Emerging mega-star Gracie Abrams, updated analysis of new Lady Gaga “Disease”, early passion for Christmas music and two massive Golds that are overlooked by CHR.
Gracie Abrams – That’s So True: She’s 25 years old from Los Angeles and opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. Right now, Gracie has two songs in the Spotify Top 30 with “That’s So True” being #4, yet nowhere on Top 40 radio. Her song “Close To You” is #20 in radio airplay, though only #89 on Spotify and we’ve had no requests for it. From the same album is “I Love You, I’m Sorry” which is #26 on Spotify, with very little CHR airplay. We’ve had a dozen requests for the two big streaming hits, but none for the one that a majority of Pop stations (and our affiliates) are playing. This girl is HUGE and clearly on-track to become the next Olivia Rodrigo. Seem like her label and radio are not supporting the ones music lovers prefer.
Lady Gaga – Disease: Adding onto our comments from last week, I said that we would report of any new streaming or request numbers, as many Program and Music Directors questioned the passion and power of this song. In this past week, “Disease” still didn’t crack our Top 20, though it received a handful of requests. While many radio people love the song, it’s dropped to #90 on Spotify and is best-performing on streaming in Ukraine at #25. The weak numbers may suggest it’s not gonna happen.
Christmas Songs
It’s that time of the year again, so here’s a real quick observation. We are only a few days into November, and multiple Christmas songs appeared in the Spotify Top 100, the day after Halloween. As you could assume, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the most-streamed of them all (#21) and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Wham!’s “Last Christmas” turns 40 this year and is the second best-performing at #39. So far, we’ve only had one request for a Christmas song. That should change drastically next week as it usually does for us in the second week of November.
Buried Treasures of the Week
Eminem – The Real Slim Shady: Released in 2000, this was his mainstream introduction, having been the first of his many songs to top a chart, and his oldest to still receive significant airplay today. Even though he put out his first release in 1996, only “My Name Is” (1999) and “Forgot About Dre” (2000) received any Top 40 attention. A few weeks ago, we mentioned “Lose Yourself”, “Without Me” and the unexpected “Mockingbird” as three of our most-requested Golds of all time, with “The Real Slim Shady” being in there as well. Funny enough, “Lose Yourself” only peaked at #13 on CHR, though #4 on Billboard and #1 Rhythmic. It’s an all-time Hip-Hop classic and still gets multiple requests from men and women of all ages every week. Luckily, it’s generally now not overlooked by Pop radio, where it receives a good deal of airplay in major markets (and on Liveline of course).
Taylor Swift – Love Story: I’ll keep this one short, because it’s Taylor and she doesn’t need to be hyped or sold to anyone. We don’t really learn what a major “hit song” is until years later. Released in 2008, “Love Story” receives more requests on Liveline than any of her other songs (also in our Top 20 all-time Golds) with “You Belong With Me” and “Shake It Off” being close runner-ups. It’s romantic, nostalgic and sung by everyone when it plays at every party and club. Plus, it’s by the biggest artist of this century. Peaked at #4 on Billboard, #1 on Top 40, Country and Adult Contemporary radio. It was the fifth biggest song of the year in 2009. The shocking part: Only 7 Top 40 stations in America have played it in the past two weeks, none of which were in the Top 100 markets, and none played it more than once. When researching this I honestly expected more recognition for Taylor!
Ironically, hot Ac is likely to play the Eminem and Taylor songs frequently. And what an interesting point that is, we often don’t know what a hit song is until years later. Obviously, I know this is a column about CHR, but if anything, it gives a huge vote of confidence to hot Ac. Especially the adult top 40 reporters, I think there are many stations in that format that are overlooked because they don’t go by the typical charts, and while they might lean older, they do tend to play more of the hits that top 40 overlooks in recent years that are still trending. Unfortunately, I don’t know if this is really possible because multiple clusters own both a mainstream and hot, but somewhere in the middle would probably be very nice for top 40. Not just playing it because it’s new, but not just ditching it because it’s a few years old either.
I had to reread the one sentence several times because you misstated “Lose Yourself” as the one that peaked #13 CHR instead of “The Real Slim Shady.” But then I understood.
I have heard “Love Story” as a gold a few times in recent months/years. I tend to be surprised to hear it being the Pop Mix getting played. Like, I’ll admit that that was the first song I heard by her and that it was specifically that mix that perked my ears up when perhaps the original wouldn’t have at the time, but by now I think it’s safe to say she’s established enough that it’d be fine to go with the original/album version, if not Taylor’s Version! It’s not like a vaguely country arrangement is offputting to CHR listeners in 2024. Going for the Pop Mix is certainly not as jarring to me as a listener as, say, hearing the 7-inch edit of MJ’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” rather than the version we all know from one of the most popular albums ever, but still something to think about! While I’m at it, I don’t understand why some stations still play the bizarre dance-ish remix of “Somebody That I Used to Know” that friends of mine complained about at the time and which barely anyone on earth has listened to outside of radio. Was that version even necessary to break what was obviously going to be a smash anyway?
Besides the remix completely kills the vibe of the song, which by itself is a powerful masterpiece. It makes it sound as a generic record, like something Dua Lipa would put, for example.