“Santa Baby” - Eartha Kitt with Henri Rene & His Orchestra (1953) #7 (Pop Singles)

Joan Javits (the niece of the late former New York Senator Jacob K. Javits), Philip Springer, and Tony Springer wrote the song in 1953 as a tongue in cheek look at a Christmas list sung by a woman who wants the most extravagant gifts like sable, yachts, and decorations from Tiffany’s. The song was a huge hit for Kitt, and she later said that it was one of her favorite songs to record. Kitt recorded a sequel, “This Year’s Santa Baby,” in 1954, to no commercial success; she also reprised the original song for a 1963 re-recording with a more uptempo arrangement (Madonna’s popular rendition for the 1987 charity album A Very Special Christmas is based on this latter version.) The song gained considerable exposure after it was featured in the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy. (more…)

 
As of this week, T.I. is the king of the Billboard Hot 100.  “Live Your Life” (with Rihanna) spends a fourth non-consecutive week at #1 with a bullet…which means that he has spent more weeks at #1 than any other artist in 2008 (”Life,” combined with his other #1, “Whatever You Like,” makes 11 weeks at #1, beating Flo Rida featuring T-Pain’s 10-week stay with their song “Low.”)  I’m predicting one more week for “Life” though next week, because last week’s threats, Kanye West’s “Heartless” and Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold,” both dropped positions.  “Hot N Cold” slipped one position to #4 (but retains its bullet), while “Heartless” drops from #4 to #12 and loses its bullet.  The only threat this week is Beyoncé Knowles’ “If I Were a Boy,” which rises two spots to #3 with a bullet and is the Sales Gainer of the week.  This is possibly because of her performance of the song on MTV’s “Total Finale Live” special last week, which included her other single, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” which is ironically the Airplay Gainer of the week (it rises from #39 to #28 this week.) (more…)

As I predicted, people want to “Live Your Life” again. The T.I. featuring Rihanna track spends a third non-consecutive week at #1 with a bullet on the Billboard Hot 100, and it remains the Airplay Gainer of the week. I’m making a bold prediction that it will stay at #1 next week. Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” is still a threat (having moved up one spot to #3), but they are also being threatened by Kanye West’s “Heartless,” which is the Hot Shot Debut for the week at #4 (his third top 10 Hot Shot debut in 2008, following “Swagga Like Us” with Jay-Z and T.I. featuring Lil Wayne, and “Love Lockdown.”) Pink’s “So What” is no longer in play, having dropped from #3 to #6 and having lost its bullet. (more…)

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. (more…)

You all still like “Whatever You Like,” because T.I.’s boring tune spends a fifth non-consecutive week at #1 and is the Airplay Gainer again for the third week in a row. Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” is still at #3, but it has lost its bullet, and the hopes of a country song topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart were dashed when Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” fell from #5 to #9 and lost its bullet. At this point, I might as well predict that T.I.’s song will be #1 next week as well, because there really aren’t any strong contenders. Katy Perry’s second top 10 hit “Hot N Cold” rises from #9 to #6 with a bullet, and M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” is still lingering around the top 10, this week rising from #6 to #5 (though the song has already peaked at #4 so far.) If “Whatever You Like” spends two more weeks at #1, it will eclipse Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” to be the second longest running song of 2008 (the longest running song is “Low” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain at 10 weeks.) (more…)

As I predicted…all good things came to an end this week. I knew that Pink’s rockin’ response to her ex-husband Carey Hart with her song “So What” would have a short run…because it slips to #2 and loses its bullet. T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” regains its position atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a fourth non-consecutive week with a bullet. The song is the Airplay Gainer again for the second week in a row, and also sold more than 202,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. So the nation prefers a drowsy, lazy, boring song to a fist-pumpin’ rocker? Whatever you like, I guess. Let’s look into next week then. I don’t see the Pink song regaining the top position again, so unless T.I. scores a fifth non-consecutive week at #1 next week, we have two possible interesting contenders. The first one to fight for the top spot is Kanye West with his song “Love Lockdown.” It is the first single to be released off his new album 808s & Heartbreak (release date will be sometime in November.) It sold 213,000 digital downloads in only four full days of release, therefore causing it to debut at #3 on the Hot 100. This is West’s highest debut of his career, and the second highest debut on the Hot 100 of 2008. The song made its world premiere originally at the tail end of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The other song that might be a contender is Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” off her sophomore album Fearless. It jumps from #16 to #5 in just its second week on the chart, fueled by digital sales of 159,000. If “Love Story” tops the chart, it will be the first country song to top the Hot 100 since Lonestar did it back in 2000 with their song “Amazed.” One final note…we are back with rip-off acts charting on the Hot 100 covering Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long.” Since Rock still will not allow his original song to be downloaded individually (you can download it, but it will require you to download his whole album, Rock and Roll Jesus), these sound-alike bands are making money by convincing consumers that they are downloading the original. This time the rip-off band is The Rock Heroes, who have sold 63,000 digital downloads and debuted on the chart at #38. I think I will give up on trying to fight this phenomenon…but you will never see me downloading a cheap imitation over the original. (more…)

Even though this is only the second week for the run of Rihanna’s “Disturbia,” the Billboard Hot100 chart is recording historic firsts.  As Puck reported on Thursday, “American Idol” Season 7 runner-up David Archuleta had the best debut on the charts in 18 months with his #2 song “Crush.”  The last time a song debuted in the #2 slot was in January of 2007, when Fall Out Boy’s “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” debuted (and peaked) there.  It’s also the highest debut for an “AI” alum for a song not originally performed on the show.  Furthermore, it’s the second time that the runner-up from the show has bested the winner on the charts, since winner David Cook’s single “The Time of My Life” only peaked at #3 (though it currently sits at #28 with a bullet this week based on actual radio airplay and not just digital downloads.)  The first time that happened was when Season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken peaked at #1 with his song “This is the Night” over winner Ruben Studdard’s #2 song “Flying Without Wings.”  Where do we go from here?  “Disturbia” still has a bullet, but if “Crush” gains some airplay, it may topple Rihanna next week (it isn’t anywhere within the top 25 on the Airplay chart.)  None of the songs within the Top 10 pose much of a threat to Rihanna (except for the Archuleta song)…including the new one by Taylor Swift, whose song “Change” (from the Olympic AT&T Team USA soundtrack) debuts on the chart at #10. (more…)

Break out the cherry chapstick…the reign of the Perry is over!  Katy Perry’s 7-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her song, “I Kissed a Girl,” has ended, and the new #1 song is…(drumroll)…Rihanna’s “Disturbia.”  After selling 148,000 downloads, the song leapfrogs over Chris Brown’s “Forever” (which remains at #2) to take the top spot.  So…how long will we get disturbed by the Rihanna song now?  “Forever” has a bullet, so it could be a contender.  The other contender is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” which is the week’s Sales Gainer, jumping from #16 to #5 with a bullet.  the song is in the trailer for the movie Pineapple Express, but is not in the movie itself or on the soundtrack (an interesting aside: I went to Best Buy to buy the soundtrack, since my favorite artist, Huey Lewis & The News, performs the movie’s title track…and they had already deleted it out of their system!  I had to order it online.  Maybe if the producers of the soundtrack had known that the movie’s trailer song would be more popular than the music within the movie, then they could have included it as a bonus track or something.) (more…)

MTV’s third week of four 2008 MTV Video Music Awards (airing September 7) nomination announcements revealed the fifth and sixth category nominations last week on their Friday night video show “FNMTV.”  I am going to give you the chart achievements of the nominated songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the Best New Artist and Best Dancing in a Video categories:

Best New Artist

Miley Cyrus — “7 Things” (#9)
Katy Perry — “I Kissed a Girl” (#1)
Jordin Sparks (featuring Chris Brown) — “No Air” (#3)
Taylor Swift — “Teardrops on My Guitar” (#13)
Tokio Hotel — “Ready, Set, Go!” (never charted in America)

Best Dancing in a Video

Chris Brown — “Forever” (currently #2)
Danity Kane — “Damaged” (#9)
Madonna (featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland) — “4 Minutes” (#3)
Ne-Yo — “Closer” (currently #10)
Pussycat Dolls — “When I Grow Up” (currently #9) (more…)

According to eonline.com, 18-year-old country music superstar Taylor Swift has graduated from high school…and she received her diploma in the mail.  She had previously attended public high school in ninth and tenth grades, but when her career started to take off, she switched to Aaron Academy, a private Christian school that offers homeschooling.  Either way, she’s excited about graduating and going on tour with Rascal Flatts. (more…)