The Week in Number Ones: PinkPantheress, Morgan Wallen, and John Lennon make moves
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 looked into the latest case of TikTok reviving an older song with Miguel’s ‘Sure Thing’. We also explored how Lil Uzi Vert perfectly represented the modern rockstar, something he leaned into on his most recent single ‘Just Wanna Rock’, and kept up with the rocking theme by revisiting a time when Elton John had the collective masses hopping and bopping to the ‘Crocodile Rock’.
With a distinct lack of real music news (I’m just going to not talk about Rihanna’s polarising Super Bowl Halftime Show performance), it’s time to revisit my favourite recurring segment of this column: where is ‘Mr. Brightside’ on the UK Singles Chart this week? In case you don’t know, The Killers’ iconic first single has had the longest run in the history of the UK Singles Chart. Even better, it’s an ongoing phenomenon: at any given time, it’s almost a guarantee that ‘Mr. Brightside’ is sitting somewhere in the top 100.
That’s true for this week as well, with ‘Mr. Brightside’ sitting at a solid number 80. That gives the song its 348th non-consecutive week on the UK Singles Chart. The most astounding thing about this record is that ‘Mr. Brightside’ has never reached higher than it did during its first week on the chart all the way back in 2004. It hit number ten and then descended gradually until dropping off the chart. ‘Mr. Brightside’ never went to number one, and yet, it’s almost inarguably the most successful single to ever appear on the UK Singles Chart. That’s why I love it so much.
This week, we check in with one of England’s hottest rising star PinkPanthress as she stares down her first top ten single with ‘Boy’s a Liar’. Then, we’ll hop over to America for a very brief refresher on the country’s favourite fuck-up, Morgan Wallen, before rounding out our Valentine’s Day coverage with an equally heartwarming and heartbreaking posthumous number one from John Lennon. 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
I write this column once a week. And seemingly every single week, I’ve had to use the word “TikTok” and subsequently wrestled with my own oncoming old age. I still have another 15 years before I hit the ripe old age of 40, but let me tell you, folks: nothing makes me feel older than reporting on new TikTok trends that seep over into the pop charts.
That’s just the age that we live in: I’m sure some poor schmuck was grousing about this hot new thing called Spotify way back when and how it was ruining the traditional music experience. Art always moves forward, and it’s still art, no matter where it gets posted or viewed. So imagine my surprise when I actually really enjoyed a TikTok track that exploded onto the pop chart this week.
English pop-rap upstart PinkPanthress has a sound that’s perfect for TikTok. Part video game sound effects, part bubblegum melodies, part hyper-pop, and part chillwave, PinkPanthress fused all of those elements together on the indelible two-minute single ‘Boy’s a Liar’. With some perfect lines to soundtrack a ten-second video, it’s no surprise that ‘Boy’s a Liar’ is TikTok’s current flavour of the week.
Like any good entrepreneur, PinkPanthress has immediately doubled down by creating a sequel track, ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2’, featuring Ice Spice. Now, historically speaking, sequel songs are a one-way ticket to one-hit-wonder obscurity. But we might have to look at ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2′ from a more modern angle. PinkPanthress blew up on TikTok, a space specifically designed for short-term memory, so keeping things fresh with a second go around just makes sense. Plus, it’s more of a remix than a sequel song. Only time will tell, but I have a feeling that this won’t be PinkPanthress’ only top-ten hit.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of February 15th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Escapism’ – Raye ft. 070 Shake
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Sure Thing’ – Miguel
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Messy in Heaven’ – Venbee & Goddard
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema
- ‘Boy’s a Liar’ – PinkPanthress
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘10:35′ – Tiesto & Tate McRae
Current US Number One: ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
Another week, another number one run for Miley Cyrus. Truth be told, my enthusiasm for ‘Flowers’ is starting to wane a bit, if only because it’s had four weeks at the top of the charts. That being said, I’m still much more willing to listen to ‘Flowers’ because of two reasons: one, it’s still a pretty solid pop track, and two, the rest of the chart is either stale or just plain bad.
Take, for instance, the current number three song in America: ‘Last Night’ by Morgan Wallen. In case you don’t know, Wallen is the modern pop-country titan who has become a lynchpin in the ongoing conversation about separating art from the artist. To make a very long story short, Wallen was caught saying the N-word and was publically reprimanded. It was expected that Wallen would be “cancelled”, but instead, he actually experienced a surge in popularity so extreme that he’s now legitimately one of the biggest artists in American music.
Naturally, that led to a lot of discussion over the “proper” way to respond to incidents like this. Should audiences be held to a higher standard for backing up a man who did something reprehensible? Was this a major reaction against “wokeness” and political correctness? Should Wallen himself do more? For his part, Wallen did offer up what seemed like a sincere apology at the time, but even that came under fire for being pretty milk-toast and basic as far as apologies go. For some, it appeared as though Wallen was apologising for getting caught and not expressing real regret for using a racial slur.
The baggage surrounding Wallen has made it nearly impossible to judge his music outside of the hoopla that surrounds him. But this time, it’s easy: ‘Last Night’ sucks. It’s the most basic pop country, liquor-swiggin’, truck-humpin’ song you could possibly imagine. If that’s your thing, then feel free to wrestle with Wallen’s artistic and humanistic integrity all you want (although if you’re a fan, you’ve likely already made that decision). For me, it’s easy – I don’t like it, so I don’t lie awake at night wondering whether Morgan Wallen is truly a good person or not.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of February 18th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Last Night’ – Morgan Wallen
- ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith & Kim Petras
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage
- ‘Cuff It’ – Beyoncé
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd
- ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ – David Guetta & Bebe Rexha
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Woman’ – John Lennon (#1 on the UK Singles Chart, February 14th, 1981)
On December 8th, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his apartment building in New York City. The outpouring of grief and sadness was immediate: one of the most famous and beloved men in the world had been murdered. A Beatle was dead, taken in cold blood by a supposed fan. The shockwaves that spread throughout the world of entertainment, and the world at large, were immediate.
Almost immediately, Lennon was memorialised as a true creative genius. But it’s easy to forget that Lennon wasn’t exactly treasured and acclaimed at the time of his death. In fact, Lennon had spent half a decade away from music and out of the public eye to raise his son, Sean. When he did return, it was with his wife, Yoko Ono, on the joint studio album Double Fantasy. By and large, reviews for the album upon its release were highly critical, dismissive, and harshly derisive.
Double Fantasy is a messy album. Most audiences would have preferred to have just heard Lennon after an absence of five years, but instead, they got half Lennon and half Ono. Both had become fascinated by new wave music that was exploding at the time, but neither was particularly adept at tapping into the genre. Ono’s contributions were more firmly rooted in futuristic synths, while Lennon decided to tap into soft dynamics, rockabilly, and bluesy old-school shuffles. The results were a mixed bag of songs, but Lennon had clearly hit upon a new spark with his songwriting.
‘(Just Like) Starting Over’, ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’, ‘Woman’, and ‘Dear Yoko’ might have been groan-worthy lyrical idealisations of Lennon’s home life, but nobody could argue that they weren’t catchy and tuneful. They would have made for a great return back into the music business and a laudable first step into Lennon’s newest artistic era. Instead, these tracks would end up being his swan songs.
Almost immediately after his death, the general public grieved by playing Lennon’s music on a nonstop loop. His record sales soared post-mortem, and most of the negative reviews of Double Fantasy were retracted out of respect for the dead. ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ went to number one in both the UK and the US. It wasn’t just his newest material either: Lennon’s universal peace ballad ‘Imagine’ hit the top of the UK Singles Chart to kick off 1981.
By the time Valentine’s Day rolled around, Lennon’s death was still fresh in the mind of music fans. Especially in Lennon’s home country, the mourning continued with constant spins of Lennon’s music. Just before his death, Lennon had chosen ‘Woman’ to be the second single from Double Fantasy. To honour his wishes, the song became his first posthumous release. It was appropriate that one of Lennon’s best love songs went to number one on Valentine’s Day, but the single’s success was highly bittersweet.
Before 1980, John Lennon had never had a number-one single in the UK. He only had one in the US: the Elton John collaboration ‘Whatever Gets You Thru Night’. For whatever reason, Lennon just couldn’t push to the top of the charts during his lifetime. But after his death, the deep public grief experienced by millions of music fans pushed three different songs to number one in the UK.
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of February 14th, 1981):
- ‘Woman’ – John Lennon
- ‘Vienna’ – Ultravox
- ‘Shaddup Your Face’ – Joe Dolce Music Theatre
- ‘In the Air Tonight’ – Phil Collins
- ‘I Surrender’ – Rainbow
- ‘Imagine’ – John Lennon
- ‘The Oldest Swingers in Town’ – Fred Wedlock
- ‘Rapture’ – Blondie
- ‘Antmusic’ – Adam & the Ants
- ‘The Return of the Los Palmas Seven’ – Madness
