These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Keith Washington was a soul singer in the nineteen-nineties who regularly landed tracks on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart, but had only one of those songs crossover to the regular Billboard Top 40. Not surprisingly, that was his lone chart-topper on the R&B charts, a slow-moving, tender, highly emotive ballad called “Kissing You.” The second single from Washington’s debut album, Make … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Kissing You”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. As 1977 began, the Isley Brothers could claim a total of nine Top 40 hits across their fifteen years as a charting artist, beginning with the seminal “Shout,” which reached the Top 20 in 1962, and climbing all the way to #4 as recently as two years earlier, with “Fight the Power (Part 1).” That year, the line-up consisted of actual siblings Ernie, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Livin’ in the Life”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Straight outta Hanover, Pennsylvania, the Pixies Three were a girl group trio comprised of high schoolers Midge Bollinger, Kaye McCool, and Debra Swisher. After being snapped up by Mercury Records on the basis of Philadelphia talent show appearances. The label initially named them the Pixies, based on the faddish haircut of the day, only to discover there was already a New York group … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Birthday Party”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Gunhill Road was a band from the Bronx that released their debut album (under the slightly different name Gun Hill Road), First Stop, in 1971. It experienced modest success at best, but did well enough that were given another shot one year later, releasing a self-titled LP that was produced by Kenny Rogers, then still releasing albums with the First Edition while moving … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Back When My Hair Was Short”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Over the course of his thirty-plus years as a recording artist, George Strait has recorded a total of forty-four #1 songs on the Billboard country chart, more than any other artist. It would be reasonable to assume, then, that he also had some amount of success on the pop charts, especially since the first of those country chart-toppers arrived in 1982, a time … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Go On”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. By my rough count, the Temptations made thirty-seven visits to the Billboard Top 40, not counting an early nineteen-nineties collaboration with Rod Stewart at the precise moment he gave up all pretenses of being anything other than treacly hack. Of those, four actually made it all the way to #1, beginning with the sweetest of romantic tributes and ending with with a funk … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Plastic Man” and “Happy People”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Eddie Floyd started at Stax Records as a songwriter. In the mid-nineteen-sixties, Floyd partnered with guitarist Steve Cropper to write something for Otis Redding, emerging with the song “Knock on Wood.” After hearing it Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records (then deeply connected to Stax) was convinced that Floyd didn’t need to loan the song out. He had a hit on his own if … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ve Never Found a Girl”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon was born in Jamaica, in 1966. By the time he arrived on American soils as a music industry figure in the mid nineteen-eighties, rubbing shoulders with the diverse likes of Chuck Berry and KRS-One, he had rechristened himself Shabba Ranks. He employed the Jamaican deejay practice of toasting (which was basically rapping), which made him sound especially unique to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Mr. Loverman”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. The Pointer Sisters had enjoyed five Top 40 singles by the time Bonnie, the second youngest of the group, left to pursue a solo career, in 1977. As these things often go, the remaining siblings wound up scoring their biggest hit to date the following year, with a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire”, which became their first Top 10 hit, peaking at #2 … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”