← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Only Girl in the World Edition Part 1
01:00:15
Rihanna was the most prolific 21st century chart-topper before bowing out of the game.
Loading summary
Transcript78 lines
- [00:01]
Advertiser
This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.
- [00:31]
Megan
Hi, I'm Megan and I've got a new podcast I think you're going to love. It's called Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. And through it all, I'm building a business of my own and getting all sorts of practical advice along the way that I'm so excited to share with you. Confessions of a Female Founder is out now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:00]
Chris Melanfy
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.
- [01:58]
Rihanna
Take three action.
- [02:02]
Chris Melanfy
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. Eighteen years ago this month, in April 2007, this song debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 on its way to a seven week summer run at number one. Rihanna's Umbrella, the infectious banger featuring an opening rap by her boss and mentor Jay Z, and a chorus hook that's Molto Bella Ella Ella wasn't Rihanna's first chart topper. It most certainly would not be her last, but it was the hit that affirmed her superstardom. It's still one of the first songs, if not the song people think of when they hear Rihanna's name. When it hit, Rihanna was still a teenager. Now let's flash forward exactly a decade from the spring of 2007 to the spring of 2017 when this single peaked on the charts. This is Love on the Brain, the last single from the final album Rihanna released so far. It peaked at number five on the Hot 100, Rihanna's 22nd top five hit. That's one of the highest totals ever, by the way. Little did we know that spring week eight years ago that Rihanna was about to take an epic break.
- [04:11]
Rihanna
No matter what I do I'm no good without you and I can't get enough.
- [04:22]
Chris Melanfy
I'm speaking to you in the spring of 2025 and Rihanna still hasn't released another album. The latest rumors say she's about to drop an LP and go on a massive world tour. But I'll believe that when I hear it. Rumors like this, even from RI herself, have come and gone in years past. For most of the last decade, the biggest pop star Barbados ever produced has put a stop to the music.
- [04:56]
Rihanna
Please don't stop the. Please don't stop the music. I wanna take you away.
- [05:04]
Chris Melanfy
And that's pretty bizarre. It's crazy that Rihanna is now famous for not releasing music. At the height of her dominance, she was the most prolific artist on the charts, issuing an album a at a time when no other major pop star kept up that punishing schedule she put in the work. Rihanna even alternated her own chart topping smashes with featured performances in which she was as big as or bigger than the so called lead artists to run this town.
- [05:53]
Rihanna
Tonight.
- [05:59]
Advertiser
We are yeah.
- [06:02]
Chris Melanfy
In many ways, Rihanna reflected her moment. An era when a new breed of digital pop queens were flooding the zone with danceable downloadable bangers. But as I will explain, Rihanna was also something of a throwback to an era where pop stars were expected to stay ahead of the zeitgeist by keeping the product flowing year in and year out.
- [06:41]
Rihanna
Baby love, my baby love I need you but all you do is.
- [06:51]
Chris Melanfy
Which might help explain why Rihanna was ready to slow down after flooding the zone for a dozen furiously productive years. Today on Hit Parade, we will break down the career of the artist with the most number ones in the 21st century. That's right. More than Taylor or Drake or Beyonce or Gaga or Ariana or Bruno or Justin. A woman who racked up a stunning array of hits before hanging it up. Even if Rihanna never records again, she is already enshrined in the all time Billboard pantheon. And that run of chart toppers kicked off with a banger that was already a throwback to prior eras of pop. And that's where your hit parade marches today. The week ending May 13, 2006, when SOS became Rihanna's first number one on Billboard's Hot 100, there'd be another dozen number ones from her over the next decade. But the key to sos, besides its music and lyrics, which called back to both the 80s and the 60s, was.
- [08:35]
Advertiser
How fast Rihanna dropped it after her career launched.
- [08:40]
Chris Melanfy
How did the Barbadian pop goddess use productivity to her advantage? How did she replicate the hit making pace of prior legends like the Beatles, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, or Elton John? Join us as we celebrate one of the most unique, eclectic and amazing runs of the new millennium. Is 2025 getting you down? No need to put out an SOS. We're bringing back Rihanna and finding hits in a hopeless place. Stick around.
- [09:31]
Advertiser
This episode is brought to you by Discover. If there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a card that isn't widely accepted, but in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card hi.
- [10:23]
Megan
I'm Megan and I've got a new podcast I think you're going to love. It's called Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. And through it all, I'm building a business of my own and getting all sorts of practical advice along the way that I'm so excited to share with you. Confessions of a Female Founder is out now. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, I.
- [10:53]
Chris Melanfy
Want to talk for a bit about hit makers and albums, specifically the pace at which albums are released. Singles are how hitmakers become hit makers, the songs that scale the Hot 100. But albums are how hitmakers organize their songs into what the kids now call eras. Hello girls.
- [11:26]
Rihanna
Hello Beyonce. Hello fellow.
- [11:29]
Chris Melanfy
This is Yaya from the most recent LP by Beyonce, Cowboy Carter, which arrived a little over a year ago, topped the Billboard 200 album chart, went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year finally, and generated a flotilla of Hot 100 hits, including Texas Hold'em, Sixteen Carriages, and Two Most Wanted. I'm playing Yaya in particular because it's my favorite track on the album.
- [12:11]
Rihanna
Ladies yeah. Hey.
- [12:16]
Chris Melanfy
Now here's an interesting fact about the Cowboy Carter album. Not counting soundtracks, EPs, compilations, or anything she did with Destiny's Child or her husband, Jay Z, Cowboy Carter is just the eighth studio album by Beyonce, who's been recording solo for more than two decades. Her solo debut, Dangerously in Love, came out way back in 2003. Now, since Beyonce has often been compared to Rihanna, sometimes unfairly, and we'll get to that, here's another interesting fact. You know what else is an 8th album anti by Rihanna? Except that LP. Rihanna's last to date came out in 2016, which was only her 12th year as a recording artist. For those keeping score, Rihanna started recording a couple of years after Beyonce Isn't.
- [13:40]
Rihanna
That just a crazy game?
- [13:51]
Chris Melanfy
And reached her eighth album just over a decade later. In other words, it took Rihanna about half as long to release eight studio LPs as it took Beyonce. Now, it must be said the outlier in this equation isn't Queen Bee. Beyonce's recording pace is quite normal for a superstar of her stature in the 21st century. Barring one unusually long gap between 2016's Lemonade and 2022's Renaissance, Beyonce has generated a new studio album roughly every two to three years.
- [14:37]
Rihanna
He kissed me in his.
- [14:43]
Advertiser
But Rihanna's.
- [14:45]
Chris Melanfy
Furious pace from 2005 through 2016, roughly a new LP per year, has no modern parallel. Really, to find something comparable, you have to go back to the 60s, when superstar acts would drop a new LP every few months, often as many as two to three studio LPs per year. The Supremes, for example. Their 1965 LP I Hear a Symphony was their eighth LP, and it arrived just a little over three years into their Motown recording career. Eight LPs in three years? I mean, imagine that. With that productivity and the Motown machine behind them, The Supremes amassed 12 number one hits on the Hot 100 in just over five years. Rihanna's batting average was similarly stunning between 2006 and 2016, just under a decade. Rhys scored 14 number ones on the Hot 100 in that period. As of this podcast episode, that's the fourth biggest total in Billboard chart history. Rihanna is behind only three legends. Elvis Presley, who scored 17 number ones between 1956 and 69 Mariah Carey, who amassed 19 number ones from 1990 through 2019 and the Beatles, who put up a record 20 number ones between 1964 and 1970.
- [16:52]
Rihanna
Over me.
- [16:57]
Chris Melanfy
Rihanna was only 28 years old when she scored her 14th number one, 2016's work, which put her only three away from Elvis and a half dozen away from the Beatles. Surely 28 is awfully young for a pop star to retire, but there's a chance RI will never add to that total again. Is it possible, and this is just my own pet theory, that Rihanna's seemingly early retirement is a function of her higher than usual output in her early career? To help us understand how unusual Rihanna's release pattern and hit making was, I want to walk back briefly through chart history and consider prior release patterns of major hit acts.
- [18:02]
Rihanna
If everybody had an ocean across the.
- [18:05]
Chris Melanfy
USA Then everybody be sir in nineteen nineteen sixty three, the Beach Boys released three albums, Surfin usa, Surfer Girl and Little Deuce Coupe. Each was named after a current hit, and after peaking in the top 10 on the Billboard LP chart, each album would be swiftly supplanted by the next one. The Beach Boys productivity in their early years was exceptional, but it wasn't for far from the norm. Most hit acts in the first decade of rock and soul would drop at least two LPs a year. From rock gods like Elvis Presley to teen idols like Brenda Lee to Motown acts like the Miracles. The Smokey Robinson led group issued four albums in 1963 alone, two studio LPs, a live album, and even a Miracles.
- [19:04]
Advertiser
Christmas album.
- [19:08]
Rihanna
And do that Monkey Thing.
- [19:18]
Chris Melanfy
The Beatles too were releasing multiple albums per year, two each in 1963, 64 and 65. But after the success of their more ambitiously psychedelic LPs Revolver in 1966 and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, the Fab Four showed that major rock acts could take their time between studio LPs, not counting the Stopgap 67 soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles went 18 months between Sgt. Pepper and 1968's The White Album. Like so many things the group did, this became an accepted, widely adopted concept in the music industry. The album as Event Blackbird Singing in.
- [20:11]
Progressive Insurance
The Dead of Night.
- [20:14]
Advertiser
Take these Broken.
- [20:15]
Rihanna
Wings and Learn to Fly.
- [20:19]
Chris Melanfy
By the early 70s, it was still expected that groups aimed at young fans would churn out albums quickly, at least once a year or faster. For example, in their first year signed to Motown, the Jackson 5 banged out three studio LPs and a Christmas album. As late as 1973, the Jacksons were still putting out two LPs a year, and some superstars were just exceptionally prolific. Carole King dropped two albums of new material in 1971 alone, the classic Tapestry and its less heralded but huge selling follow up music. And for most of his 70s imperial phase, Elton John was putting out two smash LPs a year.
- [21:32]
Rihanna
I like girl what you want with your white man's world? I like girl.
- [21:41]
Chris Melanfy
But by the late 70s, superstars were taking the late Beatles model and supersizing it. Stevie Wonder had been furiously prolific through the early 70s, dropping at least one and sometimes two LPs per year. But after his 1974 smash fulfillingness first finale, Wonder elected to take two years to produce a follow up, and the media and his label Motown regarded that gap as egregiously long. Motown spent most of that two years pestering Wonder for the album, convinced he was squandering his fan base. Of course, the wait was worth it when Stevie emerged in 1976 with his multi disc master work songs in the Key of Life. After Stevie's songs, the gaps between superstar LPs grew longer. Fleetwood Mac's rumors follow up Tusk took more than two years.
- [22:54]
Advertiser
The Eagles Hotel California successor the Long.
- [22:58]
Chris Melanfy
Run one took three, as did Led Zeppelin's final studio LP before their breakup in through the Outdoor. So the industry adjusted to the era of the long awaited lp. As we discussed in our Great War against the Single episode of Hit parade, by the 80s, the labels grew adept at milking hit albums for multiple hit singles. Michael Jackson pioneered the Singles Deep album first with his off the wall, which in 1980 became the first LP by a soloist to generate four top 10 hits, and then Thriller, which generated seven top 10 hits over nearly two years from late 1982 through early 84.
- [23:58]
Rihanna
I got.
- [24:06]
Chris Melanfy
This meant that follow up albums, which were now expected to generate four, five or even seven hits, took years for star acts to record and their labels to promote. Not just rock acts, but also pop and R B stars were now expected to have gaps between album eras. Jackson took five years to follow Thriller with Bad. Madonna took two to three between her studio LPs in the 80s, even Michael's sister Janet Jackson went three years between her 1986 breakthrough Control and its 1989.
- [24:49]
Advertiser
Follow up Rhythm Nation.
- [25:01]
Chris Melanfy
By the 90s, the blockbuster era of the compact disc album releases grew even more sporadic for artists at all levels of the hit parade. Whether a disc produced piles of hit songs like blockbuster CDs from Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Boyz II Men or Alanis Morissette.
- [25:24]
Rihanna
It's like Rayan on your wedding day.
- [25:30]
Chris Melanfy
It'S a free ride or just one or two hits like albums from the.
- [25:37]
Advertiser
Cranberries or the Goo Goo Dolls.
- [25:48]
Chris Melanfy
Multi year Gabb gaps between albums became commonplace for megastars and mid tier bands alike. Promotion for a new CD took longer to set up and individual singles were worked to radio for longer periods. For certain hit acts, gaps of three or more years were becoming commonplace. For example, TLC took more than 54 years to follow up 1994's Crazy Sexy.
- [26:20]
Advertiser
Cool with Early 99's Fan Mail. By the early 2000s, the two year.
- [26:35]
Chris Melanfy
Gap between albums had been entrenched Nickelback, Nelly, Avril Lavigne or the White Stripes. No matter the genre, new albums from your favorite recording artist were expected no sooner than biennially.
- [27:05]
Advertiser
It was into this highly regimented millennial recording industry that an aspiring and ambitious teen recording artist born Robin Fenty in Barbados who would become better known under her middle name Rhianna, made her debut. Rhianna's whole career would upend a lot of received wisdom about hit making metabolism in the 21st century, but first Rihanna had to prove she was more than just the latest tropical fad from a Caribbean island. This infectious hand clapping beat is known as the Diwali Ridden, a track pioneered in Jamaica that by the early 2000s had spread to a slew of recordings in the danceable reggae derived genre known as dancehall. You may not realize it, but if you were listening to American pop radio in the early aughts, there's a pretty good chance you heard a hit built out of the Diwali Rhythm. Several such singles crossed over here in 2003, including Sean Paul's number one smash Get Busy, a Diwali remix of Lumity's top 10 R B jam Never Leave you, oh oh.
- [29:04]
Rihanna
Honestly.
- [29:07]
Advertiser
And Wayne Wonder's swirling love ballad no Letting Go. Now here's one more American hit built out of the Diwali rhythm. Only this one was released in 2005, two years after the Jamaican beat had supposedly peaked. Pon de Replay was Rihanna's first single. I'll talk about its chart performance in a moment. By the time it arrived, Rihanna had experienced a whirlwind entree into the American major label system after she was discovered in Barbados by two men who'd once been hit makers themselves.
- [30:20]
Rihanna
There's no way that I can win the.
- [30:27]
Advertiser
Evan Rogers and Carl Sturkin were members of a short lived early 90s white funk boy band called Rhythm Syndicate. In 1991 they scored a number two hit on the Hot 100 called P A N. After Rhythm Syndicate broke up, Rogers and Sturkin stayed in the music business, forming their own syndicated rhythm production company to produce and write songs for other pop acts while vacationing In Barbados in 2003, Rogers and Sturkin were introduced to a teen singing trio who called themselves Contrast. The ladies didn't have much potential as a girl group, but One of the three, a 15 year old named Robin Fenty, stood out from the moment she entered a room. And this by the way, is the 15 year old Fenty singing a Mariah Carey song at a Barbados talent competition. Young Robin had had a rough childhood. Her father was addicted to both alcohol and crack cocaine and he abused her mother. The stress may have contributed to a series of chronic migraines. Young Robin suffered through age 14. Only after her parents divorced and she began singing with her girlfriends did her headaches subside. To this day, all who tell the origin story of Rihanna say that from a very young age she burned with star quality. According to John Seabrook's book the Song Machine, when Evan Rogers asked the girl if she was ready for for the harsh realities of the music business, Robin Fenty replied without hesitation, it's all I've ever wanted to do. So Rogers and Sturkin signed 15 year old Robin Fenty to a management contract, convinced Robin to switch to her middle name, brought the rechristened Rihanna to America to record demos and began shepherding her to the offices of major label executives. They tried her on a variety of styles. Here's a small snippet of teen Rihanna on a demo trying to replicate Whitney Houston's cover of the Isley Brothers for the love of you. They also wrote her an original song, the Latin flavored R B ballad the Last Time, which did wind up making Rihanna's debut album, but would not be.
- [33:46]
Rihanna
The single it's the last time you're ever going to kiss these luck.
- [33:59]
Advertiser
What finally did get Rihanna signed was Pawn de Replay, a pop flavored dancehall tune featuring a bit of the aforementioned Diwali rhythm written by outside songwriters and completed by Sterkin and Rogers. It made Rihanna legible to American label executives who could understand how Rhee would fit into the mid aughts musical landscape, part Caribbean, part pop. Among the execs who heard Pond Replay was rapper Jay Z, who had paused his record recording career to serve as the president of Def Jam Records, the storied rap label that was now part of the Universal Music Group conglomerate. Jay was so impressed not only with Pawn to Replay, but more importantly with the determined and steely eyed Rihanna that he insisted she not leave the building without signing to Def Jam. She would turn out to be the most successful signee during Jay Z's brief tenure as a record label mogul. More in a moment.
- [35:44]
Progressive Insurance
This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So you're dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states and situations.
- [36:20]
Advertiser
This episode is brought to you by Discover. If there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a card that isn't widely accepted, but in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card this.
- [37:11]
Saks Fifth Avenue
Episode is brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue. @saks.com it's easy to find your new spring vibe. Whether it's refreshing your whole wardrobe or shopping for a vacation, Saks.com can make it fun and inspiring. Saks.com is personalized, with arrivals from brands picked just for you, so it's easy to find inspiration for your everyday. You can shop for anything on your agenda, like a larger than life Balenciaga bag for work or a Zimmerman dress for an upcoming wedding. Find inspiration for your personal style every.
- [37:41]
Advertiser
Day@Saks.Com at first, everyone's instincts about Rihanna paid off. Released in the spring of 2005, Pas de Replay scaled the Hot 100, reaching number two by July 2005, fulfilling its destiny as an ideal summer hit. Her debut album, Music of the sun dropped in August and cracked the top 10. But like Lume D or Wayne Wonder before her acts who scored dancehall flavored hits but couldn't follow them up, Rihanna looked like she might be a one hit Wonder when her reggae flavored follow up single if It's Lovin that yout Want barely scraped the top 40, reaching number 36. This was when Team Rihanna made a pivotal decision that would reverberate through the rest of her career. Rather than try to resuscitate Music of the sun with further singles, they sent Rihanna right back into the studio to record a follow up album. It was the old Motown model on steroids. Def Jam Evan Rogers and Carl Sturkin threw even more songwriters and producers at Rihanna's follow up disc A Girl Like Me, which would arrive in April 2006 just eight months after music of the sun, and they cast a wider sonic net. Rihanna would not be limited to Caribbean flavored jams. They were going to make her a straight up pop star. Sos, the song that would take Rihanna to the top of the Hot 100, was designed to delight pop fans of several generations. The lyrics by songwriters and Music biz Journeyman JR Rotem and Evan Kidd Bogart quoted several well known 80s pop hits like Aha's Take on Me, Cutting Crew's I Just Died in your Arms and Modern English's I Melt with you. But its most prominent allusion was its sample. Rotem and Bogart built the song out of Tainted Love. We've talked about Soft Sells Smash, a one hit wonder in America several times on Hit Parade. To recap, Soft Sells techno pop jam is itself a remake of a 1965 Northern Soul classic by Gloria Jones. Soft sell turned Tainted Love into synth pop and got it to number eight on the Hot 100 in 1982 for.
- [41:19]
Rihanna
I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night.
- [41:23]
Chris Melanfy
Once I ran, that version formed the.
- [41:28]
Advertiser
Backbone of Rihanna's sos. Not only was Soft Cell's recording sampled the line I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night was woven into SOS's pre chorus. The song was a nostalgia bo. However synthetic and slick, SOS affirmed Rihanna could not be pigeonholed. Some of Rihanna's handlers worried that the song would diminish Reed's so called urban cred. But according to Song Machine author John Seabrook, label chief LA Reid, Jay Z's boss, told them, forget all that. She's like Madonna. She's an international pop star. Let's make people dance, unquote. SOS danced to number one in May of 2006 and stayed there three weeks to further establish that Rihanna had the breath of a cross cultural pop star. For the follow up from A Girl Like Me, Def Jam put out a ballad Unfaithful. Critics carped that the song showed the limits of Rihanna's still young voice. She was not yet 18 when she recorded it, but it still reached number six.
- [43:10]
Rihanna
I don't wanna do this anymore I don't wanna be the reason why Every time I walk out the door I see him die a little more inside.
- [43:23]
Advertiser
After a couple more lower charting singles, Rihanna was ready to record another album again, barely a year after its predecessor. She and her producers had successfully established Rihanna as eclectic, but that also made her elusive, not yet established in the public's mind, as much more than a conduit for hit singles, Rihanna needed a hit that gave her a Persona. Fortunately, a trio of producers led by songwriter Terius the Dream Nash had just the song, a demo they had originally wanted to give to Britney Spears. This Is the Dream Singing Umbrella, the song that he, Tricky Stewart and Cuck Harrell built out of a Drum sample from Apple's free Mac software GarageBand. What they did with that beat was fairly ingenious. The track had hip hop swagger paired with pop sweetness, topped off by some nonsensical but irresistible vocal gibberish on the chorus. When Britney Spears team rejected the demo of the song for Britney's 2007 album Blackout, they said they already had enough material. The dream team passed it to LA Reid at Def Jam, who passed it to Rihanna. It was she who heard the song's potential, both in its romantic, steadfast lyrics and that crazy hook. I was like, this is interesting, this is weird, rihanna recalled in a later interview to but the song kept getting better. I listened to it over and over, she told Reed, quote, I need this record. I want to record it tomorrow. Unquote. For the crowning touch, Real Rihanna's mentor and label boss Jay Z, who was pivoting out of the executive suite back to his recording career, threw in an opening rap that grounded the otherwise romantic song in the streets. It served as a fanfare for a newly minted pop queen.
- [46:37]
Rihanna
Rainy Day Ray man is back with Little Miss Sunshine. Rihanna, where you at?
- [46:47]
Advertiser
Umbrella made Rihanna. It fused with her steely Persona. The lyrics were warm, but she was cool, frosty, regal. She kept the Caribbean lilt in her vocal, but the song was not tropical. It was rather a bespoke blend of enrapturing R B, blustering hip hop and shimmering pop. Even the video, which went on to win Video of the year at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, became indelible, a sparkly fantasia of dancers doing umbrella choreography in storms of both water and spark and Rihanna at the center of it all. In ballet shoes, body paint and a new angular haircut, she looked like the world's most alluring cyborg. Umbrella not only spent seven weeks at night number one on the Hot 100 in June and July, easily winning the crown as 2007's song of the summer it also led off Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, her top selling and most hit packed album peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 album chart. Good Girl Gone Bad in its first year spun off three more hits after Umbrella, the rock inflected Shut up and drive, a number 15 hit, a percolating acoustic ballad duet with singer songwriter Ne Yo Hate that I Love youe, a number 7 hit and Don't Stop the Music, a club banger built out of a sample of Michael Jackson's wannabe Startin Somethin'which, returned Rihanna to the top. What also set apart Good Girl Gone Bad was its Deluxe edition, which prolonged the album's shelf life into a second year, a rarity in the Rihanna catalog. In a way, though, this was yet another example of Rihanna treating albums as fungible commodities. Her career, especially in the early years, was driven by singles. At least once a year, Team Re was determined to bring new hits. Good Girl Gone Bad Reloaded arrived arrived in early June 2008, one year after the original version of the album, with three new songs tacked on, such as her duet with the pop rock band Maroon 5. Although it was not the first album to be rebooted in Special edition form, previous CDs by Usher and Shakira had been similarly reissued. Good Girl Gone Bad Reloaded did unprecedentedly well. It vaulted Rihanna's original album back into the top 10 for the first time in a year, and it produced two more number one hits, an unheard of hit making ratio for a Special Edition album reboot. Arguably, Good Girl Gone Bad Reloaded raised the bar for Special Edition albums with an EP's worth of new material tacked on, a tactic, by the way, that many artists still pursue today in the streaming era. In the years immediately after Rihanna's reboot, this approach would be replicated by album plus EP Special Edition reissues from Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. As For Rihanna, in 2008, the first of her two reloaded singles was a contemptuous ballad that led off with the withering lyric, you look so dumb right now. But it only made Rihanna look smarter.
- [52:06]
Rihanna
You look so dumb right now Standing outside my house.
- [52:17]
Advertiser
Take a bow A dressing down of a faithless suit soon to be X, written by Neo and Norwegian production team Stargate, who'd produced several of her prior hits, showed how far Rihanna had come as a vocalist in just a couple of years. Two years after Unfaithful, a ballad that received mixed reviews and was not embraced beyond pop radio, critics and R and B fans praised Take A Bow, which showed that Rhee could deliver a potent, soulful vocal worthy of her chart competitor, Beyonce. Take a bow became Rihanna's first hit to top Billboard's R B chart, in addition to topping the Hot 100.
- [53:13]
Rihanna
Had me going, but now it's time to go Curtains finally closing. That was quite a show, Very entertaining, but it's over now.
- [53:31]
Advertiser
For the follow up, Rihanna deployed her most high concept song, an electropop track with goth overtones called Disturbia.
- [53:45]
Rihanna
What's wrong with me? Why do I feel like this?
- [53:55]
Advertiser
A haunted house bop that feels descended from Michael Jackson's Thriller, Disturbia was a completely different sound, look, look and feel for Rihanna, with a bouncing bum bum be dumb melody over creepy sound effects and a keening chorus hook. Three months after Take a Bow hit number one, Disturbia brought Rihanna right back to the top spot. Just as Good Girl Gone Bad was certified double platinum, it was eventually certified for sales and streams of 7 million copies. Disturbia may have been about as scary as a PG13 horror movie, but one genuinely ominous footnote is who wrote the song? R B pop sensation Chris Brown, who was then Rihanna's boyfriend and was riding high with hits of his own. About six months after Disturbia gave Rihanna her fourth career number one, a disturbing altercation between her and Brown just before the 2009 Grammy Awards would change both of their trajectories. And it would give Rihanna, whose story to date seemed to encompass one leveling up success after another, a new form of adversity to overcome, one much darker than the lyrics to any of her hits. When we come back, Rihanna refuses to play the victim and keeps right on working, generating hits and diversity, evolving and expanding her sound. The second half of her furious decade of chart domination will be even more prolific than her first, but her greatest challenge, an album statement that would define her artistry, was still to come. No 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, our supervising producer is Joel Meyer, and Slate's editor in chief is Hilary Fry. Check out Slate's 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 Melanfy.
- [57:48]
Rihanna
27 million and I'm on it all. It's going to take more than that. Need it all. The money, the fame, the cause, the clothes. I can't just let you run up on me like that. All on me like that Here.