August 2013 - Chris Molanphy

Robin Thicke performs for "StePhest Colbchella '013: The Song of the Summer Of the Century" Still© Comedy Central

When Did the “Song of the Summer” Become a Thing?

9 August 20134 January 2019

Robin Thicke performs for "StePhest Colbchella '013: The Song of the Summer Of the Century" Still© Comedy Central When Stephen Colbert devotes an entire show to satirizing the competition for the “Song of the Summer of the Century,” the very idea of One Song to Rule Them All between Memorial Day and Labor Day has [...] Read more

Best Of NPR Music's The Record

How The Hot 100 Became America’s Hit Barometer

1 August 201311 February 2019

Listen at the audio link to Chris Molanphy and NPR's Audie Cornish talk on All Things Considered about the history of Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Hear that? On the radio? That slick, dreamy crooner dude, singing about how he's going out of his mind over that girl? Well, she's an animal — baby, it's in [...] Read more