1 of 1- aflem
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Writer Reviews Every #1 Hit Since Billboard's Top 100 Began
I'm not sure who Tom Breihan is, except that he's a writer and editor at a website called Stereogum. A few years ago, he decided he would go all the way back through Billboard archives and listen to and review every single song that ever made it to #1 on the music industry Bible's Hot 100.
His tour starts at Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" in 1958 and he adds a new song every day.
At present, he's up to about 1976 and he has a long way to go.
This guy isn't a Baby Boomer, as he repeatedly makes clear, so he didn't grow up with this music and a lot of it seems foreign to him. And I don't think I've agreed with his rankings on more than just a few of the hits he's spotlighted so far. Our tastes could not be more different. But he does outline some little known background on how the songs were written or what happened while they were bring recorded.
So if you can get by the fact he seems to have his taste in his feet, it's often a worthwhile read.
The 1958 countdown starts here.
The latest entries are here.
Last edited by Lorne (September 2, 2019 6:53 pm)
- Flo
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Re: Writer Reviews Every #1 Hit Since Billboard's Top 100 Began
Interesting topic, but he doesn't review "every hit," but every #1 hit. Big difference. I enjoyed his take on Stagger Lee. Which I didn't know had ever made #1.
- Lorne
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Re: Writer Reviews Every #1 Hit Since Billboard's Top 100 Began
You're correct that the writer is just reviewing #1 hits, and aflem had also noted this but in the body of their message. I've sometimes had to shorten the headlines of articles that I've posted here because of limitations that Boardhost has on the length of subject lines, but I found that I was able to insert "#1" in this one and so I thought that this was worth doing. Thanks to both of you for your posts.
- aflem
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Re: Writer Reviews Every #1 Hit Since Billboard's Top 100 Began
My only complaint about this guy's work on this project - other than I almost never agree with his rankings - is that he swears unnecessarily in almost every post.
I'm no prude and I've been known to use that language on way too many occasions myself. But it just seems he inserts these four-letter words for no good reason, other than to show he can. Nothing wrong with strong words if needed. But here they're just gratuitous. You don't need the F-bomb in every review or every paragraph. It winds up detracting from his point.
Thanks for adding the "#1" to the header, by the way. Appreciate it.
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Thread Starter- Lorne
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Re: Writer Reviews Every #1 Hit Since Billboard's Top 100 Began
Thanks, aflem. The last (and only other) time that I tried to use my admin powers in a similar way here, which in that case was to delete a message that had accidentally gone through twice, I then had someone else ask what had happened to their message ... I think because they were responding to the thread at the same time. Glad that this time it worked out better. 