The Week in Number Ones: Headie One, ThxSoMch, and The Jackson 5 go big
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, we went in on Miley Cyrus’ cross-continental number one ‘Flowers’, explored the drama of Shakira’s new collaboration with Bizarrap, and went back in time to relive the joys of Men at Work’s ‘Down Under’.
Hey, good news: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees for the class of 2023 are out. It’s a big day if you’re a Willie Nelson or Warren Zevon stan. It’s also a big day if you consider Joy Division and New Order to be two separate bands, which I do, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame evidently does not. Congrats to the Rock Hall for being the institutional equivalent of that guy who wears the Unknown Pleasures T-shirt because it looks cool.
Honestly, I’d be happy to see just about every nominee from this year get in. I’m a bit sceptical when it comes to Sheryl Crow and Cyndi Lauper, but if it gets more pioneering women into the conversation, then all the better. I’m just saying, though: Kate Bush is right there.
Will Rage Against the Machine finally get in after five nominations? Who is still successfully campaigning for The Spinners? Why did Devo and the MC5 ever get back on the ballot? Stay tuned for the induction announcement in April to find out.
This week, we take a dive into the depths of struggle with Headie One’s new track, ‘Martin’s Sofa’. After that, we once again wrangle with the beast of TikTok with ThxSoMch’s ‘SPIT IN MY FACE!’ and hit the rewind button to revisit The Jackson 5 and their first number one single, ‘I Want You Back’. 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
Have you ever fucked up really badly? Like so badly that you managed to lose everything? Maybe you wound up getting kicked out of your house, lost all your money, and needed a place to crash that wasn’t on the street. For all your fuck ups and ne’er-do-wells, lift up your lighters: there’s a new anthem from Headie One that’s just for you.
‘Martin’s Sofa’ is the struggle bus personified: four minutes of introspective lyrics, real-life violence, Flatbush Zombies samples, and emotional weight. In case you were wondering, the titular Martin refers to one of Headie One’s former customers when he was a drug dealer who let him crash on the couch in exchange for drugs.
The bottomed-out mentality of ‘Martin’s Couch’ isn’t romanticised or brushed aside. Instead, Headie One decides to confront his past demons head-on, complete with his signature UK drill flow. The track is stark, haunted, and weirdly inspirational if you feel like you have your own struggle stories that can relate to Head’s lyrics.
‘Martin’s Sofa’ isn’t the first time that Headie One has peeked into the top ten: he just missed out on a number one single back in 2020 with the Stormzy collaboration ‘Ain’t It Different’. But maybe ‘Martin’s Sofa’ has the power to propel Headie One to his first chart-topper. That would be a hell of a redemption story, wouldn’t it?
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of February 1st, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Escapism’ – Raye ft. 070 Shake
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Messy in Heaven’ – Venbee & Goddard
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema
- ‘Let Go’ – Central Cee
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘Martin’s Sofa’ – Headie One
- ‘Sure Thing’ – Miguel
Current US Number One: ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
In what’s starting to become a recurring segment, let’s see what part of TikTok’s stranglehold on popular music confuses me this week. I swear to god that I’m not that far off from TikTok’s targeted demographic (24 years old, so probably a decade removed. Wow, when you say it like that, it makes TikTok sound really creepy). I even have an account myself. But do I know how the video-sharing platform picks and chooses which songs to launch up the charts? Absolutely not.
Plenty of songs in the top ten are there, at least partially, thanks to TikTok. But if you want to see the breadth of TikTok’s influence, scroll all the way down to the 100th song on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. That would be ‘SPIT IT MY FACE!’ from electro-rap-pop-rock newcomer ThxSoMch.
If you’re allergic to the concept of Eboys, you might want to sit this one out. ThxSoMch is an artist that only has a small handful of actual songs to his name. What he does have is 7.4 million likes and over 258,000 followers on TikTok. How does an artist get that much attention without actually having all that much material? By posting snippets of songs, plus other hijinks and various TikTok-related behaviours that make me feel older and older by the minute.
Will ThxSoMch be the most recent TikTok success story? Your guess is as good as mine. As much as I want to rag on a song like ‘SPIT IN MY FACE!’, I can’t say that it’s not catchy. It’s like if The Weeknd was more emo and had less talent while making After Hours, which honestly isn’t a terrible path to go down if you’re trying to break through. It gave him a Billboard hit, after all.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of February 4th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith & Kim Petras
- ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ – David Guetta & Bebe Rexha
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd
- ‘Rich Flex’ – Drake & 21 Savage
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Golden Hour’ – JVKE
This Week in Number Ones: ‘I Want You Back’ – The Jackson 5 (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, January 31st, 1970)
The music industry had already accepted black superstars by 1970. Although America was still in the midst of racial turmoil by the end of the 1960s, the pop charts were one of the few places where white and black artists mixed and mingled relatively freely.
The pioneering label that helped make that possible was Motown, the paradigm-shifting enterprise headed by Berry Gordy. Since its incorporation in 1960, Motown had produced some of the biggest black acts in music, including Diana Ross, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. The 1970s would be a decade of reckoning and artistic emancipation for the biggest acts signed to the label, but Gordy had one last group over which he had full control: The Jackson 5.
After a half-decade of working the last remnants of the Chitlin’ Circuit, Joe Jackson brought five of his sons to Motown, intent on getting signed. Although Gordy was hesitant after having signed then-11-year-old Stevie Wonder, he agreed to bring the group on board thanks to the talent of lead singer Michael Jackson.
Gordy assembled his songwriting team, The Corporation, to prepare the band’s first single with Motown. At the same time, Gordy devised a marketing scheme for the group: even though they were actually signed based on the recommendation from Gladys Knight, Diana Ross was given the credit for discovering them. The ploy helped The Jackson 5 gain credibility while also preparing Ross to make her name as a solo artist.
‘I Want You Back’ was so infectious and undeniable that it immediately propelled The Jackson 5 to stardom. Michael’s lead vocal abilities were far beyond his 11 years on earth. After spending a few months building momentum, ‘I Want You Back’ eventually rose all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on its way to selling six million copies worldwide (that same week, another phenomenon reached its peak on the charts: Led Zeppelin hit number four with ‘Whole Lotta Love’).
Being the shrewd businessman that he was, Gordy immediately commissioned another single in the same style as ‘I Want You Back’. The result was ‘ABC’, the group’s second consecutive number one single. Jacksonmania was out of control in America, propelling five young black men to the forefront of culture just a few short years after the civil rights movement had reached its peak throughout the US. The Jacksons weren’t political, but their massive success was a sign of progression, even as they were singing bubblegum pop.
It didn’t take long for The Jackson 5 to fracture. After 1970, the group never again scored another number one song. The Corporation went its separate ways in 1973, and the Jacksons themselves departed from Motown in 1975. It took another decade for Michael to fully remove himself from The Jacksons, but once he did, he would go on to redefine the very definition of being a pop star, for better and for worse.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of January 31st, 1970):
- ‘I Want You Back’ – The Jackson 5
- ‘Venus’ – The Shocking Blue
- ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ – B.J. Thomas
- ‘Whole Lotta Love’- Led Zeppelin
- ‘Without Love (There Is Nothing)’ – Tom Jones
- ‘Don’t Cry’ / ‘Rubberneckin’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ – Dionne Warwick
- ‘Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin’ – Sly & the Family Stone
- ‘Someday We’ll be Together’ – Diana Ross and the Supremes
- ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ – Peter, Paul, and Mary
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