The only producer to hold the top three singles in the charts at the same time
The charts have never been an arbiter of artistic merit. The Who’s revolutionary ‘My Generation’ was held off the top spot by the long-forgotten ‘The Carnival is Over’ by The Seekers, and The Beatles saw ‘Penny Lane’ squeezed out of favour by Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘Release Me’. The list of these Billboard miscarriages of justice is endless, proving that popularity is beholding to its own set of weird laws.
However, while random fads might account for the odd rogue hit grabbing the top spot over a classic, holding all three podium positions at once takes chance out of the picture and provides a very clear message that you are an artist who knows what you are doing. The feat of having produced the first, second and third track in the US charts at the same time is one that epitomises the clear-eyed brilliance of Nile Rodgers.
“When this record came out,” Rodgers recalled regarding Duran Duran’s album Notorious, “I was voted the number one producer in America because I had the number one, the number two, and the number three single in the charts all at the same time. The Beatles had never even achieved that,” he proclaimed on Diggin’ in the Crates.
He actually achieved this record-breaking accomplishment two years before the release of 1986’s Notorious in ’84, but his inaccuracy can be forgiven given the number of hits he has been part of. That warm ’84 autumn, Rodgers made history with the following:
- ‘Like a Virgin’ – Madonna
- ‘The Wild Boys’ – Duran Duran
- ‘Sea of Love’ – Robert Plant’s The Honeydrippers
That is a level of success that showcased the unique knack that Rodgers had in his prime. And it wasn’t just the knack of being able to produce in line with a popular trend either, Rodgers set the trends. He turned David Bowie funky and delivered him his first mega-hit, and with Chic, he just about invented disco. In fact, it is believed that his humble old second-hand ‘Hitmaker’ guitar has played out a musical value of around $2billion.
However, of all his feats, it is arguable that this unique trio of charting singles is the loftiest. The reason being that each track is so different. As a signifier of his skill, he hasn’t just wheeled out three on-trend tunes and gotten lucky with a quiet week of pop releases elsewhere. He has, in fact, delivered a musical array that showcased the polished diversity that tech and old-school analogue excellence was enabling in the era. So, with three separately brilliant singles, Rodgers achieved the best sort of history. Not bad for someone who had also just launched INXS to fame just a few months earlier.
