The Daily Dose/June 2, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
THE COUNTRY IS BURNING, BUT, SURE, LET’S ENJOY SOME DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER: We do a lot of research for this feature and, frankly, it is rare when we come across something that surprises us. We did yesterday, though.
Well, If Dry, Technical Matter Is Inevitable: The answer to our Trivia feature yesterday was How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes. The question was what was the biggest country song on Billboard’s 60th Anniversary Hot 100 in 2018, where the song ranked 5th.
More Dry, Technical Matter: It is also the biggest song by a female solo act and – and this is what we found surprising – it was also the highest-ranking #2 song in the survey! We are not making that up: the fifth biggest hit of the Hot 100 era – by definition a humongous hit, one of the giants of pop music history – never hit #1. We re-read it a couple of times just to make sure and then looked it up just to make sure. It was true. Even the most casual reader of this crap knows we know our way around the Billboard charts and we found this astonishing.
Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: So we did even more research. The song, it turned out, spent 69 weeks on the Hot 100 and 32 weeks in the Top 10, both records that have since been surpassed. The song’s Top 10 run was particularly extraordinary. During that time it spent eleven non-consecutive weeks at #3 and four non-consecutive weeks in the runner-up spot. It was in the Hot 100 from 6/21/97 until 10/10/98, the Top 40 from 7/5/97 until 8/15/98 and then again for two more weeks starting on 8/29/98 and was in the Top 10 from 8/9/97 until 3/14/98.
Wow…Dry, Technical Matter: There are a variety of ways to rank songs. Our favorite way is by peak chart position. For example, all #1 songs are bigger than any #2 song. Ties are broken by most weeks at #1, then most weeks in the Top 10 and so on. Billboard’s way, more or less, is to give points for each chart position.
Incoming!…Dry Technical Matter: An exception to both of these rules was the #1 song on the 60th Anniversary Hot 100, The Twist by Chubby Checker, which only spent three weeks at #1 and 39 total weeks in the Hot 100 but it went to #1 in separate chart runs – the only song on the Hot 100 ever to do so – an accomplishment that deserves the #1 spot.
FunFact: How Do I Live peaked at #43 on Billboard’s country chart, though a version by Trish Yearwood went #1 on the country chart.
The Bottom Line: We enjoy the research we do here because we find it fun to find out things we don’t know and it’s items like this that keep you going. We know you find crap like this as thrilling as we do. God bless all of you.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: According to the thermometer at the hotel, Sparrow should be dead. Today’s Diary.
…it was below normal, almost four degrees below normal and some later research showed this is lower than the medically accepted definition of hypothermia, which is bad…Now, I scoped out the symptoms of hypothermia and they included shivering and slurred speech and I wasn’t doing either of those things, and I wasn’t exhibiting the other symptoms, either…I’m feeling strong, so I’m thinking the thermometer is completely whack…
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Gaylon has a funny line in briefing, though he was the only one who thought it was funny.
Nothing. It was as if I had read the weather forecast. Well, a couple of people chuckled, but that was it. Their loss, too, because it was one hell of a line if you ask me. I was so pleased with my line I repeated it, and, even tried to explain it for the benefit of those sitting next to me. My analysis did, to quote a pretty girl I know, some zero good.
Click here get in on the laffs: The Diary of a Nobody, Backstairs at the Monte Carlo, The Bottom Ten, the funniest books you’ve ever read. We offer 4Ever and Ever access, or cheapskates can purchase books and columns individually.
On This Date
History’s long march to today.
In 1692 – Bridget Bishop becomes the first woman to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. (Previous witch procedures were appearances before a magistrate, not a formal trial.) Bishop had been arrested in April after charges had been levied by several women and some testimony along with her showy dress and disregard for established social norms was more than enough to earn her a conviction in puritan New England and she was hanged eight days later. Between February 1692 and May 1693 over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, 30 were convicted and 19 were executed.
In 1985 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers establishes a new NBA playoff record for most career points in a 136-111 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Abdul-Jabbar had 26 points, giving him a career total of 4,464 playoff points, breaking the record of 4,457 established by Jerry West. Abdul-Jabbar would retire after the 1989 season with 5,762 career playoff points and the record is now held by LeBron James (6,911). The Lakers won the series in six games.
In 1982 – McFadden and Whitehead are at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Soul Singles chart – for the only week with Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now. The song also peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #5 in Great Britain, was their first of two soul chart singles and remains their only Top 40 pop hit. The song was written in part by Gene McFadden and John Whitehead and their record company originally wanted to give the song to the O’Jays.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Would he spend the rest of his life here…watching hope slip away along with the years, until there was nothing left to live for and time had finally run out? – Alex Haley, Roots: The Story of an American Family
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
The highest-ranking country song on Billboard’s 60th Anniversary Hot 100 was How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes, which came in at #5. It was the biggest song in the survey that did not hit #1, having peaked at #2.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Who has the highest playoff scoring average in NBA history? – Answer next time!
