The “Song of the Summer” is an old concept but a fairly new sport. Pop artists since the ’60s have on occasion tried to score a self-conscious summer smash—but the media only began studying the horserace a decade or two ago. We’re barely into June, and already several outlets have offered predictions for 2014. But [...] Read more

Three decades ago, in an interview with chart-trivia master Fred Bronson for his Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry said the following about 1981’s “Rapture”—the song with the rap about the man from Mars who’s eatin’ cars, and the first Hot 100 No. 1 song to feature rapping. “It took [...] Read more