The Daily Dose/August 17, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
DON’T LOOK BACK: Though our idea of new music is still the second Boston album, we were intrigued to find out this week that the song Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus – about as unlikely a combination as KISS and Dan Hill – are currently in their 19th week at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, a record. This begs the rather boring question:
Is this the biggest song of all-time?
It depends on who you ask.
Warm, Personal, Remembrance: We recall listening to Casey Kasem on American Top 40 do year-end countdowns and his staff had their own method: each song got points for each week on the chart: a point for being at #100, two for being at #99 and 100 for being at #1 and so on. Songs were ranked based on the points they earned. This resulted in some songs that did not hit #1 ranking higher than some songs that did hit #1.
Dry, Technical Matter: A good example of this is Why Me by Kris Kristopherson, which was AT40’s second-biggest song of 1973 despite peaking at #16. I took 21 weeks to reach the Top 40, 32 weeks to reach #16 and spent 38 weeks on the chart. It was ranked higher than 26 other #1 songs.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: This is completely whack. For our money, any #1 song outranks a song that didn’t hit the top, and you sort out the #1 songs by how many weeks each spent at #1.
Fly In The Ointment: Except in one case. There is a chart anomaly that trumps most weeks at #1: most times at #1
Now, we’re not talking about a song that hits #1, drops to #2 and then returns to #1. This happens often enough so it no longer has any statistical significance. We’re talking about a song that goes to #1, drops off the Hot 100 entirely, then reappears and returns to #1.
Get Out Your Record Book: It’s happened once: Chuck Berry’s The Twist went to #1 in both 1960 and 1962, for a total of three weeks. This gets our vote. 19 weeks at #1 is tough to ignore, but you go to #1 twice with the same song, everyone else is fighting for the runner-up spot.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: The Sparrows attend the fair. Today’s Diary.
In the auditorium, there was a lot of judging going on, none of it of stuff from the gardens at The Shire because The Wife couldn’t be bothered to enter anything…After talking smack about entering rhubarb, kale and maybe the onions, nothing got entered…Too bad, too, because we could have cleaned up on the ribbons because there appeared to be a lot fewer entries than in the past and I overheard some blaming the late frosts we had…In fact, there were so few entries you probably could have entered some weeds and gotten at least a 2nd Premium ribbon…The Wife, tho, got some expert instruction on rhubarb – there will be changes in the criteria next year – and she also wants to enter some flowers in 2020.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1970 – Man’s first successful mission to another planet, Venera 7, is launched by the Soviet Union, on its way to Venus. It would arrive in December and though the parachute failed and the spacecraft crash-landed on the surface it was still able to send back data that confirmed Venera 7 landed on solid ground, the Venusian atmosphere was 97 percent carbon dioxide and the surface temperature was 887 degrees Fahrenheit. It was Man’s first transmission from another planet.
In 1894 – Jack Wadsworth of the Louisville Colonels establishes a new major league record for most hits allowed in a game, giving up 28 hits in a 29-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. Wadsworth would finish the season 4-18 with a 7.60 ERA for the Colonels, who finished the year in last place in the National League with a 36-94 record. Wadsworth, – the only Wadsworth ever to play in the major leagues – would finish his big league career the following season with a career mark of 6-38, with a 6.85 ERA. The record still stands.
In 2019 – Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus are at #1 on both Billboard’s Hot 100 and soul chart – now known as the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart – for the 19th consecutive week with Old Town Road. The 19 weeks is the longest any song has spent at #1 on either chart, breaking the soul chart record of 18 weeks and the Hot 100 record of 16 weeks. The song also peaked at #50 on Billboard’s country chart before the magazine withdrew it. It is the first #1 song on either chart for both acts, and Cyrus joins the Everly Brothers and Elvis as the only acts to have #1 songs on Billboard’s pop, country and soul charts.
Quotebook
You can deal with your problems by the time-tried method of shutting up and letting them pass.
Garrison Keillor
Love Me
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves is the only other major league pitcher to hit three home runs in a game, doing so in 1942.
Today’s Stumper
What was the first American mission to land on Venus? – Answer next time!
