July 2015 - Chris Molanphy

Twenty-five years ago, in late July 1990, the Billboard Hot 100 welcomed a No. 1 single that, while very mediocre, would turn out to be quietly historic: the first of a new breed of chart-topper. The song was “She Ain’t Worth It,” a one-off pairing between Hawaiian pop crooner Glenn Medeiros and—dropping in more than halfway through with a [...] Read more

OMI’s rise to No. 1 makes it official: This is the summer of the remix. Still from the video for “Cheerleader”

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

Why Is OMI’s “Cheerleader” No. 1?

20 July 20152 February 2019

Well, America, you certainly are consistent. One year—to the week—after the Hot 100 was topped by the frilly, reggae-based, down-on-one-knee “Rude” by Canadian jammers Magic, Billboard’s flagship pop chart is topped by another border-crossing, reggae-derived tune ending in a popped question. Only this time the act actually hails from Jamaica: Clarendon native Omar Samuel Pasley, [...] Read more

Elton John, Peter and Gordon, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon. Photo illustration by Juliana Jiménez. Photos by Val Wilmer/Redferns; GAC/Capitol Records; GAB Archive/Redferns.

Culturebox Slate

Without the Beatles

16 July 20152 February 2019

The three strange Lennon-McCartney hits that went to No. 1 without Lennon or McCartney—and what they tell us about the secret to recording a smash. Fifty-one years ago this summer—in late June 1964—the No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop chart was a Lennon-McCartney composition. Only it wasn’t by the Beatles, and John Lennon [...] Read more