The Week in Number Ones: Miguel, Lil Uzi Vert, and Elton John
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 explored the lows of life with Headie One and his down-and-out anthem ‘Martin’s Sofa’ before jumping back into the depths of TikTok with ThxSoMch and his new hit ‘SPIT IN MY FACE!’. Then, we jumped in a time machine to investigate The Jackson 5’s first number one, ‘I Want You Back’.
Did you guys see that the Grammys took place a couple of days ago? The event boasted some fun moments, given that the Recording Academy snubbed Beyoncé for the fifth time on ‘Album of the Year’ in favour of Harry Styles. Bonnie Raitt stunned her younger competition by taking home ‘Song of the Year’, and a little-known jazz singer named Samara Joy took home ‘Best New Artist’. Even by Grammy standards, those were some pretty wacky choices for main awards.
Other awards were more understandable. Lizzo took home ‘Record of the Year’ for her disco jam ‘About Damn Time’. Kim Petras became the first trans woman to win a Grammy, and that was after she scared the hell out of conservative America with her and Sam Smith’s performance of ‘Unholy’. Beyoncé might not have won any of the major prizes, but her four awards were good enough to make her the most-awarded artist in Grammy history.
I know this is already well-known knowledge, but it’s worth repeating: the Grammys don’t mean anything. At a time when award shows are getting a gigantic shrug from general audiences across the world, the Grammys had to do something to uphold their reputation for going against the grain. If you think Beyoncé actually cares about losing ‘Album of the Year’, you are sorely mistaken. Still, it is fun to see legions of fans get butt-hurt on her behalf. That’s where the true entertainment lies within the Grammys.
This week, we get lost in the engrossing and ever-so-slightly ridiculous R&B of Miguel and his latest/oldest hit, ‘Sure Thing’. Then, we check out the closest thing that hip hop has to a rock star in Lil Uzi Vert, who makes their connection crystal clear on the new hit ‘Just Wanna Rock’. Finally, we turn back the clock 50 years to Elton John and his first number one single, ‘Crocodile Rock’. 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
Speaking of award shows, do you guys remember when Miguel was performing at the Billboard Music Awards, and he totally clotheslined those two women? This happened almost exactly a decade ago, but it’s still the preeminent memory that I have of the R&B singer. No favourite songs, no killer live shows, and no other controversies: just a failed leap and a hilarious freeze frame that remains as painful as it is hilarious.
Evidently, I’m not the only person looking into Miguel’s past. ‘Sure Thing’, the singer’s latest hit and first-ever top ten hit in the UK, isn’t exactly what you would call a “new song”. In fact, ‘Sure Thing’ was actually the second single from Miguel’s 2011 debut album All I Want Is You. It was his first number one hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and originally peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it didn’t chart in the UK during its original release).
But now, more than a decade after it first hit the charts, ‘Sure Thing’ is making a second run on the pop charts. Just like every other belated trend these days, we can thank TikTok for his resurgence of ‘Sure Thing’. Miguel took to his own account to thank the fans (and hordes of random users who probably don’t know who Miguel is) for pushing ‘Sure Thing’ up the charts, sharing an acoustic version of the song for good measure.
Just to put it into perspective, you could have bought the original version of ‘Sure Thing’ as a physical media single back when it came out. Lots of people did: the single sold more than a million copies in the US alone by the end of 2013. Ten years might not sound like a long time, but especially in the modern music industry, it’s ancient. TikTok is pushing all old music into a nebulous new space where the difference between 1971 and 2011 doesn’t really matter all that much. To some random kid, ‘Sure Thing’ might as well be from the same era as ‘You’re So Vain’. I can’t tell if that’s beautiful or horrifying.
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
- ‘Sure Thing’ – Miguel
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘Let Go’ – Central Cee
- ‘Miss You’ – Oliver Tree and Robin Schulz
Current US Number One: ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
You know who a rock star is? A rock star is someone who pushes beyond where the normal musician is working. A rock star commands attention, whether positive or negative, to the point where it’s impossible to look away. You have to be vain, outrageous, captivating, and a little crazy to be a rock star. You know who is a rock star? Lil Uzi Vert.
The Philly artist and emo rap pioneer makes music that is indebted to some of rock’s classic genres, including pop, punk and industrial, but that’s not what makes him a rock star. Getting people to constantly talk about your forehead diamond piercing or your change to they/them pronouns makes you a rock star. As if he needed anything more to drive the point home, Uzi has a new single that makes the connection clear: ‘Just Wanna Rock’.
The weirdest part about ‘Just Wanna Rock’ is that Uzi doesn’t actually appear all that much on it. One brief verse and a few scattered ad-libs are all that Uzi contributed to the track. Obviously, their name is on it, which means that they had a major hand in crafting the arrangement, progression, and overall vision of the single. But when it comes to hearing Uzi’s voice, there’s not much to be found on ‘Just Wanna Rock’.
But then, isn’t that kind of cool: barely featuring on your own single? OK, maybe it isn’t “cool”, but it certainly is interesting. Lil Uzi Vert remains one of the most captivating artists in the music industry right now, and it doesn’t even appear as though they are trying very hard at all. That’s a total rock star move right there, if you couldn’t tell.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of February 4th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith & Kim Petras
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd
- ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ – David Guetta & Bebe Rexha
- ‘Rich Flex’ – Drake & 21 Savage
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Just Wanna Rock’ – Lil Uzi Vert
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Crocodile Rock’ – Elton John (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, February 10th, 1973)
America needed someone special. As the early 1970s began throwing a diverse array of genres into the pop charts, music fans were getting treated to everything from funky R&B to folkie singer-songwriters to lush piano ballads to glammed-out hard rock. What the general public really needed was someone to fuse all of those genres together. They needed a gay, balding, pasty white piano player with bad eyes and an outrageous sense of fashion. America needed Elton John.
Reginald Kenneth Dwight had what could generously be considered an outside chance of becoming America’s most beloved pop star. The newly-christened Elton John had been fumbling his way through psychedelia, blues, R&B, and traditional English ballads throughout the late 1960s, searching for some kind of direction. When he began collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin, John had found his initial footing in piano-focused soft rock that melded perfectly with the Laurel Canyon scene of singer-songwriters in the early 1970s. But John and Taupin wanted to be more than just ballad writers.
Back in the pair’s home country of England, a new phenomenon was starting to make waves in the early 1970s. Rock bands began styling their hair and clothes with glitter and bright colours. Extroversion and eye-catching outfits were just as important as the music. Glam rock was taking over Britain, and the previously shy and reserved John had seen a way to celebrate both his love of Little Richard-style rock music and his closeted sexuality in a more direct way. Embracing flamboyant antics and showstopping stage garb, a whole new world had opened up to John.
Unlike many of his peers, John didn’t sacrifice his music for the sake of his image. With Taupin by his side, John continued to cran out classic pop songs that varied in style and composition. There was the sci-fi ballad ‘Rocket Man’, the New Orleans-indebted ‘Honky Cat’, and the heartfelt love ode ‘Your Song’, all of which landed in the top ten in America. By 1972, John had his close collaborators solidified: Taupin, producer Gus Dudgeon, and band members Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, and Nigel Olsson. With everything in place, it was time to take over.
Even though he was better known for his slow ballads, John decided that the first single from his 1973 album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player wouldn’t be the gentle Caribbean tones of ‘Daniel’ or the lush languidness of ‘Blues For Baby and Me’. Instead, John knew he had an infectious rock and roll throwback that could make a serious run up the pop charts. Slow songs were all well and good, but it was time for John to rock. Specifically, it was time for John to do the crocodile rock.
There was no real “crocodile rock”. No kids were hopping or bopping to the dance because it never existed. Taupin got the inspiration from Daddy Cool’s Australian hit single ‘Eagle Rock’, plus a whole horde of early rock and roll dance craze tunes. When John got his hands on the lyrics, he had the perfect ideas to bring the song to life. Those included a rollicking piano-heavy chord progression, mind-bending guitar lines, a tottling Farfisa organ, and enough falsetto to inspire Barry Gibb’s entire career.
At the time of its release, both John and Taupin viewed ‘Crocodile Rock’ as being something of a joke. The pair had written earnest and emotional songs that they held in high regard. ‘Crocodile Rock’ was not among them. But it did have a major hook that none of John’s songs could match up to that point. It was infectious and perfectly calibrated to get stuck in your head for hours, years, and now, decades.
Of course, John had to play ‘Crocodile Rock’ everywhere he went after it became his first number one single in both the US and the UK. He famously busted out a version with The Muppets in 1978. No live show was complete without ‘Crocodile Rock’. John notched five other number one hits in the US and scored plenty of signature songs across the rest of his career. However, by the end of his touring life in 2022, he was ready to put ‘Crocodile Rock’ to bed permanently.
“The last time I have to sing ‘Crocodile Rock’ I will probably throw a party,” John told NME in 2021. “But people love to hear it. It was written as a kind of joke, as a pastiche, and it became a big hit, and people love to sing along with it. So who am I to say, ‘I am not going to play it’ because I play to amuse people and to entertain people. But I have to say, when the last show is done at the end of the tour, I will never ever sing that song again.”
John might be done touring, but he still has some festival appearances and additional shows that he can pull out at a moment’s notice. Despite his fervour to never revisit ‘Crocodile Rock’, it seems almost inconceivable to think of John shelving the song for good. It might have been a half-serious ode to nostalgia, but ‘Crocodile Rock’ is at least part of the reason why most people still know the name Elton John 50 years later.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of February 10th, 1973):
- ‘Crocodile Rock’ – Elton John
- ‘You’re So Vain’ – Carly Simon
- ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ – Timmy Thomas
- ‘Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?’ – Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith
- ‘Superstition’ – Stevie Wonder
- ‘Do It Again’ – Steely Dan
- ‘The World is a Ghetto’ – War
- ‘Trouble Man’ – Marvin Gaye
- ‘Don’t Expect Me to Be Your Friend’ – Lobo
- ‘Could It Be I’m Falling In Love’ – The Spinners
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