The Week in Number Ones: Steve Lacy, Sam Smith, and Marky Mark 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 had no qualms about giving Chris Brown a verbal smackdown, charted the latest developments in Harry Styles’ record-breaking run with ‘As It Was’, and wondered out loud how a band as popular as Creedence Clearwater Revival had one UK number one and no US number ones.
Earlier this week, we lost a music legend when Loretta Lynn passed away at the age of 90. Lynn wasn’t much of a presence on the pop charts, with her highest peak on the Billboard Hot 100 coming on the 1971 Conway Twitty duet ‘After the Fire is Gone’. Not surprisingly, she never landed a single hit on the UK Singles Chart.
But here’s what she did do: nab 16 number one solo singles on the Billboard Country Singles chart, ten number one albums, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Kennedy Center Honour, three Grammys, and an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her pioneering “women first” style of writing made her an inspiration for legendary singers like Dolly Parton as well as modern icons like Lucinda Williams and Carrie Underwood. She was the first lady of country, and she will be sorely missed.
This week, we take a dive into the second number one debut in three weeks and congratulate Steve Lacy on climbing all the way to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, we take a long overdue deep dive into when Mark Wahlberg was ripped and on top of the world as Marky Mark. All that and more as we round up all the best chart news of the modern-day and recent past.
Current UK Number One: ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith and Kim Petras
Debuting at number one isn’t actually as unique of a feat as it might seem. Just two weeks ago, Lewis Capaldi debuted at number one with his latest smash ‘Forget Me’. But sometimes, number one debuts are special, like when they carry important social breakthroughs. It might not initially seem like it on the surface, but ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith and Kim Petras is quietly record-breaking.
In my research, I couldn’t find any singers who had hit number one in the UK after asserting their non-binary identities. Janelle Monáe had a number one featured credit on Fun’s ‘We Are Young’ back when they exclusively used she/her pronouns, and so did Demi Lovato on the Clean Bandit song ‘Solo’. Miley Cyrus has two number ones and has previously identified as gender fluid. The main point is that these kinds of statistics aren’t really well-kept, so there’s much room for improvement.
I also haven’t found any transgender artists who have hit number one in the UK (again, you’ll have to forgive the lack of official info. This is all personal and potentially flawed research). If all of this is indeed true, then Smith becomes the first non-binary artist to land a number one, and Petras becomes the first trans woman to reach the top of the charts.
Smith is no stranger to the UK Singles Chart: they already have seven previous number one songs. But this one just happens to carry a wonderfully progressive achievement with it. Even better? The song is pretty good! That’s always nice, isn’t it?
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of October 5th, 2022):
- ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith & Kim Petras
- ‘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
- ‘Under the Influence’ – Chris Brown
- ‘Big City Life’ – Luude & Mattafix
- ‘Bad Habit’ – Steve Lacy
- ‘Ferrari’ – James Hype/ Miggy Dela Rosa
Current US Number One: ‘Bad Habit’ – Steve Lacy
After knocking around the top ten for the last couple of weeks, it’s official: Steve Lacy has his first number one song with ‘Bad Habit’. It’s been a long road for the singer/guitarist, one that included a personal plea from Lacy himself on social media and a long time at the number two slot behind Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’, but now Lacy is the king of pop music for the next week.
Some housekeeping stats for Styles: ‘As It Was’ has now dropped from the number one slot for the fifth time, which is a new record. If it rises to number one for a sixth time, Styles will hold the record for most ascensions to number one with a single song, a record previously held by… Harry Styles and ‘As It Was’. Go figure.
With its 15 weeks at number one, ‘As It Was’ gives Styles the distinction of having the longest-reigning number one song by a solo act in Hot 100 history. All told, ‘As It Was’ had the fourth-most weeks at number one ever, behind Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’, Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey’s ‘One Sweet Day’, and the Luis Fonsi/Daddy Yankee/Justin Bieber collaboration ‘Despacito’. ‘As It Was’ might not even be done: it currently sits at number two and could very easily rise back up to number one next week.
But enough about that. It’s Steve Lacy’s time in the sun. The first track by the artist to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100 is now the number one song in America. Its growth on TikTok and subsequent crossover to mainstream pop culture is a wonderful coup for an outsider like Lacy, and hopefully, the success of ‘Bad Habit’ leads to many additional number ones for the young artist.
US Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten Singles (Week of October 8th, 2022):
- ‘Bad Habit’ – Steve Lacy
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Unholy’ – Sam Smith & Kim Petras
- ‘I Like You (A Happier Song)’ – Post Malone ft. Doja Cat
- ‘Sunroof’ – Nicky Youre & Dazy
- ‘Super Freaky Girl’ – Nicki Minaj
- ‘I Ain’t Worried’ – OneRepublic
- ‘You Proof’ – Morgan Wallen
- ‘Tomorrow 2’ – GloRilla & Cardi B
- ‘About Damn Time’ – Lizzo
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Good Vibrations’ – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, October 5th)
October 1991: Grunge officially invaded the world of popular music. Moviegoers were clamouring to see Terminator 2: Judgment Day in theatres. Over in the UK, music listeners can’t get enough of Bryan Adams’ soppy Robin Hood ballad ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You)’. But over in America, music fans knew that it was time to bring forth the rhythm and the rhyme.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the younger brother of everyone’s second or third favourite member of New Kids on the Block had landed a number one pop single. Not only that, but it was one of the first songs that proved the 1990s was going to be the decade of hip-hop. Not bad for a 20-year-old with a previous history of violence and hate crimes.
The story of Mark Wahlberg is one of the strangest in the world of entertainment. It probably goes without saying, but had the internet been around when Wahlberg was first becoming famous, he would have been cancelled immediately. And not just for being a white guy capitalising on a black art form, but more for attacking black kids and assaulting Vietnamese people in Boston. Wahlberg was even arrested for attempted murder before he turned 18. Wahlberg could have just been another violent thug had it not been for the success of his brother Donnie.
Thanks to the popularity of New Kids on the Block, Donnie Wahlberg was able to book Mark studio time to keep him off the streets. Encouraging him to rap, Donnie helped Mark assemble a group of dancers around him that eventually became Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Donnie and his NKOTB bandmate Danny Wood produced the group’s debut LP, Music for the People, which just happened to include a ridiculously catchy song by the name of ‘Good Vibrations’.
‘Good Vibrations’ came from a strange time in hip hop, where house music and pop elements were being liberally sprinkled into major hits. This was before G-funk and gangsta rap truly took over as dominant art forms. The charts belonged to goofy dancefloor-ready acts like Gerardo and C+C Music Factory. In fact, if you listen to ‘Good Vibrations’, you can hear strains of ‘Rico Suave’ and ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’, both of which were hits in the months before the Wahlbergs recorded ‘Good Vibrations’.
In that sense, the brothers simply followed the formula of taking a soulful hook, mixing in pop house beats, and finishing it all off with a ridiculous rap. That central vocal hook was from Loleatta Holloway’s ‘Love Sensation’, a 1980 disco track written by legendary songwriter Dan Hartman (other Hartman bangers include The Edgar Winter Group’s ‘Free Ride’ and James Brown’s ‘Living in America’). In fact, it’s probably fair to say that, musically speaking, Marky Mark is the least interesting part of ‘Good Vibrations’.
Mark wasn’t the best rapper in the world, but he had an important asset: he was young, good-looking, and completely shredded. Interscope took the opportunity to scoop up the Funky Bunch after finding success with New Kids on the Block and a video for ‘Good Vibrations’ showing off Wahlberg’s chiselled physique. Shortly afterwards, Wahlberg would start appearing in Calvin Klein advertisements, solidifying his image as a hunky meathead.
The popularity of ‘Good Vibrations’ was short-livedo – the song spent only a single week at number one. With the rise of grunge and gangsta rap, the Funky Bunch’s brand of pop rap was almost immediately considered passé and lame by the following year. The group’s sophomore LP, You Gotta Believe, failed to score a hit and stalled out on the charts. Wahlberg teamed up with reggae singer Prince Ital Joe for two albums before leaving music for good in 1995. Wahlberg isn’t too thrilled to bring up his Marky Mark era these days, but in the grab-back of pop culture that was 1991, Wahlberg was briefly the biggest rapper in America.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of October 5th, 1991):
- ‘Good Vibrations’ – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
- ‘I Adore Mi Amor’ – Color Me Badd
- ‘Emotions’ – Mariah Carey
- ‘Do Anything’ – Natural Selection
- ‘Love of a Lifetime’ – Firehouse
- ‘Romantic’ – Karyn White
- ‘Something to Talk About’ – Bonnie Raitt
- ‘Motownphilly’ – Boyz II Men
- ‘Hole Hearted’ – Extreme
- ‘Shiny Happy People’ – R.E.M.
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