These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41.

One Life to Live debuted on ABC in July, 1968. The soap opera covered the doings in Philadelphia suburb called Llanview, particularly those relating to the Lord family, the monied familiar behind newspaper The Banner and other media ventures. One Life to Live spent decades dispensing salacious intrigues for homemakers and others who sought a distraction from the humdrum in the middle of the day.

Calvin Broadus Jr. was born in 1971, in Long Beach, California. As a boy, he picked up the nickname Snoopy because he was fond of the comic strip Peanuts and some familiar members felt he resembled the beagle of the same name who snoozed atop his dog house and got into improbable adventures. He started playing music in church and then progressed to rapping as a teenager. After some disagreeable encounters with law enforcement, he found his way to music business, adopting a stage name based on his childhood nickname. Snoop Dogg spent decades dropping rhymes and gladly taking just about any side-hustle offer that came his way.

In February, 2010, Snoop Dogg appeared on One Life to Live, his second stint as a guest star on the program. Among other duties, he performed the song “I Wanna Rock,” which had recently been released as the third single from his tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland. The same week of Snoop Dogg’s return to One Life to Live, “I Wanna Rock” reached its peak on the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at #41.

Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Top 40 Smash Near Misses” tag.