Chris Molanphy

To your point—this band’s very name was a rhetorical device—I have a hipster uncle who snarked in the 80s he’d get MTV when they started playing Butthole Surfers (as in…fat chance). When this hit happened in the 90s & a roommate told me about it I thought he was joking. By then my uncle didn’t care.

One Generation Is Showing More Longevity on the Charts Than Any Other. It’s Not the Boomers. Don’t even mention Gen X.

Hey Mr. DJ: my first ’26 entry in @slate.com’s #WhyIsThisSongNo1? series is about Bruno Mars, who scores his first #Hot100 No1 debut ever w/“I Just Might”…at age 40! What’s up w/the Millennial popstar generation—Taylor, Bey, Gaga, Kendrick—who won”t let go of the charts? Eat your hearts out Boomers…

Instrumental Hits Are Earworms. Instrumental hitmakers tended to be one-hit wonders. The exceptions were a ’60s trumpeter who pretended to be Latin, and an ’80s sax player named Kenny.

A No1 hit? Depends on whether you consider Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” an instrumental. (There are just a few words; AFAIC it is.) That’s 2013. The last pure No1 instrumental was Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice Theme” in ’85. I broke it all down here: slate.com/podcasts/hit...

Billboard's Hot 100: Hits, History and Kinks (with Hit Parade's Chris Molanphy) Podcast Episode · Pop Pantheon · 08/11/2022 · 1h 14m

My only memory of this nothingburger—about a year after it came&went I went on DJLouieXIV’s great podcast #PopPantheon for a chat on #Hot100 history & why the chart formula produces forgettable 21st-c. hits. Louie held up “What’s Next” as the ultimate. He was like, still mad it hit No1 (I mean…word)

You are not alone. We had a glitch with the Plus feed Friday night through midday Saturday. Try deleting and reloading the episode. Worse comes to worst, deleting the whole Hit Parade Plus feed from your podcatcher app and readding the URL seems to work. Sorry for the hangup.

Bowie Built His Fame by Knowing When to Be an Oddity and When to Dance How rock’s freakiest alien built his pop stardom through a series of ch-ch-ch-changes.

The song they’re playing on the radio: my new #HitParadePod on @slate.com is a celebration of #Bowie —Starman, soulman, art-rocker & Blackstar. How’d his personae overlap w/his aspirations? I walk thru 8 chart phases of Bowie—glam…funk…new wave…altrock…even jazz—he kept finding ways to ch-ch-change.

Thanks for the heads-up. The problem was with the Plus version of Part 1, and the Slate team worked all day to get this fixed. If you reload, you should now find it. If your podcatcher hangs when trying to load the episode, try deleting the Plus feed of the pod and readding it. Sorry for the hangup.

When you noted Dishwalla’s used-bin-clogging CD I had to Google to remember its generic cover. I feel like we should coin a mini-genre for this alt-band era: Clip Art Rock—when a band was so nondescript the label’s art dept created a cut-n-paste CD cover for them. Even Radiohead briefly fell victim.

YouTube video by The Cranberries - Topic Pretty

My lowkey favorite on the album after the singles: m.youtube.com/watch?v=UW5R...

Oh, his life is changing every day, in every possible way.

Also: he’s so pretty the way he is.

It’s playing in a double feature with ‘The Rural Juror.’

Thx for capturing how this Zoomer-core emo wreck of a song sucks in people much older. When it hit No1 I was in the presence of many Zoomers (my then-stepkids, their friends) & was moved by how much it moved them. Then 1½yrs later I went through a breakup myself & it hit different/spoke to me anew.

YouTube video by DollyPartonVEVO Dolly Parton - 9 To 5 (Official Video)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

Well, for starters… www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxU...

😂 I sincerely hope you’re kidding.

P.S. Despite containing a No1 song the ‘3 Musketeers’ soundtrack flopped—No101 on the BB200. The soundtracks episode was more about albums than singles. So even if I hadn’t namechecked that crap song in 2 consecutive shows there’d be no reason to cover it in Dec.

You mean our Oct (Sting), Nov (Mutt) & Dec (soundtracks) episodes? You must not have been listening very closely, because I mentioned “All for Love” in the Sting and Mutt episodes, in extensive detail (even though I was pretty sick of covering it by November).

For Nearly a Century, Hollywood Has Left Its Mark on the Pop Charts Movie soundtracks have sometimes eclipsed the films that inspired them in the first place.

December 2025: Hooked to the Silver Screen Edition—a history of movie soundtracks from Bing&Judy to Barbie&Huntr/x. How did The Graduate reboot movie music in the ’60s, Flashdance in the ’80s? Will KPop Demon Hunters spark a soundtrack comeback? Come to this place for magic. #HitParadePod @slate.com

The Reclusive Producer Who Shook the Charts All Night Long Mutt Lange avoided the spotlight while crafting some of the loudest, catchiest, and bestselling records of all time.

November 2025: Pour Some Sugar on Me Edition—how superproducer “Mutt” Lange, the mystery man of arena-rocking überpop, built an anthemic sound across genres: AC/DC to the Cars, Foreigner to Billy Ocean, Def Leppard to Shania Twain. A fast machine, Mutt kept his motor clean. #HitParadePod @slate.com

Every Breath Sting Takes, Every Hit Sting Makes—We’ve Been Watching Him. Everyone knows "Every Breath You Take"—but Sting's legacy is built on hits from the unexpected genres.

October 2025: If You Love Sting, Set Him Free Edition—how Sting became the jazzy pop-generator who kept getting paid. In the Police he blended reggae+new wave. Solo, he tried classical, funk, rap…even Raï. On your radio or as a sample, every little thing Sting does is magic. #HitParadePod @slate.com

The Odd Alchemy That Sends a Brand-New Song to the Top of the Charts For decades, No. 1 debuts were unheard of in America. Then the record labels and digital music hacked the Hot 100.

September 2025: Toppermost of the Poppermost Edition—a history of No1 debuts. How do songs score a fast pass to the penthouse? They’re not always classics—Idol coronations…rap beefs…boy-band soloists…superstar throwaways. For every “Fantasy” or “Vampire,” there’s a “Trollz.” #HitParadePod @slate.com

The History of Novelty Songs on the Charts, From the Big Bopper to Tiny Tim to Weird Al Parodists and stand-ups were big record sellers at rock’s birth, and comedy helped spawn rap … and the career of one accordion-playing weirdo.

August 2025: White and Nerdy Edition—in honor of Weird Al’s summer tour, an encore of our beloved HP history of novelty, parody & comedy hits. From the early rockers about cavemen, bathtubs, bikinis & mothers-in-law thru 21st-c. memes, hilarious hits have brought the funny. #HitParadePod @slate.com

From Beatles to Biggie, Carly to Kendrick, Diss Records Are a Pop Fixture They weren’t always called diss tracks, but pop stars have been trading insults since Tin Pan Alley.

July 2025: Here’s the Beef Edition—a history of diss tracks, which predate hip-hop, even rock. From Eddie Cantor bitching about “Bananas” to Carly Simon puncturing that “Vain” dude…an army of Roxanne,Roxannes or K-dot ethering Drake…beef on wax has served up piping-hot hits. #HitParadePod @slate.com

LGBTQ Music Has Long Been Coded and Even Denied, Yet Never Absent From the Pop Charts for Long. Queer artists have continually redefined pop even when the culture wouldn't let them do so openly.

June 2025: Mighty Real Edition—how queer artists navigated the charts while navigating the closet. We celebrate #LGBTQ+ hitmakers who shaped how pop sounds, signifies, shimmies+shakes—Little Richard to Lil Nas X, Dusty Springfield to Sylvester, Boy George to Chappell Roan. 🏳️‍🌈 #HitParadePod @slate.com

From Cobain to Creed, How Alt-Rock Went Mainstream in the ‘90s Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam led an explosion in alt-rock that brought the underground to the surface.

May 2025: All Apologies Edition—how Generation X brought the left of the dial to the middle of the road and made ’90s alternative rock our bizarro Top 40, from Cobain to Creed. How did grunge become post-grunge and the new pop? Come as you are—back when Losers were winners. #HitParadePod @slate.com

Rihanna Was a 21st Century Chart-topper Before (Maybe?) Bowing Out of the Game The Barbadian singer bombarded the charts in the 2000s and 2010s, recalling the heyday of prolific hit machines like the Supremes.

April 2025: Only Girl in the World Edition—how Rihanna became the millennium’s most prolific hitmaker before she bowed out of the game. Rih dropped more music in a decade than most acts do in two, rebooting the old Motown model for a new age. Find love in a hopeless place. #HitParadePod @slate.com

Forget Woodstock and the Summer of Love. This is What the ‘60s Really Sounded Like. A decade known for revolutionary sounds was a lot cornier than you might think.

March 2025: Singing Nuns and Green Tambourines Edition—how the ’60s were misremembered. We walk thru the real hits from “Dominique” to “Dizzy”…“Sukiyaki” to “Somethin’ Stupid” & I identify 5 categories of forgotten hits. The big Boomer decade was more Mad Men than Big Chill. #HitParadePod @slate.com

Pet Shop Boys Coined This Term. In the ‘80s, Madonna Embodied It. There’s success—and then there’s unstoppable, do-no-wrong success. Here’s how to know when an artist is “imperial.”

February 2025: Material Girl in an Imperial World Edition—what is an Imperial phase? How pop stars reach that all-is-gold career moment—from Beatles to Taylor…Bee Gees to Gaga. I offer 8 Imperial rules & go deep on a legendary Imperial phase—Madonna’s record ’80s hit streak. #HitParadePod @slate.com

‘A Complete Unknown’ Depicts Dylan’s Rise in the ‘60s. His Chart Success Came Years Later. In the ’60s, Bob Dylan was folk’s “it” boy and a songwriting jukebox. His chart-topping records came in the decades that followed.

January 2025: The Freewheelin’ Edition—how Bob Dylan started topping the charts a decade *after* the biopic ends. We walk through his chart career decade by decade—from his electric ’60s and rocking ’70s, through his vibey ’90s and trickster ’00s. Get tangled up in Bob. #HitParadePod @slate.com

All my thanks to #HitParadePod listeners & subscribers for enjoying my labor of love in 2025 (+a special shoutout to the @slate.com Plus community). As always, we covered a lot—spanning genres and decades. Now’s a good time to catch up on any Hit Parade episodes you missed! slate.com/podcasts/hit...

Sure, today’s #NYTStrands is fun for my fellow Billboard nerds but be warned:
• Think “Top 20 *in* 2025” not “Top 20 *for all of* 2025”
• Proper names don’t count (e.g., no "Luther”)…but…
• To my surprise, a certain Sabrina-related word *is* a dictionary word.

Strands #667
“2025 Top Twenty”
🟡🔵🔵🔵
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When the Xmas songs drop next week, “Golden” is poised to retake No1 after a long absence. But the song’s previous 8wks atop the #Hot100 were fueled mostly by streaming. In prior years BTS’s multiple No1s were fueled by downloads. The fact that radio is powering “Golden” is a new milestone for Kpop.