The Week in Number Ones: Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and The Turtles
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,
It likely won’t appear in this column, but I still want to talk about boygenius’ new LP, The Record. The trio of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus form the modern reinterpretation of the supergroup. The difference is that, instead of being a bunch of old rock star guys, it’s three of the most vital indie singer/songwriters working today at the height of their collective powers.
None of the band members is especially an “album chart” kind of artist: Baker’s 2021 effort Little Oblivions is top of the heap with a peak position of number 39 on the Billboard 200, the magazine’s album-based equivalent of the Hot 100. Bridgers’ Punisher topped out at number 43, and Dacus’ Home Video only got as high as number 104. But make no mistake: these are three of the biggest names in music right now, headlining festivals and bringing together a massive amount of talent in one place.
Here’s a short list of supergroups who went all the way to number one on the Billboard 200: Cream, CSNY, Blind Faith, Asia, Audioslave, Velvet Revolver, and The Firm (the hip hop group, not the rock band with Jimmy Page). Told you it was a short list. Supergroups are great for getting people to buy tickets and making huge live appearances. It’s hard to find a band where everyone seems genuinely interested in creating new quality material.
That’s exactly what The Record is: a sprawling effort that proves that Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus came come together and make something greater than their individual components. It might not be the most beloved and acclaimed effort that the three ever make (Bridgers’ Punisher is already in an early lead for that one), but it’s a great album from a really great trio of artists who also happen to be a great trio period.
This week, we dive into a four-year-old Taylor Swit outtake that is now a major pop hit and check out why Selena Gomez is charting in the US but not the UK. Then, we dive into how two singers survived a one-hit wonder, made a career, and then caused not one but two major shifts in music industry business through copyright. 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’m not sure if you knew, but Taylor Swift is on the biggest tour in the world right now. With The Eras Tour officially a go, Swift is on pace to stage one of the biggest music concert runs in the history of music. Box office estimates are really massive, and her fans battling Ticketmaster certainly didn’t hurt. Swifties are a ravenous bunch, and they happen to be at the height of their wildness at the moment.
So when they got their hands on a supposed leak of unreleased music, Swift had to act fast. In order to prevent the leak, Swift decided to release four songs from her vault and claim it as a thank you to fans for their support. It was a savvy business move that proves no one should fuck with Swift’s catalogue, especially as she continues to re-release old albums in order to retain full ownership of them.
Of those four new songs, ‘To All The Girls You Loved Before’ is the one that is making the most noise on the pop charts this week. Originally recorded for Swift’s 2019 album Lover and later shelved, someone stumbled on the song earlier this month and must have threatened to release it. That probably explains why it’s now in the world: most fans were expecting a new ‘Taylor’s Version’ album when Swift originally made her pre-tour announcement.
Let it be known: even the rejected Taylor Swift songs have the potential to be chart-toppers right now. ‘To All The Girls You Loved Before’ is sitting just outside the top ten in both the US and UK. This is probably the most famous and successful that Swift has ever been. Hell, even I’m going to a concert on The Eras Tour (holding out for ‘Dorethea’ to appear in the surprise songs part of the show, but also super excited to see Phoebe Bridgers, if you couldn’t tell from the enthusiastic praise of The Record above).
UK Singles Top Ten (Week of March 29th, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Miracle’ – Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd & Ariana Grande
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema
- ‘People’ – Libianca
- ‘Ceilings’ – Lizzy McAlpine
- ‘Boy’s a Liar’ – PinkPanthress
- ‘As It Was’ – Harry Styles
- ‘Us Against the World’ – Strandz
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage
Current US Number One: ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
The differences between American pop music and British pop music can be subtle, radical, strange, nonexistent, and jarring all at the same time. In this day and age, there is quite a lot of crossover between them (for instance, they both have the same number one song at the moment: Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’). But the US and UK charts can be different in ways big and small, even down to the minuscule and trivial.
For instance: Selena Gomez currently has a top ten hit in America. The same song is in the top ten in the UK as well, but Gomez doesn’t get a credit on the charts. Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ is a cross-continental hit, originally recorded as a solo track and still credited as such in the UK. But a remix with Selena Gomez is keeping it in the top ten, and in America, Gomez is given a credit to match.
It’s not the only case of this same circumstance happening. In fact, there’s another song in both top tens where the same exact thing is going on. PinkPanthresss’ ‘Boy’s a Liar’ is currently charting on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, the original solo version is the one that appears on the charts, but in the US, the remix ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’ is the one shown on the charts, also giving guest rapper Ice Spice a top ten hit.
All of the streams, sales, and radio play for these songs go into the final total that appears on the charts, but in the UK, it appears as though they prefer to cite the original song, while the US will credit the most recent version. It’s a strange quirk that might not sound like much, but for some artists, it’s quite literally the difference between having a top-ten hit and not having one.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of April 1st, 2023):
- ‘Flowers’ – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Last Night’ – Morgan Wallen
- ‘Kill Bill’ – SZA
- ‘Creepin’ – Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd & Ariana Grande
- ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’ – PinkPanthress & Ice Spice
- ‘Anti-Hero’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Calm Down’ – Rema & Selena Gomez
- ‘Players’ – Coi Leray
- ‘Rock and a Hard Place’ – Bailey Zimmerman
This Week in Number Ones: ‘Happy Together’ – The Turtles (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, April 1st, 1967)
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan might not be household names, but they’ve had a surprisingly robust effect on the last 50 years of the music industry. This is a story that spans decades, multiple different bands, two different copyright cases, and some major shifts in the way that popular music developed over the years. But it starts with a number one hit by the 1960s psychedelic pop band The Turtles.
‘Happy Together’ was the moment that bubblegum pop and psychedelic rock shook hands and agreed to co-exist. While The Beatles were making major headway in exposing psychedelic music to the mainstream, the counterculture had begun to go commercial. Volman and Kaylan were shameless trend chasers, evolving their Los Angeles band from surf rock to folk rock to psychedelic rock as each new genre became en vogue. The duo were still in high school when they signed with White Whale Records, the same independent label where Warren Zevon was languishing as a staff songwriter during his pre-fame days.
Volman and Kaylan had an almost preternatural ability to harmonize, but their songwriting abilities hadn’t quite matured by 1967. Instead, the group scored some Top 40 hits with Bob Dylan covers. When that tactic burned out, Volman and Kaylan found a demo from garage rockers The Magicians. ‘Happy Together’ had actually been shopped around to a number of acts, all of whom had passed on it. Volman and Kaylan found it to be perfect for The Turtles and crafted their own version.
‘Happy Together’ is a fascinating piece of work. Rare for a pop song, the track switches between the relative minor and major scales of F#. The verses are minor, giving those sections a distinct melancholy feel. The choruses are major, lifting up and becoming euphoric and celebratory. It’s one of those tricks that seems obvious, but only because songs like ‘Happy Together’ utilized it so well. The hazy mix of instruments and the overlapping harmonies of Volman and Kaylan all add up to a highly memorable final product.
All of a sudden, The Turtles became major pop stars. For a few weeks, they sat at number one in the United States while The Beatles had ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ sitting below them on the Hot 100. The Turtles weren’t really an LSD-taking band of hippies, but they played the part of one during their TV appearances, with Volman often making a meal out of miming the trumpet part.
Almost immediately, Volman and Kaylan found that White Whale wasn’t supportive of them going toe to toe with the more experimental groups of the day. Instead, they were expected to crank out covers and keep costs low. The pair satirized ‘Happy Together’ on the single ‘Elenore’, using the same contrast between downbeat verses and peppy choruses and gaining another top ten hit out of it.
Eventually, Volman and Kaylan wanted out. However, White Whale claimed that they owned both the band’s name and the main members’ birth names in a commercial context. Undeterred, the pair adopted the pseudonyms Phlorescent Leech (Volman) and Eddie (Kaylan) and joined up with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. They made it all the way from 1970’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh through the 200 Motels movie before Zappa’s on-stage injury caused them to set out on their own as Flo & Eddie.
Although they never reached the summit of the pop world again, Volman and Kaylan did make contributions to same major hits as session singers. That’s them providing the gospel backing vocals in T.Rex’s ‘Bang a Gong’ and the choir harmonies that fill out Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Hungry Heart’. They toured with Todd Rundgren and Alice Cooper. In other words, they stayed alive in a music industry that wasn’t kind to lifers.
Although Flo & Eddie didn’t have any major solo hits, the duo did impact a major shift in the way popular music was being made when they sued De La Soul for sampling The Turtles’ ‘You Showed Me’ in the song ‘Transmitting Live from Mars’. The suit wound up being a landmark, forcing new rules for the clearing of samples in the genre. Albums like the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, which were virtually all samples, were no longer possible.
Ironically enough, Volman and Kaylan came out on the opposite side of a copyright dispute when the pair sued SiriusXM radio for royalties for ‘Happy Together’. Since the duo didn’t write ‘Happy Together’, it was ruled that they did not qualify for traditional royalties when the song was played on radio programmes. For scores of bands who had their biggest hits written by professional songwriters before 1972, the suit became a major factor in whether the band members themselves could get royalties in addition to the songwriters.
The upside was that Flo & Eddie had managed to wrangle ownership of The Turtles’ catalogue away from White Whale. The bad news was that they couldn’t make additional money off a song they didn’t write. For a cash cow like ‘Happy Together’, it was a cause worth fighting over. You might not know Volman and Kaylan, but they’ve had a bigger effect in music than some major stars.
Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (Week of April 1st, 1967):
- ‘Happy Together’ – The Turtles
- ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’ – The Mamas & The Papas
- ‘Penny Lane’ – The Beatles
- ‘There’s a Kind of Hush’ – Herman’s Hermits
- ‘Bernadette’ – The Four Tops
- ‘This is My Song’ – Petula Clark
- ‘For What It’s Worth’ – Buffalo Springfield
- ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ – The Beatles
- ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ – Frank Sinatra & Nancy Sinatra
- ‘Western Union’ – The Five Americans
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