The Week in Number Ones: Harry Styles, Chris Brown, and Creedence Clearwater Revival rise
Welcome back to The Week in Number Ones, where all the biggest movers from the US and UK charts get condensed into one article. Last week, we put some respect on Lewis Capaldi and his latest number one smash ‘Forget Me’, gave kudos to Ghost for landing their first Billboard Hot 100 hit with the TikTok trendy ‘More On a Cross’, and took a deep dive into the legendary David Bowie and John Lennon collaboration ‘Fame’.
There was a wonderfully wacky four-way fight for the number one album in the UK this week. Four completely different artists all battled it out to see who would gain album chart supremacy, and dear reader, let me tell you something you probably already know: people absolutely love K-pop.
That was proven this week by Blackpink, the South Korean girl group that stands out by not having 40 official members every time they take the stage. It’s just four singers, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa, who are (without exaggeration) some of the most famous and popular musicians in the entire world. K-pop is officially a mainstream concern in the western world and has been for quite some time, but that doesn’t make the impact of Blackpink’s recent number one album Born Pink any less important.
That left Britpop icons Suede staring down a noble defeat. Having a number two album is nothing to scoff at, and Suede actually have quite a solid new release with the album Autofiction. Down at number three is Rina Sawayama, the genre-bending pop star who landed her sophomore album Hold the Girl at the bronze podium. Poor pitiful Marcus Mumford, then, whose solo debut (self-titled) sits at the lowly number four spot on the album charts. Better luck next time, Marcus.
This week, we take a look at the continuing history that Harry Styles is making on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to ‘As It Was’, the unbelievable (and unwanted) longevity of Chris Brown, and the astounding albatross that hung over the short career of Creedence Clearwater Revival. All that and more as we round up all the best chart news of the modern-day and recent past.
Current UK Number One: ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ – David Guetta ft. Bebe Rexha
Are human beings gluttons for torture? I’m asking in a not-at-all facetious or hypothetical way: who is subjecting themselves to David Guetta’s awful house-pop remix turd ‘I’m Good (Blue)’? Why is it the number one song in the UK? Why does it have 125 million streams on Spotify? I don’t need sleep, I need answers.
But slowly creeping up the chart is a far more nefarious force. No chart over the last decade and change has been safe from the chief P.O.S. in music, Mr. Chris Brown. The one-time wunderkind of pop is now, to put it nicely, just some asshole who continues to have a ludicrously successful career in the entertainment industry. Don’t ask me why because I certainly don’t know.
Be my guest if you want to fire up the “artist vs. action” debate. If you happen to really enjoy someone like Ryan Adams, a band like Arcade Fire, or a legendary singer like Michael Jackson, then you can wrangle with their reputable actions all day long. At least those artists make good music. Chris Brown is so formulaic and boring that I have no idea why millions of fans so passionately defend him. It quite literally makes no sense to me.
Brown is someone who I never want to talk about or hear from ever again. In fact, usually, whatever song I talk about most in this section gets its video put down below, but I’m pulling an audible and putting the actual number one song of the week down there instead of ‘Under the Influence’. That’s right, I’d rather listen to a song that I think is certifiable garbage like ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ than give Chris Brown any more free streams. Why? Because fuck Chris Brown, that’s why.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of September 29th, 2022):
- ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ – David Guetta ft. Bebe Rexha
- ‘Forget Me’ – Lewis Capaldi
- ‘B.O.T.A’ – Eliza Rose/Interplanetary
- ‘I Ain’t Worried’ – OneRepublic
- ‘Super Freaky Girl’ – Nicki Minaj
- ‘Ferrari’ – James Hype/ Miggy Dela Rosa
- ‘Not Over Yet’ – KSI ft. Tom Greenan
- ‘Under the Influence’ – Chris Brown
- ‘Big City Life’ – Luude & Mattafix
- ‘Doja’ – Central Cee
Current US Number One: ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
The number one movie in America this week was Don’t Worry Darling, the Olivia Wilde-directed sci-fi dystopian thriller that’s had a whole heap of behind-the-scenes drama surrounding it. The jury is out on pretty much all aspects of the film, but one that seems to be uniting critics and casual viewers alike is the god-awful leading performance from America’s favourite pop star, Harry Styles.
Styles is in a pretty great position despite being raked over the coals for his clunker performance in Don’t Worry Darling. Early buzz around his next leading performance in the film My Policeman seems to imply that Styles can, in fact, act a little bit. Even if the movie career doesn’t take off, Styles can always fall back on his day job in music, considering how he’s probably the biggest singer in the world at the moment.
This is the 15th week that ‘As It Was’ has been sitting at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. That’s good enough to make it the fourth longest-tenured number one hit in the history of the chart. If it stays on top for one more week, ‘As It Was’ will move into a tie for second place with Mariah Carey’s 1995 collaboration with Boyz II Men ‘One Sweet Day’ and the Luis Fonsi/Daddy Yankee/Justin Bieber juggernaut ‘Despacito’, both of which spent 16 weeks at number one.
From there, it’s a straight shot to Lil Nas X’s record-breaking chart-topper ‘Old Town Road’, which spent a colossal 19 weeks at number one. Styles is only four weeks away from tying the all-time record, and, based on how ever-present he remains in pop culture, I would be shocked if he didn’t do it. Is ‘As It Was’ good enough to be the biggest number one of all time? Of course not, but that’s never been what the Hot 100 was about. It’s a measure of popularity, not quality. ‘As It Was’ is a perfectly fine song, and soon, it just might be one of the biggest songs of all time.
US Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten Singles (Week of October 1st, 2022):
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Bad Habit’ – Steve Lacy
- ‘I Like You (A Happier Song)’ – Post Malone ft. Doja Cat
- ‘Sunroof’ – Nicky Youre & Dazy
- ‘Super Freaky Girl’ – Nicki Minaj
- ‘You Proof’ – Morgan Wallen
- ‘I Ain’t Worried’ – OneRepublic
- ‘The Kind of Love We Make’ – Luke Combs
- ‘About Damn Time’ – Lizzo
- ‘Wait For U’ – Future ft. Drake & Tems
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Bad Moon Rising’ – Creedence Clearwater Revival (#1 on the UK Singles Chart, September 27th, 1969)
Creedence Clearwater Revival have one of the most ignoble records in Billboard Hot 100 history – they’re the artist with the most number two hits without ever landing a number one song. That seems insane, considering all their classic songs and their major success as a singles band, but it’s true.
‘Proud Mary’, ‘Bad Moon Rising’, ‘Green River’, ‘Travelin’ Band / Who’ll Stop the Rain’, and ‘Lookin’ Out My Back Door / ‘Long As I Can See The Light’ all topped out at number two. That’s seven songs, but since the latter two singles were double A-sides, Billboard officially counts them as one single release. Still, five number two hits without a number one song is good enough for the record.
Despite being one of the pre-eminent American bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, CCR were arguably bigger in the UK. When it came to singles sales, the swamp rockers were competing with the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as one of the best-selling groups in the country. CCR were also able to do something in the UK that they never managed in America – land a number one hit.
‘Bad Moon Rising’ is classic CCR: three chords, apocalyptic imagery, palpable strains of proto-southern rock, and John Fogerty’s signature howl at the centre of it all. With a combination of memorable melodies and chooglin’ boogie rock, ‘Bad Moon Rising’ served as the catalyst for CCR’s surprising domination over the British rock scene of the late ’60s.
By the time the band arrived in England, they found that they were able to sell out massive venues like the Royal Albert Hall, the same place where Cream had recently staged their farewell shows just two years earlier. But all was not well. Fogerty continued to dominate the band’s songwriting as well as their business and creative decisions. The tension in the band would cause John’s brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, to leave in 1971. After the disastrous 1972 album Mardi Gras, featuring a greater dispersion of singing and songwriting duties, CCR were officially dead in the water by the end of that year.
It’s easy to forget that British acts became so taken with CCR’s signature sound that they began to blatantly rip them off. The most notorious example was The Hollies, whose Graham Nash-less lineup scored a top ten hit in America with ‘Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress’. In a wonderfully appropriate twist of fate, ‘Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress’ topped out at (what else?) number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Apparently, you don’t need to be CCR to experience the CCR curse.
UK Singles Chart Top Ten (Week of September 27th, 1969):
- ‘Bad Moon Rising’ – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
- ‘Don’t Forget to Remember – The Bee Gees
- ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ – Bobby Gentry
- ‘In The Year 2525’ – Zager and Evans
- ‘Natural Born Bugie’ – Humble Pie
- ‘Good Morning Starshine’ – Oliver
- ‘Too Busy Thinking ‘Bout My Baby’ – Marvin Gaye
- ‘Viva Bobby Joe’ – Equals
- ‘A Boy Named Sue’ – Johnny Cash
