← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Toppermost of the Poppermost Edition Part 1
00:54:55
The odd alchemy that sends a brand-new song to the top of the charts.
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- [00:04]
Emily
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- [00:27]
Chris Melanfi
Learn more@WhatsApp.com this episode is brought to.
- [00:31]
Musical Artist / Performer
You by FXX and Hulu Futurama returns on September 15 blending heartfelt moments with razor sharp humor while accidentally saving the day, the Planet Express crew is back, defying gravity and common sense. From the creator of The Simpsons comes 10 new episodes where the romance is hotter, the threats are bigger and the action hits harder. Don't miss the all new season of Futurama returning September 15th at 8pm Watch it on FXX or streaming on Hulu.
- [01:00]
Chris Melanfi
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 sl 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 slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.
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Musical Artist / Performer
Foreign.
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Chris Melanfi
Welcome 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 today's show. Thirty years ago this month in September 1995, pop queen Mariah Carey blew up on Billboard's Hot 100 with Fantasy, one of the biggest hits in her dominant 90s streak. Carrie was, to say the least, not new to topping the chart. This was her ninth number one hit out of her career, total of 19. But Fantasy was historic for several reasons. It was one of the first sample based pop songs to top the Hot 100 in its remix featuring rapper Ol Dirty Bastard. Fantasy also helped establish the rap and be duet Me and Mariah go back like babies or pacifiers. But what was most historic about Fantasy was was the way it entered the hot 100 straight in at the top not only had no prior Mariah Carey song debuted at number one before, it was one of the first songs period to debut at number one in America and the first ever by a female artist. This had never happened on the charts before 1995. Debuting at number one might sound like the sort of thing only certified classic songs do, but it's a little more complicated than that. In the three decades since Fantasy, more than 80 additional songs have started on top of the Hot 100, and they are quite a hodgepodge. Certainly some of them, like Fantasy, are well remembered to this day. They may even be among the artists most widely known songs. However, some number one debuts by major artists were lesser songs in their catalogs, hyped upon release, but then pretty forgettable.
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Musical Artist / Performer
I'mma show you how to get it.
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Chris Melanfi
It go Right foot up left foot slide Left foot up right foot slide Basically I'm saying either way we bout to slide can't let this one slide and some number one debuts are total head scratchers, fluke hits that capture a weird cultural moment.
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Musical Artist / Performer
What the world's gotten to for people like me People like you Wish I could just wake up and it not.
- [05:28]
Chris Melanfi
Be true Even as number one debuts have become more common on the Hot 100, it's still the hardest trick to pull off on the pop charts. Number one album debuts occur dozens of times a year. Superstars routinely launch their new LPs at number one. Like Lady Gaga for instance, who just this year scored the seventh number one album debut of her career. But Gaga has only debuted a single at number one a couple of times, and when she did, it was a much bigger deal. And yet, as we often say in the charts game, it's not where you start, but where you finish. For every song that's launched at the top of the Hot 100 that's now considered a modern classic, hello from the.
- [06:42]
Musical Artist / Performer
Other side.
- [06:48]
Chris Melanfi
Or an inescapable earworm now.
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Musical Artist / Performer
My bed sheets smell like you Every.
- [06:54]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Day Discovering something brand new.
- [07:03]
Chris Melanfi
There are number one debuts that virtually no one thinks of as a greatest hit.
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Musical Artist / Performer
Come.
- [07:16]
Chris Melanfi
Getter even your man now Nicky's doing better Today on Hit Parade, we will explain how songs begin their lives. As John Lennon liked to say, the toppermost of the popper most we'll go back before the 1990s to explain why songs didn't start on top sooner then journey to the era of the commanding vocal diva from Mariah to Whitney, right through to the present day, when our current wave of pop girlies often make grand entrances at the top of the charts. It happened just this year, in fact.
- [08:10]
Epglis Medication Announcer
Oh boy.
- [08:21]
Chris Melanfi
And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending June 2020, 21st, 2025. When Man Child by Sabrina Carpenter became the 85th song in Billboard Hot 100 history to enter the chart at number one, it was Carpenter's first single ever to open on top. But like so many number one debuts, that grand entrance might say more about the artist's rabid fandom than about the song itself. Will Man Child go down as a Carpenter classic? Time will tell, but for now, join me for a dive down the chart geek rabbit hole as I explain the odd alchemy that gives certain hits a fast pass to the front of the line. How and why do songs debut at number one? Stick around this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policy. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [10:19]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [10:55]
Chris Melanfi
Before we begin our study of the Hot 100, America's flagship pop chart, let's take a peek across the Atlantic to the charts of the United Kingdom. Of course, the British consumed their share of American popular music as part of their hit parade. And as it happens, this song by a U S rock and roll Legend was the first single to debut top the UK chart nearly 70 years ago. Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock. It opened at number one in the UK in January 1958. That was less than six years after the British charts launched. So basically the UK has had number one debuts almost as long as they've had charts. But in America it took longer for songs to start debuting at number one. About three decades longer. I mentioned Mariah Carey at the top of our show. Her 1995 hit Fantasy was the first number one debut on our Hot 100 by a female artist. But it wasn't the first period. This song was Michael Jackson's You Are Not Alone debuted at number one the first week of September 1995. Ironically, when it went to number one, Jackson was married to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley. That marriage didn't last long, to say the least. You Are Not Alone, the last of Jackson's 13 solo career number ones on the Hot 100, is not his greatest hit. For starters, it was written by 90s R B star and convicted sex offender R. Kelly. Considering Jackson's own checkered past, that makes you Are Not Alone pretty dubious. Tom Bryan, writer of Stereogum's column the Number Ones, calls it, quote, the most canceled number one hit of all time. An uncomfortable curiosity, unquote. But even Michael Jackson's own fans don't recall this song all that fondly. You Are Not Alone has the lowest Spotify play count of any solo Michael Number one except for his childhood chart topper Ben and as radio analyst Sean Ross reported in a recent Radio Insight article, as of 2025 the song receives fairly low airplay for a Jackson Chart topper, about 150 spins a week nationwide, a fraction of the radio plays now received by other Jackson hits like Billie Jean or Rock with you. Still, you can't take away its chart achievement. Before you Are Not Alone, no song had ever debuted at number one on the Hot 100. Jackson's final chart topping hit is historic, and this month is the 30th anniversary of that chart feat.
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Musical Artist / Performer
Not Alone I Am Here.
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Chris Melanfi
The fact that a second tier Michael Jackson hit was the Hot 100's first number one debut says a lot about number one debuts. They are often not the artist's best. In general, they reflect record label machinations, some might even say shenanigans. Although when it comes to chart jockeying, it's remarkable what's legal. We'll get to that in a bit more Generally, a number one debut reflects pent up demand by an artist's loyal fan base. Say the fans of Justin Bieber or Ariana Grande. Or in the case of 2020's pandemic era, number one debut stuck with you, both Bieber and Grande. When I say loyal, I mean the fans who are eager to consume anything the superstar puts out. Nowadays, these fan armies, like the famed fandom of K pop deities bts, who are literally called the BTS army, will do the labels work for them. These fandoms in effect vote with their Spotify clicks and their download purchases to give their heroes a number one debut. Moreover, a number one debut often reflects the afterglow of the act's prior slower growing hits. There's a name for this phenomenon. I coined it and discussed it in a prior Hit Parade episode. I call it the AC DC Rule. The AC DC Rule states that the initial chart performance of a recording is a reflection of the artist's last hit. I named it after ACDC because the Hard Rock band's first and for a long time only number one album was the LP after their biggest seller Back in Black. Mainly, my AC DC rule applies to albums, not singles, but there have been singles that have debuted at number one that got there thanks to the success of a prior hit. A good example is Lil Nas X's smash Call Me by youy Name, which opened at number one in 2021. Montero is a very good song and eventually a big radio hit that nonetheless would never have debuted on top of the Hot 100 if his slower growing 2019 blockbuster Old Town Road hadn't come first.
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Musical Artist / Performer
I got the horses in the bag Horse stock is attached Head is maddie black got the bushes black to match.
- [18:42]
Chris Melanfi
My point is, even when the song is good, when it comes to number one debuts, that big opening almost always reflects something extra musical, an artist who is at an imperial or culturally dominant peak. To understand why this is, we first have to explain how Billboard's charts created the conditions that made number one debuts possible, and why it took so long for the number one debut to become a thing in the U S Consideration the Beatles Can't Buy Me Love, one of their earliest number one hits on the Hot 100. Released in March of 1964 at the height of the first wave of Beatlemania in America, the song was highly anticipated. It was an advance single from the Beatles forthcoming movie A Hard Day's Night, which was still in production and wouldn't be released until the summer of 64. In late March of that year, Can't Buy Me Love debuted on the Hot 100 at number 27. That was already very rare in the 60s. Songs did not often debut within the top 40. And then just one week later on the chart dated April 4, 1964, Can't Buy Me Love leapt a record 26 spaces from number 27 to number one. Now keep in mind, this was the analog era of the Billboard charts, decades before they were computerized and the data became more accurate. So while I can't say this definitively, it is pretty safe to assume that with better data, Can't Buy Me Love surely would have debuted at number one rather than debuting at number 27 and taking a second week to leap to number one. But in 1964, when the charts relied on a manual process of retailers and disc jockeys reporting their biggest songs to Billboard every week, it was basically impossible for a song to start at the top of the charts, even a song as eagerly and rapidly consumed as Can't Buy Me Love. However, I did say a few moments ago that number one debuts were happening on the British charts as early as 1958, and they didn't have computerized data collection on that side of the pond either. What was the difference in America? In a word, radio Love Me, Duke.
- [22:10]
Musical Artist / Performer
77 radio WAVC, the station at the.
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Chris Melanfi
As we've discussed in several prior Hit Parade episodes, the big difference between America's Hot 100 chart and the official UK chart, or indeed virtually any other chart around the world, is the inclusion of radio airplay data. We count it. The Brits don't. For most of its history, the UK singles chart was a sales only chart. Only sales of 45 RPM singles counted. That's what made it easier for songs like Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock or It's Now Or Never to enter the British charts at number one. Sell enough copies of that 45 in a week and the song could arrive on top.
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Musical Artist / Performer
It's Lord, Never Come Home, Kiss Me My Darling.
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Chris Melanfi
But in America, the secret sauce of Billboard's Hot 100, the formula that makes it unique is its blending of sales of singles with radio airplay spins. For the entire analog era of the charts, that proved impossible, although the Beatles did come close several times. In the late summer of 1968, the Beatles debuted on the Hot 100 all the way up at number 10 with hey Jude, a new record for the chart's highest debut ever. Less than a year later, in the spring of 69, the Fab Four tied their own record when Get Back also entered the chart at number 10 one year after that. But in the spring of 1970, the Beatles reset the benchmark again when their penultimate single, Let It Be, debuted on the Hot 100 at a lofty number six.
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Musical Artist / Performer
Let it be, Let it be, Let it be, Let it Be, yeah, There Will Be an Answer.
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Chris Melanfi
Let It Be held the record for highest debut in Hot 100 history for a quarter century, from 1970 until 1995. That's when the Beatles were finally eclipsed by the self dubbed King of Pop. In the early summer of 1995, Michael Jackson issued Scream, a duet with his sister Janet Jackson that served as the first single from Michael's double album history. A combination greatest hits collection and new studio CD, Scream debuted on the Hot 100 all the way up up at number five, edging out the Beatles 25 year old chart record with Let It Be. So what had changed in those 25 years? Michael Jackson was certainly a chart titan, but by 95 he wasn't at the zenith of his popularity. Why would his latest hit debut so high? True, the curiosity surrounding the pairing with his sister certainly was a factor. But the bigger change in the charts by the 90s was the addition of SoundScan to the Hot 100. We've covered this on many prior hit parade episodes. SoundScan was the barcode scanning system that accurately tallied music sales in record stores for the first time. A companion technology, Broadcast Data Systems, did the same for tallying spins on radio stations. When Billboard added these technologies to its charts in 1991, they became way more accurate. SoundScan boosted the fortunes of genres that had never done so well on the pop charts before, including country music, hip hop.
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Musical Artist / Performer
So when I'm in your neighborhood you.
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Better duck down Cause Ice Cube a.
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Damn show Fuck em down as I leave leave I'm stomping but when I.
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Chris Melanfi
Come back boy I'm coming straight outta Compton Compton and alternative rock. One other improvement that Soundscan brought to the charts was not just accuracy, but also speed. If an album or a single had a huge first week of sales, the charts would reflect that immediately. And in the summer of 95, that's what happened with Michael and Janet Jackson's Scream. Sony Music, Michael Jackson's label, had been promoting Scream to pop radio stations for about a month month when the single arrived in stores. The song's strong airplay, coupled with a first week of heavy sales, made it possible for Scream to enter the Hot 100 at a lofty number five, by the way. Back then, Billboard's rules stated that a song was not eligible for the Hot 100 until it was for sale as a retail single. This was part of Sony's magic trick. They had pre hyped the song to radio before putting the single in music stores. So Scream went from a radio only hit absent from the Hot 100 to a retail single and poof, it instantly materialized in the top five. Could Sony pull off this trick again? For the second single from Jackson's history album, Sony would try to beat their own record. What if they promoted the new song to radio for two months before putting it on sale. The result was an even higher debut for that second single, all the way up at number one. That song was you Are Not Old Lungs. By the time you Are Not Alone arrived in record stores, it was already the seventh most played song at US radio. So its first week sales of 120,000 copies made a number one debut. A foregone conclusion. You are not alone spent just one week at number one on the Hot 100 before falling off, but its place in chart history was secure. By the way, this shows the lengths that labels would go and the level of coordination it took between radio and retail to score a big debut. A few weeks after you Are Not Alone, Sony pulled off the magic trick again when Mariah Carey's Fantasy debuted at number one. Unlike Jackson's you, you Are Not Alone, Carrie's fantasy turned out to be a massive and well loved hit. It spent eight weeks at number one through the fall of 1995 and it set up Carrie for an even bigger follow up hit when her duet with R B vocal troupe Boyz II Men One Sweet Day dropped in November, it not only debuted at number one, it stayed on top for a then record 16 weeks. After all this unprecedented Hot 100 success by Sony Music's flagship acts, other labels lined up to duplicate the feature with their big artists for three years. Several other singles pulled off number one debuts, all of them by megastars at or near the apex of their cultural clout. These megastars included Whitney Houston, whose hit from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, Exhale Shoop Shoop, also opened at number one. Between the two Mariah hits, Sean Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, launched his tribute to his hip hop comrade Biggie Smalls, the police sampling ballad I'll Be Missing you at number one in the summer of 1997, Celine Dion debuted her Oscar winning ballad from the blockbuster movie Titanic, my Heart Will Go on at number one in the winter of 1998. Later that year, Aerosmith debuted on top with their monster ballad from the summer blockbuster Armageddon. The Diane Warren penned I Don't want to Miss a thing, don't wanna cry.
- [34:01]
Musical Artist / Performer
Close my eyes, I don't want to fall asleep Cause I miss you baby and I.
- [34:10]
Chris Melanfi
And in the fall of 98, Lauryn Hill, making her celebrated solo debut after the success of her former rap troupe the Fugees, debuted at number one with her first single, doo Wop that thing.
- [34:29]
Musical Artist / Performer
You know you better watch out. Some girls, some girls are only about that.
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Chris Melanfi
A month after Lauryn Hill blew up at number one. Billboard made a major change in chart policy spurred by the great war against the single, the 90s phenomenon of labels refusing to release certain radio hits as singles, which I detailed in an early episode of Parade. Billboard would now allow non retail radio only singles to chart on the Hot 100 for the first time. This policy change was not intended to eliminate number one debuts, but in effect it made them harder to achieve. If a song could chart based only on radio spins, most singles would now chart lower first, then rise to a peak later. The Sony style number one debut, Magic Trick, pumping up radio spins early, then dropping a retail single and watching it explode was neutered. The number one debut went into hibernation on the charts for about half a decade. It would take an extraordinary televised pop phenomenon to bring it back more in a moment. Cooler temps are rolling in and as always, you can turn to Quints for fall staples that actually last. From cashmere to denim to boots, the quality holds up and the prices are unbeatable. I can't stop raving about the jeans I bought from Quince. These jeans were not only very affordable and very high quality, I now wear them more often than other jeans I previously purchased at two to three times the price. What makes Quint's different? They partner directly with ethical factories and skip the middlemen so you get top tier fabrics and craftsmanship at half the price of similar brands. Keep it classic and cool this fall with long lasting style staples from quince. Go to quints.com hitparade for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com hit parade to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com hitparade this episode is brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue. Saks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to get creative with your personal style and find the best arrivals for fall. Whether you're trying out the latest fashion trends or curating a closet that stands the test of time, Saks has you covered. Their trusted in store stylists are there to guide and inspire you. You helping you find pieces that fit every aspect of your lifestyle. Prefer online shopping? Saks.com offers a curated selection tailored to your taste from new arrivals by your favorite designers like Prada jackets and Gucci loafers to stylish pieces for your everyday needs. If you want shopping to be fun and easy, then head to Saks Fifth Avenue for inspiring ways to elevate your personal style every day.
- [38:33]
Epglis Medication Announcer
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- [38:53]
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Epglis Medication Announcer
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- [39:34]
Chris Melanfi
In the 2000s, the launch of the televised singing competition American Idol became a cultural event not just on tv, where it quickly rose to number one in the ratings, but also on the charts. For much of its first decade, American Idol generated serious pop stars who scored major chart hits. In fact, finalists from the first five seasons all scored hot 100 number ones. The only one of them who didn't debut at number one was, ironically, the show's first and most celebrated winner, Kelly Clarkson. In October 2002, barely one month after she won the show's first season, Clarkson's Idol coronation song, A Moment like like this, debuted in the middle of the Hot 100. The song charted entirely on radio airplay for two weeks. Then, in its third week, Clarkson's moment hurtled from number 52 to number one, by the way, beating the Beatles record for the biggest leap to the top. The reason Clarkson's single started lower on the charts was that she was actually popular enough to score some early radio spins. That was not the case the following year, when an Idol finalist scored a hit with meager radio play but gargantuan sales. Even though Clay Aiken was only the runner up of the second season of American Idol, his army of fans who called themselves I kid you not. The Claymates were determined to make him a chart topper. They bought nearly 400,000 copies of his debut single, this this Is the Night in its first week. That was more than enough to make up for the song's near total lack of radio spins. In fact, the lack of airplay turned his song into a number one debut. This is the Night went from nowhere on the Hot 100 to instant number one status in June 2003. In case you're curious, the actual winner of Idol's second season, Reuben Studdard, debuted his coronation song, Flying without wings at number two after Clay Aiken reopened the Hot 100 to number one debuts for the first time since 1998. For three more years, the American Idol pattern was virtually the same. An Idol season would end. The finalists would release their debut singles. Those singles would score little to no radio airplay, but massive first week retail sales and those sales would were enough to generate number one debuts on the Hot 100. It happened in 2004 to Fantasia Barrino, winner of Idol's third season recording under her mononym Fantasia. Her gospel inflected coronation song, I Believe debuted on top. It happened again in 2005 to Idol Victor Carrie Underwood. Though Underwood would go on to a hugely successful career as a frequent country hitmaker and occasional pop hitmaker. In the immediate wake of her season four American Idol victory, few radio stations touched her coronation ballad, Inside your Heaven, but its huge sales resulted in another Hot 100 number one debut. And well, the less said about Idol season five winner Taylor Hicks and his coronation song, Do I make you proud? The better though it too was a number one debut on the Hot 100 in 2006.
- [44:57]
Musical Artist / Performer
Be Afraid of standing out, but do I make you proud?
- [45:06]
Chris Melanfi
Taylor Hicks was the last American Idol finalist to score An Instant Hot 100 Number one as the show's cultural relevance waned slightly. But what that half decade of Idol driven chart toppers revealed was just how how fluky number one debuts actually were. The late 90s wave of number one debuts were all superstars. Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Lauryn Hill. Even then, record label machinations fueled these singles blockbuster openings. But the Idol wave of the aughts was fueled by an even flukier set of circumstances. Songs that were were uninteresting to the larger radio audience. People who maybe didn't watch American Idol, but vitally important to a few hundred thousand TV watchers who bought piles of the Idol's CD singles. And while Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood went on to become legitimate music stars. From then on, their hits had to climb the charts the old fashioned way.
- [46:20]
Musical Artist / Performer
You gotta be.
- [46:34]
Chris Melanfi
After that first Idol wave passed, the number one debut went dormant again for a few years. What finally brought it back was the growth of digital music, songs that could be downloaded and eventually streamed. In the age of electronic dance music, these digital hits blew up big time. The itunes, music store and later Spotify gave music fans a frictionless way to consume their music. That made it even easier for songs to explode out of nowhere before they had begun to amass a radio audience. After digital music re established the number one debut, it has been with us basically ever since. Starting in two 2009, each year has produced at least one number one debut, often several. But if anything, those number one debuts have only grown more random and unpredictable. For example, in 2009 Britney Spears scored her first number one debut. You might guess the explosive hit that entered on top was a Britney classic from the aughts like Toxic, Gimme More or Womanizer. Instead, the insta smash was three a Spears hit that's less well remembered today. Its modern day Spotify plays and radio spins are a fraction of Britney's other hits from that era. But back in the day, three generated first week download sales of over a quarter million copies, which was massive enough to propel the song to the penthouse in its first week.
- [48:58]
Musical Artist / Performer
Are you.
- [49:03]
Chris Melanfi
The same went for Eminem. His only number one debut isn't Lose yourself or love the way you lie, it's 2010's not afraid, a pump up anthem that's well liked by Eminem fans, but not as quintessential to M's catalog as those other hits.
- [49:24]
Musical Artist / Performer
I'm not afraid to take a stand, Take a stand, everybody Everybody.
- [49:35]
Chris Melanfi
In the 2000 and tens when a superstar debuted at number one with a well regarded hit, she was often coming back with the lead single from a highly anticipated follow up album. Whether it was Lady Gaga with the title track from her second full length studio album Born this Way. Taylor Swift, who led off her blockbuster album 1989 with the number one debut Shake it off for Adele, who set a download sales record with the first single from her 2015 comeback album 25. Her power ballad hello launched with 1.1 million in first week sales, making its number one debut an inevitability Streaming music from services like Spotify was added to the hot 1/0 formula in 2012, but it didn't overtake downloads in the charts. Math until the mid 2010s what the takeover of streaming meant for the number one debut was that more rappers and zoomer pop stars were the ones launching on top of the chart, whether that was frequently chart topper Drake, hip hop inflected vocal diva Ariana Grande, rapper trapper Travis Scott, whose loopy single releases are promoted like FOMO events, and the rock leaning pop starlet Olivia Rodrigo, whose loyal fan base has launched several of her hits as at number one. Still, for all the superstars debuting on top in the streaming era, the chart math is still haphazard enough that week to week, it's anyone's guess what will break through. Artists who have never gone to number one before might align the stars for one exceptional hit like say, the Jonas Brothers in 2019 who launched on top for the first and only time in their career with Sucker or a minor key hit by a major star might blow up another week, like Taylor Swift, whose number one debuts have not all been her obvious pop bangers such as 2020's Moody cardigan. Or artists who don't read as pop stars at all might see their fortunes change with a number one debut like country folk rocker Zach Bryan, whose 2023 Casey Musgraves duet I Remember Everything launched atop the Hot 100. Does this touching but morose dirge sound like an instant number one? It was as hard as it is to find patterns in these insta hits, we can at the very least assess what became of them in the weeks, months and years after they rang the bell. The one thing almost all number one debuts have in common is their sales or streams in week one overwhelmed their radio spins weeks before they became big airplay hits. But we can use radio as a yardstick for measuring their afterlife. And the results. Well, there are as many stories as there are chart topping hits. We Were Good, We Were Gold, Kinda.
- [54:56]
Musical Artist / Performer
Dream that can't be sold.
- [55:00]
Chris Melanfi
We were right when we come back. Sure, they started out big, but years later, what became of those dozens of number one debuts? Some are historic or ancient history, some are superstar classics or footnotes to their fame, and some have all but disappeared. I use radio and Spotify data to break them all down, separating the ones you can't forget from the you had to be theirs. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producers this month were Kevin Bendis and Olivia Briley. Our supervising producer is Joel Meyer and the executive producer of Slate podcasts is Mia Lobel. 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 them 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.
- [56:52]
Musical Artist / Performer
I can love you better baby.
- [56:59]
Chris Melanfi
This episode is brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue. Saks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to get creative with your personal style and find the best arrivals for fall. Whether you're trying out the latest fashion trends or curating a closet that stands the test of time, Saks has you covered. Their trusted in store stylists are there to guide and inspire you, helping you find pieces that fit every aspect of your lifestyle. Prefer online shopping? Saks.com offers a curated selection tailored to your taste from new arrivals by your favorite designers like Prada jackets and Gucci loafers to stylish pieces for your everyday needs. If you want shopping to be fun and easy, then head to Saks Fifth Avenue for inspiring ways to elevate your personal style every day.
- [57:59]
Emily
Hi, it's Emily from Slate Money. Are you ready to learn something new this fall? Slate Money is featured in Apple Podcasts Learn Something New collection this September and to celebrate, we are offering an extended two week free trial of Slate plus, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. As a Slate plus member, you'll get ad free listening on every Slate show. Get sharp, clear legal analysis on Amicus, smart, funny takes on the Zeitgeist from Culture Gabfest, fearless political commentary from Political Gabfest and of course, debriefings on the latest economic headlines from Slate Money. That's the podcast I'm on, all uninterrupted. Plus you'll unlock bonus episodes across Slate Podcasts, deeper dives, candid conversations, and more of the content you love love. Don't miss out. Try two weeks of Slate plus for free now on Apple Podcasts or visit slate.com moneyplus to get access everywhere you listen.