{"id":1946,"date":"2011-08-18T09:58:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T14:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=1946"},"modified":"2011-08-23T12:27:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T17:27:49","slug":"five-1s-from-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2011\/08\/five-1s-from-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Five #1s from One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, 18 August 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I mentioned a few weeks ago<\/a>, the fun of tracking Billboard’s #1 hits is the TRIVIA! Today, a performer tied a new record on Billboard’s Hot 100 and, even though I’m not a fan of this performer, I think it’s a pretty cool record and so I’m gonna talk about it here.<\/p>\n

Today, singer Katy Perry scored a #1 hit with her song “Last Friday Night<\/a>” (go ahead and click on the link – the music video is actually kind of fun, especially if you grew up in the 1980s). This marks the fifth #1 song Perry has scored from her album Teenage Dream<\/em><\/a>. The other four #1 hits were:<\/p>\n

California Gurls [sic] (hit #1 on June 19, 2010)<\/p>\n

Teenage Dream (hit #1 on September 18, 2010)<\/p>\n

Firework (hit #1 on December 18, 2010)<\/p>\n

E.T. (hit #1 on April 9, 2011)<\/p>\n

This is an amazing feat. The album, like most, has 12 tracks on it, meaning that nearly half the songs on the album have gone to #1. This is a rare feat indeed. In fact, no one’s ever done better.<\/p>\n

But notice I said she TIED the record? Who, you ask, shares this record with Perry?<\/p>\n

I’m glad you asked.<\/p>\n

Well, you might be inclined to think of some of the biggest albums from the past 50 years, such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> or Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy<\/em> <\/em> or Nirvana’s Nevermind<\/em>. Well, those are pretty lousy guesses actually. Many of rock’s mainstays preferred to not cannibalize their albums by selling the individual songs separately so, in fact, those three albums had a combined total of zero number one hits (and, in fact, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin never had any #1 hits).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dark Side of the Moon: This enormously selling album scored exactly zero #1 hits.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Well, then, maybe it was an album that sold well and released separate songs as singles, like the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever<\/em> or Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. <\/em><\/em> Those are better guesses – Saturday Night Fever<\/em> yielded four #1 songs, though, not five. Born in the USA<\/em>, meanwhile, suffered from a case of really bad luck: it managed to rack up seven top ten singles, but nary a one went all the way to the top (“Dancing in the Dark” stalled at #2).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back Side of the Springsteen: This enormously selling album also scored exactly zero #1 hits.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Ah,” you say, “but those albums weren’t big enough! If we’re talking BIG albums, we’re talking Thriller<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

To which I respond: “Yes, Thriller<\/em> is the best selling album of all time<\/a>. But since people liked the whole album, they just bought the whole album, not the singles. Thriller<\/em> ‘only’ achieved two #1 hits.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thriller only logged two number one hits? Beat it!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

“Oh, well then the record must’ve been set by someone famous for individual songs instead of individual albums, such as Madonna, Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, or George Michael. ”<\/p>\n

These are better guesses. Madonna twice scored three #1 songs from two of her albums, but that’s the best she ever did. Mariah Carey and Paula Abdul, meanwhile, each hit the #1 spot four times with songs from a single album, but not five.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Straight Up now tell me: Would you believe <\/em>Forever Your Girl garnered FOUR number one hits?<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I’m not sure if this album yielded four different #1 songs, or just took the same song to #1 four times.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

George Michael, incidentally, came the closest. He achieved #1 four times with songs from his album Faith<\/em> (“Father Figure,” “Monkey,” “Faith,” and “One More Try”). His song “I Want Your Sex,” however, petered out at #2.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What? You mean <\/em>Faith wasn’t enough to secure five #1 hits? God, whodda thunk it?<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

So then you say: “What about Elvis?”<\/p>\n

I say: “Sorry, Elvis churned out the albums so fast that none of them had time to churn out five number one hits. He did top the charts as a soloist more than any other act (17 times), but he never managed to wrangle more than two #1 hits off of any album.<\/p>\n

So then you say: “Oh – now I know – it must’ve been the Beatles, right?”<\/p>\n

Wrong. Like those classic rock acts listed above, the Beatles often preferred to leave their albums in tact. Rubber Soul<\/em>, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em>, and the white album all went to #1, but none of them were granted a chance at spawning any #1 hit singles. Additionally, they had the nasty habit of releasing some songs without putting them on any album. So even though “Day Tripper” and “Hey Jude” both went to #1, for example, neither of them were credited to a album. The Beatles’ album Help<\/em> holds two number one songs (“Yesterday” and the title track), Abbey Road<\/em> had only one, “Come Together,”\u00a0 Let it Be<\/em> had three (“Get Back,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and the title track) as did Magical Mystery Tour<\/em> (“Hello Goodbye,” “Penny Lane,” and “All You Need is Love”). Technically, I suppose, you could argue that their album 1<\/em> had those most number one hits on it (20!), but that was compiled retroactively, so it doesn’t count.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All you need is 1: 20 Billboard #1 hits on a single album. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

So who did<\/em> score five number one hits from a single album?<\/p>\n

Well, I’ve already said his name, but I threw you off by talking about the wrong album. Michael Jackson hit #1 five times with singles from Bad<\/em>:<\/p>\n

I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (hit #1 on September 18, 1987)<\/p>\n

Bad (hit #1 on October 23, 1987)<\/p>\n

The Way You Make Me Feel (hit #1 on January 22, 1988)<\/p>\n

The Man in the Mirror (hit #1 on March 25, 1988)<\/p>\n

Dirty Diana (hit #1 on July 1, 1988)<\/p>\n

“Smooth Criminal,” incidentally stalled at #7.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bad? Not bad.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, congrats to Perry for tying a record held by the King of Pop<\/a> for nearly a quarter of a century. HERE’S THE LINK TO BILLBOARD DISCUSSING THE RECORD. <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Katy Perry celebrates with class and style.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, 18 August 2011 As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the fun of tracking Billboard’s #1 hits is the TRIVIA! Today, a performer tied a new record on Billboard’s Hot 100 and, even though I’m not a fan of this performer, I think it’s a pretty cool record and so I’m gonna talk about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2010,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}