The Week in Number Ones: Calvin Harris, Miley Cyrus, and America
Welcome back to The Week in Number Ones, where all the biggest chart movers from the US and UK charts get condensed into one article. Last week, took a spin with Libianca and her hit ‘People’, got off the Morgan Wallen train for good, and went back in time to trace the history behind a new wave cold war classic from Nena, ’99 Red Balloons’.
This column covers the singles charts almost exclusively, but that wasn’t the original intention. In fact, one of the earliest articles covered Nirvana’s ascension to number one on the Billboard Album Chart with Nevermind. The album chart is often just as fascinating and reflective of current pop culture as the singles chart is, with greater inclusivity for songs from artists that aren’t pop-centred. You can find rock, rap, metal, soundtracks, and just about every other genre over on the album charts.
Then there are the times when both the album charts and singles charts work in tandem. For example, Miley Cyrus has both the number one single and number one album in the UK this week with ‘Flowers’ and Endless Summer Vacation, respectively. We’ll talk a little more about ‘Flowers’ down below, the dominant pop track that has become the biggest hit of 2023 so far.
Over in America, last week was all about the domination of Morgan Wallen, and the Billboard 200 still reflects his massive popularity. The country star’s third studio album, One Thing at a Time, is spending its second week at the top of the album charts. That makes it Wallen’s second number one album in America after his previous release, Dangerous: The Double Album. For better or worse, America can’t get enough of Wallen’s particular brand of pop country.
This week, we take a look at the new hit from Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, ‘Miracle’. We’ll also dive into the resurgence of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ and take a deep dive into the folk-rock chart-topper from America, ‘A Horse With No Name’. All that and more as we round up the best chart news of the modern-day and recent past.
Current UK Number One: ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
Here’s your fun fact of the day: between 2011 and 2014, Calvin Haris had a run of 12 songs that all landed in the UK Singles Chart top ten. Four of those songs went to number one, and an additional four went up to number two, with the streak coming to an end after the release of the 2014 collaborative single with Ellie Goulding, ‘Outside’, which went to number six. He’s nabbed another three number one singles in the time since, and this week, he and Goulding are back to make another run in the top ten.
‘Miracle’ represents the third collaboration between Harris and Goulding. Their previous two team-ups were top ten hits as well, so the pair are shaping up to be some of the most consistent hit-making duos on the UK Singles Chart.
‘Miracle’ is a bit of a throwback, having more in common with early 2000s house music than modern dance. Vibrant, maximalist, and just the right amount of cheesy, ‘Miracle’ is undeniably catchy, if not a bit rote. It’s certainly not a revelation, especially since both singer and DJ have had more successful collaborations in the past.
But if there’s one thing you can bet your bottom dollar on, it’s Harris and Goulding scoring a top ten hit. In the current stack of Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriends current projects, I say this ranks below Harry Styles’ current activities but above the trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s new movie The Covenant. That thing looks terrible.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of March 22nd, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Boy’s a Liar’ – PinkPanthress
- ‘Miracle’ – Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd & Ariana Grande
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema
- ‘Ceilings’ – Lizzy McAlpine
- ‘People’ – Libianca
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Players’ – Coi LeRay
- ‘Us Against the World’ – Strandz
Current US Number One: ‘Flowers – Miley Cyrus
I love when songs dip out of the number one spot and return to the summit. It’s not exactly a modern phenomenon: Italian singer Domenico Modugno scored just the second official Billboard Hot 100 number one hit on August 18th, 1958, with ‘Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)’, and just two weeks later, the same song return to number one to become the first-ever non-consecutive number one song. That being said, it was a relative rarity for songs to move in and out of the number one spot before the internet age.
One of the most consequential effects that streaming has had on the pop charts is that songs constantly ebb and flow from being chart toppers. ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles was the most memorable modern case of this phenomenon, making five different runs at number one throughout 2022. The monster single eventually became the longest-charting song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, spending more than 91 weeks on the chart. It’s still there this week, sitting at an impressive number 15 nearly a full year after it was first released.
Will ‘Flowers’ have a similar fate? It’s hard to say, but Miley Cyrus has shown a remarkable amount of staying power with her Endless Summer Vacation single. After The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen bumped her down to number two in the last two weeks, Cyrus is back at number one this week for its seventh non-consecutive week at the top. It’s the first song of 2023 to hit number one, fall out of the top spot, and then return.
In its own way, ‘Flowers’ is keeping an ongoing singles chart tradition alive. There will surely be other songs that dip in and out of the number one spot this year, but Cyrus has beaten everyone else to the punch. I wouldn’t be surprised if it stuck around a lot longer, even if its days at number one might be numbered. Hey, it made one return trip already, so why couldn’t ‘Flowers’ do it again?
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of March 25th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Last Night’ – Morgan Wallen
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd & Ariana Grande
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage
- ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’ – PinkPanthress & Ice Spice
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema & Selena Gomez
- ‘Thought You Should Know’ – Mogan Wallen
- ‘You Proof’ – Morgan Wallen
This Week in Number Ones: ‘A Horse With No Name’ – America (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, March 25th, 1972)
It must have been something about guys with high, reedy voices singing folk rock. The United States simply couldn’t get enough of that kind of thing in early 1972, causing one of the most surprising convergences of mistaken identity in pop music history. Or maybe Americans were just feeling really patriotic and decided to boost a band named after their country to number one. Who knows?
In one corner stands Neil Young, the iconic singer-songwriter who became well-known as a member of Buffalo Springfield in the 1960s. When Young joined his erstwhile bandmate Stephen Stills and new friends David Crosby and Graham Nash, he was already an established solo artist with a notable fanbase. After CSNY, Young was a superstar. Although he was never too concerned with the pop charts, Young’s 1972 album Harvest was a major crossover success.
In the other corner was America, the folk-rock trio that somewhat ironically formed in London, England. Made up of Army brats Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley, the trio were all American-born kids whose parents served at an Air Force base near London. Cutting their teeth as an opening act for much louder bands like The Who, America initially saw their 1971 self-titled debut tank. However, the non-album single ‘A Horse With No Name’ started to gain momentum in early 1972.
Young and America weren’t direct rivals. As far as I can tell, Young has never discussed America in interviews. But when both Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’ and America’s ‘A Horse With No Name’ were making simultaneous chart runs, it would have been easy for audiences to get the songs confused. Bunnell affects a very Young-like voice in the song, but he defends himself from accusations of artist theft.
“I try to use a different voice so that I won’t be branded as a rip-off,” Bunnell told Rolling Stone in 1973. “It’s such a drag, though, to have to not sound like someone when you can’t help it in the first place.” It’s not Bunnell’s fault that his voice has more than a passing resemblance to Young’s. On other hits like ‘Ventura Highway’ and ‘Tin Man’, Bunnnell’s voice has the same kind of lilt to it. Young just happened to be slightly older, gaining a valuable headstart against his vocal sound-alike.
But beyond the similar qualities, Bunnell’s arid imagery can occasionally be… simplistic. Notorious lines include “There were plants and birds and rocks and things” and “the heat was hot.” While it probably won’t win any awards for originality, Bunnell does successfully set the scene of a completely desolate open desert. More than that, ‘A Horse With No Name’ is a song that’s ripe for analysis and over-analysis: it’s impossible to be neutral on ‘A Horse With No Name’, whether you think it’s classic or ridiculous (or possibly both).
Luckily for America, the accusations of them being Young ripoffs began to taper off as they found their own unique take on acoustic soft rock. Shedding most of their folk origins and edging closer to pop and country, America managed to score a number of other hits that didn’t remind listeners of anyone else. In fact, the trio scored a second number one hit in 1975 with ‘Sister Golden Hair’, a feat that Young never accomplished.
By the late 1970s, America’s style of acoustic pop was decidedly out of fashion. Peek left the group in 1977, but Bunnell and Beckley continue on as America to this day. The band became focused on live performances in the mid-1980s, largely playing nostalgia circuits and playing ‘A Horse With No Name’ every night. It’s not a bad legacy to live off of, and these days, everybody knows who the real owners of ‘A Horse With No Name’ are.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of March 25th, 1972):
- ‘A Horse With No Name’ – America
- ‘Heart of Gold’ – Neil Young
- ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ – Robert John
- ‘Puppy Love’ – Donny Osmond
- ‘Mother and Child Reunion’ – Paul Simon
- ‘Without You’ – Nilsson
- ‘The Way of Love’ – Cher
- ‘Jungle Fever’ – The Chakachas
- ‘Everything I Own’ – Bread
- ‘I Gotcha’ – Joe Tex
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.