The Week in Number Ones: Nicki Minaj, Eliza Rose, and The Beach Boys go big
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 took a look at Beyoncé’s return to the top of the charts with ‘Break My Soul’, KSI’s pre-fight publicity stunt/brand new single ‘Not Over Yet’, and dove into the debate behind one of the most beloved movie themes of all time, Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’.
In an impressive move up the album charts, Kasabian’s latest LP, The Alchemist Euphoria, debuts at number one, displacing Beyoncé’s Renaissance as the top album in the UK. As the first release without former lead vocalist Tom Meighan, Alchemist is still good old-fashioned Kasabian, just with Sergio Pizzorno at the helm now.
Meanwhile, Florida rapper Rod Wave has ascended to the top of the American album charts with his most recent LP, Beautiful Mind. That gives Wave his second chart-topping LP two years after 2021’s SoulFly. Wave is also gaining a lot of momentum on the singles charts these days (his current single ‘Alone’ debuted at number 21 this week), so it might be time to shift some of the mainstream hip hop focus over to him.
This week, we highlight the rise of Eliza Rose and the continuing influence of TikTok on the charts, Nicki Minaj and her history-making new single ‘Super Freaky Girl’, and jump into the time machine to revisit when exactly The Beach Boys became a nostalgia act. All that and more as we round up all the best chart news of the modern-day and recent past.
Current UK Number One: ‘Afraid to Feel’ – LF System
The UK is definitely going through something right now. For whatever reason, the pop charts sound a lot like the house clubs of the late 1980s and early 1990s. That’s been the case at the summit for a couple of weeks now, thanks to the now-seven-week run at number one for LF System’s ‘Afraid to Feel’, but there’s another throwback song threatening the top spot this week.
That would be British DJ Eliza Rose’s house track ‘B.O.T.A’, which currently sits at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Featuring a prominent sample of ‘Let the Beat Hit ‘Em’ by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam (or rather the ‘LL w/Love RC Mix’ remix of the track that was a top 50 chart hit in 1991), ‘B.O.T.A’ is about five meters down the rabbit hole of remix culture continuously flipping and changing itself.
As is customary for modern hits, ‘B.O.T.A.’ can attribute much of its success to TikTok. I can’t verify that since the only TikToks I watch revolve around animals or Robert Pattinson not seeing anything wrong with a little bump and grind, so I will just have to believe it. I’m not quite sure which part of ‘B.O.T.A.’ is being co-opted by the TikTok crowd, but I don’t try to contextualise the world of TikTok. That would be exhausting.
Instead, I just sit back and observe when songs get vaulted all the way to the top of the charts. This is not the first song that got a major boost from the online platform; it certainly won’t be the last. We might be at a higher risk of getting our data stolen by being on it, but it’s worth hearing killer new songs and watching videos of dogs jamming out to harmonicas.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of August 25th, 2022):
- ‘Afraid to Feel’ – LF System
- ‘B.O.T.A’ – Eliza Rose/Interplanetary
- ‘Break My Soul’ – Beyoncé
- ‘Green Green Grass’ – George Ezra
- ‘Crazy What Love Can Do’ – David Guetta/Hill/Henderson
- ‘I Ain’t Worried’ – OneRepublic
- ‘Doja’ – Central Cee
- ‘Not Over Yet’ – KSI ft. Tom Grennan
- ‘Ferrari’ – James Hype/ Miggy Dela Rosa
- ‘Stay With Me’ – Calvin Harris ft. Justin Timberlake and Halsey
Current US Number One: ‘Super Freaky Girl’ – Nicki Minaj
As far as modern pop stars go, few figures are as polarising as the eternal minefield that is Nicki Minaj. Minaj has produced some of the biggest (and arguably best) songs of the last 15 years, from ‘Super Bass’ to ‘Anaconda’ to her appearance on Doja Cat’s ‘Say So’. She’s also spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, dissed Rosa Parks in a song, and consistently defends her sex offender husband.
It’s been a whirlwind, to say the least, but just looking at music, Minaj now has a distinction that puts her up with the undisputed hip hop legends. With her latest single, ‘Super Freaky Girl’, debuting at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Minaj has become only the second female rapper to ever debut at the top of the singles chart. The first: Lauryn Hill, whose ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’ was the first.
‘Super Freaky Girl’ is also Minaj’s first solo number one single of her career. She has three total, with her first two being collaborations: the aforementioned remix of ‘Say So’ and the abhorrent 2020 duet with 6ix9ine, ‘Trollz’. Previously, Minaj had topped out at number two with ‘Anaconda’, but today she finally sits alone at the top of the charts.
So, is ‘Super Freaky Girl’ a good song? Well… let’s not ruin some cool history with negativity. All I will say is that the two songs that Minaj pays tribute to on the track, Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’ and Master P’s ‘Make ‘Em Say Uhh!’, are probably better listens than ‘Super Freaky Girl’. That doesn’t make ‘Super Freaky Girl’ bad, at least not inherently. You know what, let’s just focus on the historical facts for now and deal with the critical analysis later.
US Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten Singles (Week of August 27th, 2022):
- ‘Super Freaky Girl’ – Nicki Minaj
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘About Damn Time’ – Lizzo
- ‘Break My Soul’ – Beyoncé
- ‘Running Up That Hill’ – Kate Bush
- ‘Bad Habit’ – Steve Lacy
- ‘Sunroof’ – Nicky Youre & Dazy
- ‘Wait For U’ – Future ft. Drake & Tems
- ‘Me Porto Bonito’ – Bad Bunny & Cencho Corleone
- ‘I Like You (A Happier Song)’ – Post Malone ft. Doja Cat
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Do It Again’ – The Beach Boys (#1 on the UK Singles Chart, August 28th, 1968)
When did The Beach Boys officially become a nostalgia act? The exact timeline isn’t clear, but it definitely did happen at some point. One day, Brian Wilson was crafting revolutionary pop as his bandmates sang on some of the most legendary songs of all time. The next, the band was playing state fairs and leaning heavily into the “summer fun” image of the boomer generation. In terms of falls from grace, The Beach Boys had a major tumble.
That was easy to see by the mid-1970s: Wilson was hardly in the picture anymore, and in his place, the remaining members fought for control over the band’s sound and image. Mike Love ultimately won out over the rest, shaping the band around their previous hits and the group’s early clean-cut “surf and sun” image. Today, that’s the exact image you’ll see if you catch The Beach Boys on tour.
Of course, there was a slow progression towards the ultimate fate of an oldies act. When Wilson failed to complete Smile, his grip over The Beach Boys and their creative decisions was permanently loosened. Carl Wilson took over creative control for a few years, but the band failed to gain much critical or commercial success. When Love took over, he shifted the priorities over to live performance, catapulting The Beach Boys back to commercial success at the expense of their reputation for sonic experimentation.
There was a brief time when both Wilson and Love sought to return The Beach Boys to their roots, which happened long before their acceptance as a nostalgia act in the 1970s. ‘Do it Again’ was a return to the surfing image on which the band built their name in the early 1960s. After Wilson failed to bring his vision of Smile to fruition, he and Love co-wrote the track to remind audiences that The Beach Boys were still happy to return to their more carefree past.
‘Do It Again’ was a major step backwards for Wilson, who had sworn off surf songs in 1964 and vowed never to write another. Just four years later, here he was, plumbing the nostalgia of the band’s past image to try and right the ship after nearly capsizing while trying to complete Smile. In fact, the entirety of ‘Do It Again’ revolves around looking back, including the lyrical namecheck of ‘California Girls’.
‘Do It Again’ would be the final top 20 hit for The Beach Boys in the US until their 1976 cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Rock and Roll Music’, by which point the band had completely transitioned into their oldies phase. But in the UK, ‘Do It Again’ gave the band their second number one hit after 1966’s ‘Good Vibrations’. It would also be their final number one in the UK (‘Kokomo’ would hit number one in the US in 1988).
For the dwindling number of defenders who still saw The Beach Boys as a cutting-edge group in 1968, ‘Do It Again’ was officially the first nail in the coffin for the band as contemporary trend-setters. The song intended to rectify the Beach Boys’ commercial woes and creative stumbles but also directed the band to stop pushing the envelope and return to their simplistic roots. The Beach Boys’ split reputation as geniuses and irksome nostalgia riders had to start somewhere, and ‘Do It Again’ was probably where it all began.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of August 28th, 1968)
- ‘Do It Again’ – The Beach Boys
- ‘I’ve Gotta Get a Message To You’ – The Bee Gees
- ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’ – Herb Alpert
- ‘Mony Mony’ – Tommy James and the Shondells
- ‘Help Yourself’ – Tom Jones
- ‘Fire’ – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
- ‘High In The Sky’ – Amen Corner
- ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ – Aretha Franklin
- ‘Sunshine Girl’ – Herman’s Hermits
- ‘Dance to the Music’ – Sly and the Family Stone
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