Two Spotify chart-toppers that radio is ignoring and two of the “whitest songs ever”!
Gigi Perez – “Sailor Song”: In my October 23 edition, I acknowledged the obvious potential this song has for Top 40 radio. It still hasn’t left the top 10 on Spotify, and right now it’s #3. CHR always thrives with diversity, which is why 2024 was such an incredible year for hit music. Strong recurrents of the past year and multiple genres represented: Country – “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, Alternative – “Too Sweet”, Rap – “Not Like Us”, Retro – “Die With A Smile”, Dance – “Apple” and all the Chappell, Sabrina and Billie for a perfect amount of Pop to join it all together. “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez appears to be ticking all the boxes of a major radio hit with its strong hook, 3 minutes long, romantic, nostalgic and massive with Gen Z all over TikTok and streaming. It just needs one or two major market stations to open the door! Current leaders are KUDD/Salt Lake City (30x/4x overnight), WPLW/Raleigh (28x/3x overnight) and KDUK/Eugene (22x, 4x overnight).
Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”: See comments from last week about this song here. We’ve got an update: “That’s So True” is #1 on Spotify in America and #4 in the world, but Interscope apparently still isn’t pushing it. Yet with no radio support it finally cracked our Top 20 requests this week at #15. In recent years, a few major market stations have lead the charge in playing “album cuts” that were streaming well but not being worked by the label. Major format leaders Z100/New York and KMVQ/San Francisco are the only top 30 market stations on it. KMVQ 18 times in the past 7 days, and Z100/New York with 25 spins this week. Aside from them, WARQ/Columbia SC is the only other CHR station playing it AT ALL. The “radio hype” “Close To You” is #21 in spins this week, but still isn’t in the top 70 on Spotify. We’ve only had one request ever.
Spotify vs Requests vs Airplay Spins:
Some of our observations might lead you to believe that we endorse anything doing well on Spotify, regardless of radio airplay or genre. A few weeks ago we pointed out that “Timeless” by The Weeknd is getting consistent requests and appeared to be the real hit, and not “Dancing In The Flames” for which we still haven’t received any requests. Within two weeks of a major release or Spotify success we’ll often get requests for new songs that haven’t even been on the radio while others sit on the airplay charts for months with no requests on Liveline nor drawing any streaming numbers. Why is radio even playing them? Tyler, The Creator’s “CHROMAKOPIA” is currently #1 on the Billboard 200 and every song on the album occupied the top 14 spots on Spotify upon its release. But our Top 40 audience isn’t hopping on the trend of this new Tyler album. The lead single is “NOID” and we’ve had no requests for it or any of his others. He currently occupies six of the top 30 spots in Spotify. For a Rhythmic niche, he is a major artist, but it isn’t a majority of Mainstream Top 40 listeners, though we’ve always been successful with Rhythmic nighttime records like “Not Like Us”, “Timeless”, “All My Life” and “Boy’s a liar”.
FYI: The majority of Liveline requests this year are for songs from pre-2015.
Buried Treasures of the Week:
The Killers – Mr. Brightside: Both tracks featured this week are often labeled two of the whitest songs ever. Released in 2003, it became a top 10 song in 2005 where it reached #16 for the year. Today, it’s one of our ten most-requested Golds of all time. It’s the perfect sing-a-long packed with nostalgia, familiarity, and broad demo appeal. Generating nightly text and phone requests from all ages, men and women. Funny enough, a lot of people think The Killers are a British band as “Mr. Brightside” is one of the most successful songs in UK Chart history and STILL lingering in the UK daily top 50 most-streamed on Spotify. Globally, the song still rests in the top 50 in multiple countries including the US, especially after weekends of partying. As far as radio airplay, it’s still played as a Gold on nearly every Alternative station. Top 40 still plays it a fair amount in medium to smaller markets, but the top 20 markets don’t seem to believe in it. Liveline listeners are often treated with the fabulous “Thin White Duke remix”, which you can check out here. (…and yes, we get specific requests for that one too! Read the song’s YouTube comments)
Backstreet Boys – I Want It That Way: 25 years ago, the BBs solidified themselves as the biggest boyband in history and one of the most successful groups ever. The secret to this song’s longevity could be attributed to it’s production and lyrics by the legendary Max Martin, but most of the Boy’s other songs featured him too. This is a cheesy but beautiful ballad that has never died. In fact, I remember hearing it for the first time EVER as an 11 year old listening to John Garabedian Open House Party in 2012, when a group of screaming girls on a school bus requested it. Fast forward to today, it’s still widely loved and requested multiple times a week. The ONLY other song of theirs which people still request (and frequently) is 1997’s “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” which ironically was their first hit in America, after a successful early career start in Germany and Canada. AJ McClean once said in an interview that “‘I Want It That Way’ doesn’t even make any sense. Listen to the words. It has nothing to do with anything”.
While very different, I do think that GG Perez song would absolutely shake up top 40. There was also a very unique remix of I want it that way that John Garabedian played back in the day also. I keep forgetting what it was, I know the guys at hot mix loved spinning that one also. Cool to see that I’m still not, quite the old guy yet, almost though. Love these deeper dives and reflections. In a rapidly evaporating radio industry, it’s important for us to stay connected.
Thanks for reading! John used to play the XMiX remix of “I Want It That Way”.
Stuart Price/Jacques Lu Cont/Thin White Duke did some terrific remixes in the 2000s. I love his take on Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For.”
Mason your youth is showing! We millennials all know that the correct way to abbreviate Backstreet Boys is BSB. ^_^
I only know “Sailor Song” from the Song Pop game. It’s on their hot list for November 2024. It sounds terrible to me from the snippet I hear on the game but I should listen to the whole song to properly judge it.