7/5/09 Hot AC Chart: Pink scores another top 5, Jordin Sparks debuts

At the top of the chart this week, Shinedown hold for a 5th week with “Second Chance”. The next bulleted song below them is still over 500 spins away, so Shinedown’s reign will continue for a while.

Moving up 3 to #4 is Pink with “Please Don’t Leave Me”. It’s Pink’s 5th top 5 in a row on Hot AC. She has a bullet of over 200 spins, but she is still well behind Shinedown. If her bullet remains this strong, she will be the next #1 on the chart.

No songs enter or exit the top 10 this week. Contenders for top 1o are few. Really the only song that should move into the top 10 in the next couple of weeks is Katy Perry’s “Waking Up in Vegas”, which moves up to #12 this week.

Debuting this week are the Black Eyed Peas and Jordin Sparks. The Peas enter with “I Gotta Feeling”, which is the new #1 on the Hot 100. Jordin Sparks enters with “Battlefield”, her 4th Hot AC hit.

Of course Jordin is an American Idol alumnus, so let’s do the usual round-up of Idol alumni on the chart:

Daughtry’s “No Surprise” moves up to #6. David Cook’s “Come Back to Me” holds at #9. Kelly Clarkson’s latest “I Do Not Hook Up” returns to its peak position of #15, while “My Life Would Suck without You” slips to #13. “Life” will be removed from the chart when it falls below #15.

All chart data © Mediabase Research.

Thanks to Casey Kasem for Counting Them Down!

This weekend is the final weekend for Casey Kasem counting down the hits (well at least for new countdowns). American Top 20 and American Top 10 are now finished. Casey and his shows have been around ever since I can remember. While I haven’t been able to listen live each week for a long time now, I still catch shows by other means as often as I can.

While recent countdown shows concentrate more on entertainment gossip (I mean you Ryan Seacrest), Casey’s shows always centered on the music and the stories behind the songs. That will be sorely missed.

I also want to say thanks to the staff of Casey’s shows, especially those behind AT20. Over the past couple of years, I have been in occasional contact with them, and have provided some chart information at times. While the chart facts were not always used, they were appreciated by the staff, and I thank them for letting me communicate with them.

Good luck to Casey and his staff, whatever they do in the future!

6/28/09 Hot AC Chart: David Cook’s 3rd top 10, Miley makes the top 5

At the top of the chart this week, Shinedown holds at #1 for a fourth week with “Second Chance”. Look for the song to stay at the top for a while as the next few competitors only have small increases in spins and are well behind Shinedown.

Miley Cyrus scores her first top 5 on Hot AC with “The Climb”, which moves 6-4 this week. She may not get much higher though, as Pink is not too far behind and has a large bullet.

“Come Back to Me” by David Cook moves up 2 notches to 9 this week. This gives David Cook his third top 10 in a row. These are also his first 3 charting hits. The only other solo males to accomplish this feat are John Mayer and Rob Thomas. Of course, Rob had hit the top 10 many times prior with his Matchbox Twenty hits.

Weekly Idol Update: Daughtry’s “No Surprise” moves up to #8. Kelly Clarkson’s latest “I Do Not Hook Up” slips back 1 to #16, but the song still has a small increase in spins. It looks like her 2nd single from her latest cd will not reach the top 10, unless radio stations start giving this single more airtime.

After moving up 15 notches last week, Colbie Caillat’s “Fallin’ for You” only inches up 1 to #22. However, the song has the biggest spin increase of the week, with an increase of over 400 spins. Look for her to increase her climbing speed next week.

Debuting this week with their 9th Hot AC hit is the veteran act Collective Soul with “Staring Down”. It’s the highest debut at #32. Collective Soul made their first appearance on the Hot AC chart way back in August 1995 with “December”. The only other debut of the week is newcomer Jesse James with “Wanted”.

Michael Jackson’s Only Hot AC Hit

Musical great Michael Jackson’s career has been summarized in more places than I can count and done better than I, so I will mention his Hot AC chart career. Unfortunately, by the time the Hot AC chart was created, Michael Jackson’s career had cooled.

Michael only had 1 song chart on Hot AC. Fittingly, it was a top 10. “You Are Not Alone” peaked at #6 in 1995 and spent 16 weeks on the chart. The Billboard HAC chart had yet to be created, so it did not chart there.

Michael’s last Top 40 Pop hit on the Radio & Records’ chart was “Butterflies” , which reached #34 in 2002. For a complete history of Michael’s pop career on the R&R chart, please visit:

http://www2.uta.edu/hunt/charts/mjackson.html

6/21/09 Hot AC Chart: Colbie vaults up the chart, final AT20 chart

This is the final chart that American Top 20 will use (assuming, as I do, the show will be a regular show), as the show is ending on the July 4 weekend. (AT20 is 2 weeks behind the chart). If you want to be surprised, don’t read any farther…

At the top of the chart this week, Shinedown hold for a third week. The song has over a 600 spin lead over #2, and none of the top 5 have a bullet of over 100 spins this week. Thus look for Shinedown to hold at the top for a while.

Rob Thomas moves up to #3 with “Her Diamonds”. It’s his biggest solo hit on HAC since “Ever the Same” in 2006.  Also moving up this week is Miley Cyrus with “The Climb”, which lands at #6 this week. “The Climb” is currently in the top 10 of the Pop, AC, and Hot AC chart, and is in the top 30 of the Country chart.

Daughtry enter the top 10 at #10 with “No Surprise”. It’s Daughtry’s 6th consecutive top 10 hit. For you Idol watchers, here’s the latest on the other Idol alumni: Daughtry’s move to #10 keeps David Cook at #11 with “Come Back to Me”. Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck without You” falls out of the top 10 to #12, while the follow-up “I Do Not Hook Up” stalls at #15. “Hook” has a small bullet and needs to seriously increase in order to move up. It’s about 300 spins behind #14 and has a bullet of less than 50 spins this week.

Colbie Caillat vaults up 15 notches to #23 with “Fallin’ for You”. The song has a bullet of over 500 spins!

Debuting this week are new songs by Taylor Swift and Linkin Park.

All chart data © Mediabase Research.

6/14/09 Hot AC Chart – Green Day jumps up the chart, Rob Thomas goes top 5

Shinedown hold at the top of the chart for a second week. However, Nickelback make another move closer to the top. “If Today Was Your Last Day” moves up to #2 this week. Nickelback’s song is still a few hundred spins back from Shinedown, and both songs are still gaining nicely.

Moving into the top 5 this week is Rob Thomas’ “Her Diamonds”. The song is in its 8th week on the chart. “Her Diamonds” is Rob’s 7th consecutive top 5 hit outside of Matchbox Twenty.

Pink moves into the top 10 with “Please Don’t Leave Me” at #10. This gives Pink 2 simultaneous top 10s as “Sober” is at #6. Although Pink first charted on Hot AC back in 2002, she didn’t reach the top 10 until 2006. However, all of her hits since have made the top 10.

The biggest mover of the week belongs to Green Day, whose “21 Guns” leaps 9 to #31.

Idol Watch: David Cook gets closer to another top 10: “Come Back to Me” moves up 1 to #11. Daughtry’s “No Surprise” rises 1 spot to #13, and the song still has one of the biggest spin increases on the chart. Finally, Kelly Clarkson reaches the top 15 at 15 with “I Do Not Hook Up.”

Debuting this week are Kate Voegele with “99 Times”, Colbie Caillat’s “Fallin’ for You”, and Matt Wertz’s “Everything’s Right”.

All chart data © Mediabase Research.

6/7/09 Hot AC Chart: New #1, Lots of Debuts

Shinedown take over the number one position this week, as “Second Chance” moves up 1. The song still has one of the biggest increase in spins on the whole chart,  which it will need to maintain to fight off Nickelback. Nickelback’s “If Today Was Your Last Day” moves up to #3. Only 3 of Nickelback’s 11 hits have failed to reach the top 3: “Too Bad”, “Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good”, and “Rockstar”.

Groups occupy the entire top 5 this week, and another group moves into the top 10, Carolina Liar with “Show Me What I’m Looking for”.

Idol Watch: David Cook’s “Come Back to Me” gets closer to the top 10 and moves to #12.  Daughtry moves up 3 to #14 and has the biggest spin increase on the chart with “No Surprise”.  Kelly Clarkson inches up to #17 with “I Do Not Hook Up”. Her spin increase is relatively small this week.

There are 5 new songs this week and one re-entry: Newcomers Kristina DeBarge and Airborne Toxic Event enter at numbers 33 and 34 respectively with “Goodbye” and “Sometime Around Midnight”.  Lady GaGa scores a third hit with “Lovegame” at #38. Two acts return after nearly 4 years away: Papa Roach earns a second hit with “Lifeline” at #39, and Green Day get a 5th hit with “21 Guns” at #40.  Returning to the chart this week is Seether’s remake of “Careless Whisper”, which returns at a new peak of #36.

Radio & Records Magazine Is No More

Radio & Records, once known as the Radio Industry’s newspaper, is no more. The current owners of R&R shut them down this week with no warning. All the full charts that were free are now available online via the pay site at Billboard.

In my opinion, R&R ceased to be when the parent of Billboard bought them out in 2006. The “newspaper” became a slick magazine, replacing Billboard’s Radio Monitor magazine. Before 2006, R&R was a great alternative to Billboard when looking at charts. Rick Dees and Casey Kasem used their charts for countdown shows.  R&R used to have a messageboard where fans could get together and talk charts. Even one of their editors used to use the same board to talk to chart fans. How many other publications would have their editors talk to non-industry people on the ‘net?

R&R event asked fans to help with an upcoming book in the early part of this decade. Unfortunately, the book never was published, but at least we were asked to help.

Goodbye R&R, you’ll be missed…

Casey Kasem’s current shows, AT20/AT10, to end July 4

Sad news today…according to AllAccess, American Top 20 and American Top 10 with Casey Kasem will end July 4, on the 39th anniversary of Casey’s AT40.

I thought that Casey would go until July 4, 2010 for the 40th anniversary.  However, something made Premiere cut the shows off. It is probably a combination of things: 1) Casey wants or needs to retire & 2) Premiere is looking for ways to save money. If the problem was only #1 above, then they could have continued the shows with another host, e.g. Casey’s son Mike.

They already have Ryan Seacrest’s AT40 Hot AC, so they can offer that to stations who subscribe to AT20. However, they do not have an AC countdown to replace AT10. I do not know the number of affiliates that AT10 has, but perhaps it’s a small enough number that it doesn’t matter if they get a replacement for it or not.

If Casey wanted to go, then more power to him. If Premiere forced him out, then shame on them.

Good luck Casey, and thanks for providing us great entertainment for all of these years.

5/31/09 Hot AC Chart: “Second Chance” moves into 2nd place, Miley makes the top 10

The Fray hold on the top spot for a 12th non-consecutive week this week. However, their reign is about to end. Jumping up 3 notches to #2 is Shinedown’s “Second Chance”. The song reaches the runner-up spot in only its 10th week on the chart. The last song to reach the top 2 with less than 10 weeks is “Viva La Vida”, which reached #2 in its 9th week on the chart last year.

Nickeback enter the top 5 with “If Today Was Your Last Day”. It’s Nickelback’s 8th top 5 hit. The only other acts to have more than 8 top 5s on Hot AC are Sheryl Crow, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Rob Thomas (if you combine up MB20 and solo hits).

Miley Cyrus has one of the biggest moves on the chart this week, as “The Climb” moves 13-9. This is Miley’s first top 10 on the Hot AC chart. Other songs that move up 4 are “Waking Up in Vegas” (29-25) and “Use Somebody” (32-28).

Idol Watch: Daughtry’s “No Surprise” moves 20-17 this week, and the song has the biggest gain in spins on the chart. Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up” moves 1 to #18, while David Cook’s “Come Back to Me” inches up 1 to #14.

The only debut of the week is 3OH!3 with “Don’t Trust Me” at #40.