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. I find it interesting that so much modern country music has shown up in this feature, as if the chart compilers at Billboard have felt obligated to acknowledge the widespread popularity of the genre, but only want to do it half-heartedly. “This is popular, eh?” the Hot 100 chart seems to say. “Here, it made it to the Top 40. Now leave us … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Brand New Girlfriend”

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. Good lord. I suppose this seemed like a good idea to someone in the years immediately following the unlikely success of kiddie rap duo Kriss Kross. The Puppies represented another pairing of youngsters shouting out weirdly provocative nonsense over an insistent hip hop beat. In this instance, it was a brother and sister, Calvin “Big Boy” Mills and Tamara “Dee” Mills. Their self-titled … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Funky Y-2-C”

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 Chiffons came into being when Ronald Mack heard three girls singing together in a Bronx high school lunchroom. A fourth member was recruited and Mack wrote them a batch of songs, including “He’s So Fine,” which the group recorded with the Tokens as their backing band. The Chiffons kept experimenting–including the release of two charting singles as the Four Pennies–but it quickly … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “A Love So Fine”

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. She’s a little bit country, you know. Before Marie Osmond was paired up with her brother Donny on to infiltrate the homes of unsuspecting American viewers (a Faustian partnership that continues to this very day), she had a reasonably successful career as a country music artist, most notably with her debut single, “Paper Roses,” which topped the country charts and made it to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who’s Sorry Now?”

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. “Give It to Me Baby” gave Rick James his second trip to the Billboard Top 40, following “You and I,” released in 1978. “Give it To Me Baby” was the first single from James’s 1981 album, Street Songs. A smash on the R&B charts, where it went all the way to the top, James had to settle for more modest crossover success, as … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Give It to Me Baby” and “Cold Blooded”

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. If there’s any doubt whatsoever that Donna Summer was the queen of the disco era, consider the following: in 1978 and 1979, Summer had three consecutive double albums top the Billboard chart, the first artist to accomplish that feat, and placed four separate singles atop the Hot 100, including a duet with Barbra Streisand (amazingly, “Last Dance,” practically the official anthem of disco … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who Do You Think You’re Foolin’”

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. Bobby Darin has a remarkable twenty-two singles make it onto the Billboard Top 40, including an especially notable chart-topper. Though Darin was an accomplished songwriter, penning a number of his own hits, he had some of his greatest successes with covers, including “Beyond the Sea,” the English language translation of a French song that become enough of a signature tune that its title … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Nature Boy”

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. Patrick “Sleepy” Brown is the son of Jimmy Brown, who served as the lead vocalist and saxophonist for the nineteen-seventies funk band Brick, best known for the mid-decade hit “Dazz”. With seventies soul music wrapped into his DNA, Sleepy Brown brought that bygone sound into more modern music as one of the co-founders and primary creative forces behind the Atlanta production outfit Organized … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Wait”

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. A guy born Vladimir John Ondrasik III is probably making the right choice in adopting a stage name before going into showbiz. Rather than adopt a straightforward name, Ondrasik opted for a moniker that called to mind a band, taking inspiration from his favorite sport, hockey. Under the name Five for Fighting, Ondrasik came out with his debut album, Message for Albert, in … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Riddle (You and I)”

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 Delfonics formed in Philadelphia, where the original band members met as students at Overbrook High School in the nineteen-sixties. They operated around the fringes of the music industry before coming to the attention of Stan Watson, the owner of the Philly Groove record label. The Delfonics were teamed with producer Thom Bell (who’d previously worked with them at Cameo Records) and they … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “You Got Yours and I’ll Get Mine” and “Trying to Make a Fool of Me”