The #1 Hot 100 Song and other #1’s on Billboard for the week of November 1, 2008
Well…as I predicted…Britney Spears is a “Womanizer” no longer. I also suspected that one of the two previous #1 T.I. songs would knock her out of the top slot on the Billboard Hot 100 to reclaim the position again. I was wrong though on which T.I. song would do it. I thought America would rather “Live Your Life,” but they still prefer “Whatever You Like.” Yes…T.I.’s first solo #1 climbs back up one position to be #1 with a bullet for a sixth non-consecutive week, making it the first song to climb to #1 three times since Leona Lewis did it earlier this year with her song “Bleeding Love.” Before that, the last song to climb back to #1 for a third time was Chic with the song “Le Freak” in 1978 (it first hit #1 on the week ending December 9, 1978. After one week, it fell to #2, knocked out by the Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” [itself being a song “Le Freak” knocked out of the #1 spot the previous week], and returned to the top position on December 23, 1978. After two additional weeks at #1, it again fell to #2, this time replaced by “Too Much Heaven” by the Bee Gees, and then reclaimed #1 on January 20, 1979, where it remained for three additional weeks.) T.I.’s “Live Your Life” is up one spot to #2 with a bullet and is the Airplay Gainer for the week, so maybe he will replace himself again next week. Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” is #5 with a bullet for a second week, but I don’t see it as a threat. Taylor Swift has the Hot Shot Debut of the week with the song “Fearless” at #9 with a bullet, but if it goes the way of her last song, “Love Story,” I’m guessing that we still won’t see another country song top the Hot 100 anytime soon.
It’s also not a shock that I was correct about Kenny Chesney debuting at #1 on the Top 200 Albums chart with his new album Lucky Old Sun. It sold 176,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan…but it’s the lowest sales debut for one of his studio albums since Everywhere We Go debuted with 30,000 at #51 in 1999. Despite being a Wal-Mart exclusive, I think that AC/DC’s new album in eight years, Black Ice, will be the #1 album next week. Jennifer Hudson begins a second week at #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with her song “Spotlight.” Toby Keith’s “She Never Cried in Front of Me” moves from #2 to #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart to give the singer his seventeenth #1 there (Keith has 14 chart-toppers this decade, ahead of Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, who have 12 each.) Rockers have been consistent for over a month now, because The Offspring’s “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” is #1 on Modern Rock chart for a fifth week and Metallica’s “The Day That Never Comes” is #1 on Mainstream Rock chart for a sixth non-consecutive week. All chart information was found on Billboard.com.
If you are bored with “Whatever You Like” as I am, there is some (comic) relief out there. For the first time in his almost 30-year career, “Weird Al” Yankovic has parodied a hit song…while it was still #1 on the Hot 100! Through the magic of digital download availability, his new song…also called “Whatever You Like” (the first time he has titled a song of his with the same name as the song he is parodying)…is much more entertaining than the original (in my opinion.) It is currently Bubbling Under the Hot 100 at number #104. The song has also garnered over one million listens on YouTube (check it out below) and over 100,000 listens on MySpace. Maybe it will make an amazing jump to #1 next week to become the first #1 of his career! One can only hope…