50 Years of the Billboard Hot 100: The Fifth Decade (2000-2007)
We have come to the end of our exploration of the 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100. The beginning of the last decade starts with two songs that never went to #1, but ended up winning the Year-End #1 chart of their years. It ends with a solo #1 from a singer of one of the most successful girl groups of the new millennium. Unlike the ‘90s, the 2000’s rocked a little more. It’s now time to delve into the Year-End #1’s from 2000 to 2007 (my prediction…in case you were curious…is that the #1 tune of 2008 will go to “Low” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain, which spent 10 weeks at #1 earlier this year.) Hey…if Go-Go’s lead singer Belinda Carlisle, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, country singers Marty Stuart and Alan Jackson, Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon, and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx can all turn 50…why can’t the Hot 100?
2000 – “Breathe” by Faith HillThis song was the first song on this list to not go to #1 originally during its original run since “Wooly Bully” by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs, which was the number one song of 1965. It peaked at #2 (and it stayed on the chart for more than a year), though it did spend 6 weeks at #1 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, 17 weeks at #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, and one week at #1 on the Adult Top 40 chart. It also won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and was nominated for Song of the Year (it lost to “Beautiful Day” by U2.) It was the first Year-End #1 country song since 1959’s “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton. Country music parodist Cledus T. Judd recorded a parody of the song, called “Breath” (about a person with bad breath), on his 2002 album Cledus Envy.
2001 – “Hanging by a Moment” by LifehouseFirst, there was “Wooly Bully,” then there was “Breathe,” and finally there was “Hanging by the Moment.” The song became the third #1 song in the history of the Hot 100 Year-End charts to not peak at #1 on its original chart run (it peaked at #2.) It was #1 in Australia and #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks, the Adult Top 40, the Top 40 Tracks, and the Hot 100 Airplay charts though. The song was adopted as the unofficial theme for the 2000/2001 NHL season. Most importantly though…it was the return of rock! (Well…if you can call “Look Away” by Chicago “rock.”)
2002 – “How You Remind Me” by NickelbackYes…rock is back again! Unfortunately, this song would be the last rock song to go to #1 on the regular Hot 100 chart for six years…until Maroon 5 finally topped the chart with their song “Makes Me Wonder.” It stayed at #1 on the Hot 100 for four weeks (starting in December of 2001) and on the chart overall for 49 weeks. It also topped both the Mainstream and Modern Rock charts for 13 weeks, and was #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay Track chart and Hot Top 40 Track chart as well. It was nominated for Record of the Year at the 2003 Grammy Awards (it lost out to “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones.”) VH1 ranked the song as the sixteenth Greatest Power Ballad of All Time. It was the last Year-End #1 for a rock song in the Hot 100’s first 50 years. Let’s hope that rock will come back in the next 50 years (2008 has produced only two #1 rock songs so far…”Viva la Vida” by Coldplay and “So What” by Pink…which both went to #1 for only one week.)
2003 – “In da Club” by 50 CentEminem’s protégé Curtis James “50 Cent” Jackson III performed the ultimate party hit of 2003 with this song. Written by Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo, and Fiddy himself, the song peaked at #1 for nine weeks on the Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 22 weeks. The track also reached #1 on the Top 40 Tracks, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and Hot Rap Tracks charts. In March 2003, it broke a Billboard record as the “most listened-to” song in radio history within a week. At the 46th Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song (both awards ultimately went to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”) In January 2006, 50 Cent was sued for copyright infringement by former 2 Live Crew manager Joe Weinberger, who owns the rights to the rap group’s catalog. He claimed that 50 Cent plagiarized the lines “it’s your birthday” from former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell on his 1994 album Still a Freak for Life. U.S. District Judge Paul Huck, who ruled that the phrase was a “common, unoriginal and noncopyrightable element of the song,” dismissed the lawsuit. The song was spoofed by British rapper 50 Pence as “In da Pub.” It also happens to be the only song that I personally like by Mr. Jackson.
2004 – “Yeah!” by Usher featuring Lil Jon and LudacrisIf you thought that “In da Club” was the party hit of 2003, then you would definitely agree that “Yeah!” was the party hit of 2004. Staying at #1 for 12 weeks, the song became the biggest hit in the careers so far of Usher, Lil Jon, and Ludacris. Lil Jon produced it, combining crunk and R&B genres. The song stayed at #1 for 12 weeks and remained on Hot 100 for 45 weeks. It was nominated at the 2005 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year (it lost to “Here We Go Again” by Ray Charles and Norah Jones), and won the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration award.
2005 – “We Belong Together” by Mariah CareyAfter a public breakdown on MTV’s “Total Request Live” and the Golden Raspberry Award-nominated semi-autobiographical film bomb Glitter (with a low-selling soundtrack…released on 9/11/2001), Virgin/EMI Records dropped Carey from the label. She signed with Island Records and released the moderately successful Charmbracelet in 2002. Her real comeback came in 2005 with the release of The Emancipation of Mimi and this song, which topped the Hot 100 for 14 non-consecutive weeks (the longest solo stay for her in her career so far.) It became the first song simultaneously to occupy the #1 position on nine Billboard charts on the week ending August 6, 2005: the Hot 100, Hot 100 Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Pop 100 Airplay, the Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic Top 40, Hot Dance Music/Club Play, and the Hot Ringtones charts. Rush Hour director Brett Ratner directed the song’s music video, staring Eric Roberts and “Prison Break’s” Wentworth Miller. It was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2006: Best R&B Song (which she won), Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (which she also won), Record of the Year (awarded to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day), and Song of the Year (awarded to “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own” by U2.) Carey has since gone to #1 two more times, and at 18 #1’s so far, she is the second most successful artist on the Hot 100 (behind the Beatles’ 20 #1’s.)
2006 – “Bad Day” by Daniel PowterIn the fifth season of FOX’s “American Idol,” they started using this song as the exit tune for the singers who were eliminated each week. Previously, the song had gained popularity in a 2005 French Coca-Cola commercial, propelling it to #2 on the UK Singles chart. After the exposure on “AI,” it topped the Hot 100 for five weeks and ultimately spent 32 weeks on the chart. It also went to #1 on the Adult Contemporary, the Adult Top 40, the Pop 100, and the Hot Digital Songs charts. It was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (it lost to “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer.) Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song in their 2007 film Alvin and the Chipmunks. Their version made the charts in January 2008, peaking at #86 on the Hot 100. Unfortunately, Powter’s follow-up singles so far haven’t managed to chart on the Hot 100 (though his song “Free Loop” peaked at #30 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.)
2007 – “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé KnowlesOriginally, the song was supposed to be a country tune when Tor Erik Hermansen of the Norwegian production team Stargate was collaborating with R&B-pop singer-songwriter Ne-Yo because of the country-sounding guitar lick. When Ne-Yo added drums, he thought it sounded like an “R&B-country western music song” and envisioned Shania Twain and Faith Hill during the sessions. When Beyoncé heard a demo for it, she liked it for her second solo album, B’Day, and after some drum, tempo, and vocal arrangements were made, it became the third single off the album (after the less-successful #4 song “Déjà Vu” and the #11 song “Ring the Alarm.”) It became her fourth #1 song (or eighth, if you count her four #1’s with her successful girl group Destiny’s Child), were it stayed there for ten consecutive weeks at the top spot (starting in December of 2006) and remained on the chart for 30 weeks. It was nominated for Record of the Year at the 2008 Grammy Awards (where is lost to “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse.) Beyoncé also recorded a Spanish version of the song called “Irreemplazable,” and was included on the second disc of the deluxe edition of B’Day, where it peaked at #4 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Ironically, the country band Sugarland, who was known for covering Knowles’ songs in their live performances, performed the song that was supposed to originally be a country tune. The singer herself joined them for the performance at the 2007 American Music Awards.