How Mattel learned to stop worrying and embrace Aqua’s infamous hit. As Barbie the movie finally arrives in theaters, Barbie: The Album, its soundtrack LP, lands with similar cultural conquest in mind. And like the Greta Gerwig–helmed film—an unusual but inspired match of director and movie franchise—the artists turning in soundtrack songs are many flavors [...] Read more

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