These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. An inarguable legend of country music, Merle Haggard had only one Top 40 single during his career. He was dominant of the country charts, delivering thirty-six #1 songs (and two more collaborations with others that reached the pinnacle), including a stretch from 1971 to 1976 when practically every single landed at the top. Across sixteen singles, he the forlorn ballad “The Emptiest Arms in the World” stalled … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Okie from Muskogee”

These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Beginning in 1987, the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet had a string of hits on the U.K. charts, while causing barely a ripple in the U.S. Each of their first ten singles landed in the U.K. Top 40, only one of which — their debut, “Wishing I Was Lucky” — appeared on the Billboard Hot 100. And that song peaked at a lackluster #58. If there … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Love Is All Around”

These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Ray Charles made a name for himself in the nineteen-fifties and a tremendous performer who could move effortlessly back and forth between jazz and rhythm and blues. He also spoke regularly about his love for country music, cultivated during his upbringing in the South. “Hillybilly music” is what Charles called it, and he was convinced he could make a fine record with a batch of suitable songs, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Born to Lose” and “If You Were Mine”