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Singles Minded...

[From Billboard]

By Silvio Pietroluongo, Minal Patel, Wade Jessen
December 01, 2001

ROCK RISES: Last issue, Nickelback climbed into the top five of The Billboard Hot 100 with "How You Remind Me," and this week the group rises even farther, jumping 5-4. While the complaint within the music industry is that top 40 radio is leaning too R&B/hip-hop these days, "Remind" became the fourth song to hit No. 1 on Modern Rock Tracks while reaching the top five on the Hot 100 during the 2001 chart year. This is a sharp increase over 2000 and 1999, when only one track in each year was able to make such a claim. The other 2001 songs that hit the No. 1 on modern and top five on the Hot 100 include "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse, "Butterfly" by Crazy Town, and "It's Been Awhile" by Staind. The 2000 chart year only gave us "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down, while 1999's only double-dipper was "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray. A CD single of "Remind" is scheduled to hit retail Dec. 4.


FIGHTING HARD: Five for Fighting climbs to No. 1 on the Adult Top 40 chart with "Superman (It's Not Easy)" in its 28th week on the chart, a new record for the longest climb to No. 1 at the format. Up until this week, the most leisurely pace up the Adult Top 40 chart belonged to Goo Goo Dolls, who took 26 weeks to make it to No. 1 with "Slide" in March 1999. On The Billboard Hot 100, "Superman" holds at No. 16 with a bullet.


OVERNIGHT SENSATION: With the fattest increase on Hot Country Singles & Tracks, Alan Jackson's "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" gains 1,909 detections, a second-week airplay surge that also yields Airpower honors, the most new stations of any other title on the chart, and a 25-12 jump.

With airplay at 147 monitored signals, "World" finishes with 3,510 spins and more than 31 million listener impressions on Broadcast Data Systems' country audience tally, where it shoots 18-9.

Although the highly anticipated release of Garth Brooks' No. 1 album, Scarecrow, yields four chart entries, Jackson's three entries actually make him the most-played and most-heard artist on the current chart. Jackson's combined detections on Hot Country is 7,139, compared with Brooks' 6,430 spins. Jackson's prior No. 1, "Where I Come From," pads his sums with 3,389 plays as it drops 9-14 on this chart, while the follow-up "It's Alright to Be a Redneck" closes out his chart total at No. 59.

Brooks takes Hot Shot Debut honors at No. 46 with "Squeeze Me In," a duet with Trisha Yearwood, and "Thicker Than Blood" enters at No. 58 with unsolicited album play. Brooks is also No. 9 with "Wrapped Up in You," and his duet with George Jones, "Beer Run" is No. 24. The debuting Brooks songs, and other tracks from Scarecrow, may be more visible on next issue's chart since stations did not receive his album until Nov. 13, the second day of the chart's tracking week.


BANNER YET WAVES:
Whitney Houston's "Star Spangled Banner" drops 80-85 on the Hot 100 in its 21st week on the chart. Normally a song would move to recurrent status if it is below No. 50 and has spent more than 20 weeks on the chart, but exceptions are made for songs that re-enter the chart more than six months after they fall off. In the case of "Banner," the song was off the chart more than 10 years (after spending 11 weeks on), so it gets a fresh 20 weeks to maintain its new Hot 100 run.

On Hot 100 Singles Sales, "Banner" relinquishes its No. 1 spot to a fellow rereleased patriotic tune, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." "Bless" scans 16,500 units, 4,500 less than last week, but bullets as it spends its first week at No. 1 on that chart. The 16,500 units, by the way, is the first time in the history of SoundScan that the No. 1 song has sold less than 20,000 units.

SECOND WIND: We spoke a bit prematurely in our last column about Toya's "I Do!!" being discontinued at retail. As we went to press, Arista shipped more copies of the single, which is reflected on the charts, as "Do" is the Greatest Gainer/Sales winner on the Hot 100, holding at No. 18. "Do" scans 1,800 units, a gain of 800 from last week, and climbs 47-23 on Hot 100 Singles Sales.

CURTAINS, PLEASE: This issue marks the first week of the 2002 chart year for all Billboard charts. Some 2001 chart leaders will be honored Dec. 4 at the Billboard Music Awards, to be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and aired live on Fox. Complete artist, title, and label rankings will appear in our Year in Music issue, dated Dec. 29, which hits newsstands Dec. 22.

NEWSFILE: 24 NOVEMBER 2001

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