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You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. You took my hand, you showed me how you promised me you'd be around that's right.
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Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode, we talked about the punchy, pugilistic Pink, who emerged from the teen pop era as an R B star, then pivoted to a more rock oriented sound on her blockbuster album Misunderstood, which spawned a string of hits and went quintuple platinum. But its follow up, Try this flopped and we're now in the mid 2000s when pink is figuring out what to try next. Discouraged by the poor response to Try this, Pink regrouped in 2004 and 2005 wood shedding material for her next album. While she was off the radar, new hybrids of rock and pop were storming the charts, ranging from Kelly Clarkson's smash Since Been Gone, which grafted indie rock style, onto pure pop, To the danceable neo garage of post punk revivalists the.
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Killers I Just Can't Look, It's Killing Me and Taking Control.
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With the ladies rocking out and the rock dudes copying dance rhythms, the radio in the mid aughts seemed to vindicate Pink, the original millennial pop rock hybridizer. She did not want to retreat from rock entirely, nor give up her brand as a brazen troo truth teller, but she did want her comeback to be danceable and attention. Getting on that score, Pink's 2006 return was a success.
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Stupid Girl, Stupid Girls Stupid, Stupid Girls.
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Was a satire of mid aughts reality show culture, a rip on what Pink called porno paparazzi girls at the peak of Paris Hilton tabloid culture. It was led by its video, which dropped ahead of Pink's album. In the clip, she played thinly veiled versions of Hilton, Mary Kate Olsen, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson tottering in heels, puking in a bathroom and running down pedestrians in a convertible. Where, oh where have the smart people gone? Pink lamented. The video got enough attention on its own. One USA Today reporter ginned up controversy by seeking comment from the starlets. Pink was satirizing that LaFace Records was persuaded to promote Stupid Girls as the lead off single from Pink's fourth album, album I'm Not Dead. To its credit, Stupid Girls was musically uncategorizable, a blend of pop, rock and even reggae rhythms that stood out on the charts in early 2006. The song opened in February of 06 to the highest debut of Pink's career to date, arriving at number 24 on the Hot 100, fueled entirely by digital downloads. A week later it rose to number 13, but then hit a chart ceiling, never catching on with radio programmers. By May, Stupid Girls was out of the top 40.
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Do you think, do you think, do you think.
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So Pink had reestablished her ability to gin up controversy and draw headlines, but not to release music that connected with listeners the way her misunderstood hits had done. The album I'm Not Dead similarly opened strongly at number six on the Billboard 200, but it too sank relatively quickly, especially when no further hit songs materialized. The album won some critical acclaim, particularly for the protest ballad Dear Mr. President, a scathing open letter to then President George W. Bush that featured harmonies from folk rock veterans the Indigo Girls how.
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Do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when.
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But that claim and notoriety didn't get Pink back on the radio. By September, the album had fallen off the Billboard 200 entirely without even going gold, the weakest opening sales of Pink's career. But like its title, reports of I'm Not Dead's demise turned out to be premature. The key, it turned out, was some Max Martin magic.
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You don't really want to mess with me tonight Just stop and take a second.
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Buried deep on the back half of I'm Not Dead was a song Pink co wrote with Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, whom we discussed at length in our Britney Spears episode of Hit Parade. By the mid aughts Martin had moved away from teen pop toward a more rock oriented sound. He was also teaming with an American protege named Lucas Gottwald, aka Dr. Luke. Together, Martin and Luke had written and produced the career altering 2005 smash since youe Been Gone for Kelly Clarkson. Funnily enough, Martin and Luke originally offered since youe've Been Gone to Pink, but she turned it down. But when her label suggested they work together on songs for I'm Not Dead, pink reluctantly agreed. She later said that Martin impressed her with his goodness and quote, punk rocker attitude and she continued to work with him for another decade. She no Longer works with Dr. Luke, however, has called him not a good person and supported singer Kesha in her later abuse lawsuit against Dr. Luke. Martin, Luke and Pink wound up co writing three songs for the album, but after it came out, it took a long while for one of those songs to connect. In January of 2007 with I'm Not Dead still nowhere on the album chart. LaFace Records issued the aforementioned deep cut as a single. It had the provocative title you and your Hand. In a career full of kiss offs to no good men, you and your hand might be Pink's quintessential kiss off a blunt dressing down of a would be suitor at a nightclub who is trying to buy her a drink. To be blunt, Pink is telling this man he may as well go home and masturbate.
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Me tonight.
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Just stop and take sure the lyrics were all pink, but because you and your Hand was co written and produced by Max Martin, it's fiendishly catchy with the pleasurable melodic math for which he is famous. The melody even soars. It's quite uplifting for a song about telling a dude to go home and jerk off. It was the perfect encapsulation of what would become the Pink Persona, a foul mouthed, take no shit attitude paired with life affirming music. A couple of weeks after you and you'd Hand debuted on the Hot 100, I'm not dead quietly returned to the lower rungs of the album chart. The single climbed slowly for the next four months, finally cracking the top 10 in May 2007 when it peaked at number nine. The I'm not Dead album had returned to the top 40 and went gold, then platinum more than a year after its release. The song about telling a guy to beat it literally had saved Pink's album. Flush with that success, Pink and the label went back to a Max Martin Dr. Luke single they had tried and failed to promote in 2006, the Mid Tempo torch song who Knew. Warm and catchy, the song wistfully chronicled the death of a friendship, an especially mature theme for Pink, Reissued as the album's fourth single, who Knew also cracked the top 10, matching the number nine peak of you and your hand. I'm Not Dead rode the album chart for the rest of 2007 and went double platinum, belatedly returning Pink to the multi platinum status of her first two albums. By her late twenties Pink had matured into a kind of elder stateswoman of pop, adding elaborate gymnastic routines to her on stage performances starting on the I'm Not Dead tour. These acrobatic circus like routines with aerial silks became a trademark of her live show audiences, gasping as Pink spun from the arena's rafters. These circus like performances would inspire the name of Pink's next album, Funhouse, nearly half of which was produced by Max Martin and which finally in Pink's ninth year as a recording artist, would provide her first fully solo number one hit. The sound of that hit echoed a stompy electro rock vibe that Martin first applied to a 2008 chart topper by Katy Perry called I Kissed a Girl. Adapting that electro stomp, Martin amped it up later in 2008 on the driving so what, a song on which Pink buried her emotions in bravado. She even opened the song with a taunting chant. For such a punchy song, so what was surprisingly personal when Pink sang that she'd lost her husband, she wasn't kidding. She and her spouse, Carrie Hart, were undergoing a trial separation at the time. A great believer in music as therapy, Pink sank her hurt feelings into the defiant song on which she literally calls herself a rock star, When so what landed in August 2008. It was an instant smash, debuting all the way up at number nine on the Hot 100 and rising to number one just three weeks later. It was Pink's first trip to the penthouse since the lady marmalade cover in 2001, and her first ever number one hit entirely solo. Metaphorically speaking, even if rock stations weren't playing her stompy electropop, Pink really was a rock star.
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He's gonna start a fight.
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Nearly a decade into her career, P. Nk was bigger than ever, scoring a string of hits that codified her rocker attitude meets sleek pop image. Even with her rebellious reputation, Pink no longer read as a bratty upstart. She was a contemporary adult artist without going adult Contemporary. Funhouse generated a year and a half's worth of of soulbearing hits, many of them about her separation from her husband, including the stately rock lament Sober, a number 15 hit in early 2009, the aching pop of Please Don't Leave me, a number 17 hit that summer.
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And.
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Glitter in the Air, a dramatic ballad, which became a late breaking hit in early 2010.
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It's only half past the point of oblivion. The Hourglass on the table, the Walk before the Run.
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Thanks to the Grammy Awards over the prior three years, Pink's concert based aerial gymnastics routines had become more elaborate, involving silks, other acrobats, even the occasional trapeze. On January 31, 2010, Grammy attendees and TV viewers who had never seen a Pink live show got a glimpse of what they'd been missing. Pink performed Glitter in the Air live on the broadcast, starting from the Grammy stage. Then she lifted into the Staples center rafters by silks, held by a trio of fellow gymnasts. The amazing part. Pink kept singing live for the duration, something she'd been training for over half a decade of live performance. By the song's climax, Pink's whole body had been doused in water and she was literally upside down, emitting drops like a whirling sprinkler and still singing.
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Have you ever held your breath and ask yourself you'll never get better than two.
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The week after Pink's acclaimed Grammy showcase, which by the way, regularly makes lists of the greatest Grammy performances of all time, glitter in the Air debuted on the Hot 100, selling more than 100,000 downloads in a week and peaking at number 18 on the chart. The Funhouse album would later be certified triple platinum, making it her second best selling title after Misunderstood and by the way, maybe this was a coincidence, but Pink's unfiltered Marriage on the Rocks album may have saved her marriage. In February 2010, she and Carrie Hart confirmed that they were back together. Pink became pregnant with their first child later that year. They are still married with two children more than a decade later, after the Funhouse album cycle, just as she was announcing her pregnancy, Pink also took a victory lap by issuing her first compilation album. It bore the cheeky title Greatest Hits so Far, with three exclamation points. Greatest hits albums routinely include new songs, at the very least to keep an artist's fan base engaged, but these bonus tracks rarely become the artist's biggest hits. Pink defied that trend. The first single from Greatest Hits so Far was Raise youe Glass, co written by Pink with Max Martin and his songwriting associate Karl Martin Schuster, AKA Shellback. The song's lyrics were ebullient, celebratory and rather self referential, filled with gratitude for Pink's own fans quote all my underdogs we will never be, never be anything but loud and nitty gritty dirty little freaks unquote. By December 2010, raise your glass rose to number one on the Hot 100. As if this wasn't enough, the hits album spawned a second Pink Martin shellback smash, a self empowerment anthem whose title literally couldn't be played on the radio. They called the song Pardon my French perfect. Despite its foul mouth title, this soft rock ballad was an uplifting statement of support and acceptance for anyone being bullied or suffering from self doubt. When it became a hit, Pink released a clean version with a slightly re recorded chorus for radio play. Titled simply Perfect. Whatever you called it, fuckin perfect reach reach number two on the Hot 100 in February 2011. Funnily enough, while it was riding the top 10, it was joined in the winner's circle by another number two, peaking hit with an F bomb, Cee Lo Green's modern Motown homage, Fuck you. For several weeks, Pink's and Cee Lo's hits rode the chart together yet again. Pink was weirdly on trend. By the time Fuckin Perfect fell out of the top 10, Pink's greatest hits so far was gold. A year later, it was platinum. It was already remarkable that Pink had landed a new number one and a new number two from a greatest hits alb, a virtually unprecedented chart feat. For example, back in 1983, when Darryl hall and John Oates issued their compilation Rock and Soul Part one, they too scored a pair of new hits, but neither of them went to number one. Only say It Isn't so managed to reach number two. And there was also the little matter of Pink's album title. It's always a risk to name a greatest hits compilation, Volume one, or Part one. Hall and Oates titled theirs Rock and Soul Part One, and while they scored a few more hits, there's never been a Rock and Soul Part two. Pink titled her album Greatest Hits so Far, Talk about a dare. And yet here's the thing. P. Nk made good on that title. She kept scoring hits into the 2010s. Speaking of cheeky titles, Blow Me One Last Kiss the One Last Kiss was in parentheses was the lead single to Pink's 2012 album the Truth About Love. Not only did Blow Me soar Into the top five on the Hot 100, it topped radio playlists and went to number one on Billboard's Radio Songs chart. I guess after Fuckin Perfect, Blow Me seemed relatively tame to radio programmers. The week after Blow Me reached its number five peak on the Hot 100 in September 2012, the Truth About Love debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at number one. At age 33, Pink scored the first chart topping album of her career. And yet again, like its predecessors, it was remarkably deep with hit songs. The second single, the Mid Tempo rocker Tri, reached number nine in February 2013. Then for the third single, Pink went with a ballad, but an unusual one for her. It was a duet, essentially the first duet she'd released as a single, not counting the Lady Marmalade foursome. And her duet partner was someone who'd just become a hitmaker the year before and wasn't sure he wanted to sing with her at first. The band Fun, a trio from New York City, had scored a series of hits in 2012 from their album Some Nights. Singing lead for the group was Nate Roos, a quirky indie pop vocalist who dabbled in songwriting and background vocals for other acts. When he was invited into the studio with Pink in 2012, they collaborated on a song that Ruse assumed Pink would sing solo. It was titled Just Give Me a Reason.
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Right from the start you were a thief, you stole my heart, and I your willing victim.
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But Pink insisted that she heard the song as a dialogue. It needed a second voice. Ruse was reluctant to serve as Pink's duet partner. Pink told Spotify quote, nate was like I'll just do the demo cause I don't know about duets but I totally tricked him into doing it and I am so glad I was able to. I think he's now very happy that he did it.
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I'm sorry, I don't understand where all of this is coming from. I thought that we were fine.
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Released in March 2013 as the third single from the Truth About Love, Just Give Me a reason took nine weeks to reach number one on the Hot 100, Pink's fourth career chart topper and Russ's first as a soloist outside of Fun. Once again, Pink had done the improbable going back to number one after a seemingly career capping greatest hits album.
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Just a second.
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Pink spent the rest of the 2000 and tens raising her children, touring and continuing to score hit Records. In 2016, a one off single she recorded for an Alice in Wonderland movie, Just like fire, reached number 10, her last top 10 hit on the Hot 100. So far, However, Pink didn't stop topping other charts. Later in 2016, she recorded a duet with country megastar Kenny Chesney, setting the world on fire. It came as little surprise that Pink's husky voice was well suited to country music, and in October 2016, Chesney's and Pink's duet reached number one on both Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. Pink also kept topping the album chart thanks in part to her blockbuster tour grosses, which boosted her position on the Billboard 200. In 2017, her Beautiful Trauma album hit number one and generated a hit with the electropop track what About Us, what.
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About Us what about all the times you said you had the answer what.
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About Us what About it reached number 13 on the Hot 100, Pink's last top 40 hit so far, and it came 18 years into her career. In 2019, her Hurts to Be Human album also reached number one on the album chart and produced a number one adult pop radio hit with Walk Me Home. Its remix also topped the club play chart. And this year, in 2023, Pink is back with another album with the very Pink like Title Trust Fall. When the album arrived last month, it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the magazine's top album sales chart. The first single from the album, Never Gonna Not Dance Again is a throwback in more ways than one. Pink co wrote it with Max Martin and Shellback. It recalls the sound of vintage disco, but it's also more soul flavored than any Pink single in years. A reminder that Pink got her start singing genre crossing Poppin B. In her promotion for her new album, the 43 Year Old Pink has already affirmed not only that she is going back on tour this year, but that her live acrobatics will continue. Quote I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast before I was a singer, she told People magazine. And once you get to fly, why would you not unquote so the show's promise to be a spectacle and will surely be packed with hits, including several of Pink's hits from back in the day. To be sure, those songs will sound a little old school, but the remarkable thing about Pink's long list of hits is how consistent they sound, how on brand they are for her. They are all vulnerable and defiant, self deprecating and self aggrandizing, rocking and soulful. It's been more than 20 years since Pink said she felt misunderstood. I'm pretty sure she's not worried about that anymore.
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That you know yourself.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. 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 critic and author Annie Zaleski about how Pink became everyone's favorite 21st century pop rebel with both rock and soul in her DNA. To sign up for Slate plus and hear not only the Bridge but all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hitparadeplus Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts and Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one I'm Chris Melanvi.