nearly 25%. And like great War, it's an explainer, the kind of nerdy deep dive that you all tell me Hit Parade does best. It's an episode we first broadcast in the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic because we had to paywall it in that challenging summer and so many of you told us it brought you comfort. That year we rebroadcast it, this time with ads for all Hit Parade listeners in the summer of 2021. You might say this episode has it all Chart topping hits, musicological backstory, a wealth of trivia, and like the AC DC rule or one and done editions, a definition explanation of a chart and musical phenomenon the world needed a name for. In this case, I didn't make up that name. Four LA based actors and writers dreamed it up in the 2000s when they shot a comical video series themed around a certain brand of real life Late 70s and early 80s smooth music songs they could picture being played on the most high end of watercraft. And now that invented genre that took the Internet by storm is the theme of the top episode in Hit Parade history. The number one episode of Hit Parade's first five years is the what a Fool Believes edition, our story of the history of yacht rock. By the mid-70s, Steely Dan, named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs Beat Generation novel Naked Lunch, had stopped touring entirely to focus on Studio and LPs. Fagan and Becker's albums showcased a who's who of LA session musicians and performers from other groups, including Future Toto members Jeff Porcaro and David Page, Poco singer and Future Eagle Timothy B. Schmidt and guitarist Jeff Skunk Baxter, who would eventually leave Steely Dan to join the Doobie Brothers. Another Future Doobie who broke through with the duo was the uniquely buried baritone Michael McDonald, who began singing prominently on the Dan's 1975 album Katy Live. So that's our number one. Speaking of which, before I close this commemorative edition of our show, I want to say a word about the one, something I have invoked at the end of every Hit Parade episode since the podcast's launch. I always saw this show as a de facto homage to American top 40 and Casey Kasem at the end of every at 40, Casey would close with this bit of homespun wisdom. Till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the stars. It's an inspiring phrase and maybe a slightly nonsensical one. What does it mean? Basically, whatever you want it to mean. I wanted a bit of kind hearted doggerel like that for the end of each Hit Parade. And my idea to invoke the number one hits we so often chronicle on this show was to cross the parade image of marching with James Brown's legendary concept of the One.
[50:29]
Kevin Bendis
Everybody hit it. Good God. Previously, with rhythm and blues, rock and.
[50:38]
Chris Melanfi
Roll, and soul music, the emphasis had.
[50:40]
Kevin Bendis
Been on the second and fourth beats of the bar.
[50:42]
Chris Melanfi
What James Brown did was to stress the first beat.
[50:46]
Kevin Bendis
This became the bedrock of funk music.
[50:48]
Chris Melanfi
The Rhythm of the One to the Godfather of Soul, the One wasn't just a way to measure rhythm in an exceptionally funky pop song. It was a cosmic concept. To James, getting on the One was a mode for living a way of life. And that's what I share with you all at the end of every episode. James Brown was famously a little incomprehensible. So is my monthly Hit Parade sign off, but I think you know what I mean by Keep On Marching on the One. I'm going to keep on marching because this podcast has so many more stories to tell. Here's to marching on the One for another mother.
[51:38]
Kevin Bendis
Five. So many mothers dying.
[51:50]
Chris Melanfi
News had just come over. We had five years left crying. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly hip parade, the Bridge shows, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I talked to podcast producer Steve Lichti, who helped get our podcast off the ground a half decade ago and and has his own list of all time favorite Hit Parade episodes. To sign up for Slate plus and hear that show and all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hitparade + Alicia Montgomery is the Executive Producer of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcast 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. Until then, Keep On Marching on the One. I'm Chris Melanie.
[53:20]
Kevin Bendis
Your mind We've got five years. My praise hurts a lot. Five years. That's all we've got. Five years. Five years. What a surprise. We've done five years. Five years else that we got. We got five years. Not great.