all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music
The Legend of Oates’ Mustache
This was too good to pass up…
I recently came across an article on billboard.com that says that there is a cartoon in the works called “J-Stache”. This animated series will focus on the adventures of one of the great mustachioed men of our time, John Oates. Oates will be a mild-mannered (wait for it) FAMILY MAN (that’s a Hall & Oates song, people) who turns into a crime-fighting superhero when his mustache attracts him back […]
Monday Message: John Mayer’s “Say”
I was going to write something about how much I enjoy John Mayer’s music even though the whole starlet-dating thing rubs me the wrong way. Then I was gonna write something about how happy I am that all the folks who cracked on me for liking him ate crow when “Continuum” came out. So then I decided to write something about how he always seems to express himself lyrically the exact way I would if […]
Number One Hits From Hell: “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)”
This week, “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry knocked Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, thus becoming the 1,000th Number One single of the rock era. As the majority of music buyers (I didn’t say music *lovers* mind you, but music buyers) view music as a song-by-song medium, having a #1 single is a pretty big deal, so to have been one of those 1,000 songs means that, for better or for worse, your song has struck a chord with someone.
However, that’s not to say that the folks that put songs at the top of the charts always exhibit good taste. Of course, some of the most iconic songs in music history have made it all the way to the apex of Billboard’s charts- a look at the amount of chart-toppers by Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, to name a few, bears that theory out. But there are a pretty good amount of legendary artists who have never hit the top of the singles charts. Bruce Springsteen has never had a #1. Neither has James Brown. Or Led Zeppelin. Or The Who. Luther Vandross? Nope. The Clash? Elvis Costello? Run-DMC? Public Enemy? The Beastie Boys? 3 top ten singles between them.
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