The theatrical, thunderous singer was the perfect partner for the man behind the curtain. A little over 50 years ago, in the early summer of 1971, a pair of singers who’d gotten their big break in the roadshow version of the musical Hair made their debut on the Billboard charts. The duo’s breakthrough hit, “What [...] Read more

How did this happen?! And just how rare is this? We break it down. Last May, when Childish Gambino did the improbable and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with his satirical, superwoke art project “This Is America,” I wondered aloud what its legacy would be as a song. At the time, my [...] Read more

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

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