Chart Watch: One-Two Punches

With Michael Jackson's passing, all news of the Black Eyed Peas chart achievements became seemingly irrelevant. For the first time in the 18-year history of Soundscan, the company responsible for tracking album sales, catalog albums are outselling new releases. Michael Jackson's Number Ones is outselling B.E.P.'s The E.N.D. on roughly a two-to-one margin and even Thriller is selling more than the hip-pop group's set.

Regardless, the Black Eyed Peas were able to pull off two feats this month that elluded the King of Pop. The first was their having both the No. 1 and No. 2 song in the country, something that only happened twelve times in Billboard's history when "I've Gotta Feelin'" moved into the second spot behind "Boom Boom Pow". Two weeks later "Feelin'" overtook "Pow" to make the Peas the tenth act to replace themselves at No. 1. Michael Jackson came close in 1983 but "Come On Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runner kept "Beat It" from succeeding "Billie Jean" for a single week.

Below are the songs that make up the elite list of 1-2 punches. The Beatles are the only act to have more than the top 2 spots at any given time. Their explosive debut in the United States in 1964 gave them complete control over the top 5 . Nine of the twelve instances have occured in the 2000s thanks in part to the popularity of collaborations. Three instances owe their 1-2 dominance to an artist having lead credit on one single and a featuring credit on another (Ashanti in 2002, 50 Cent in 2005, and Akon in 2007). Welcome to the club Fergie.

Elvis Presley 1956

1. "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel"

2. "Love Me Tender:

The Beatles 1964

1. "Can't But Me Love"

2. "Twist And Shout"

3. "She Loves You"

4. "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

5. "Please Please Me"

The Bee Gees 1978

1. "Night Fever"

2. "Stayin' Alive"

Ashanti 2002

1. "Foolish"

2. "What's Luv?" (Fat Joe featuring Ashanti)Nelly 2002

1. "Hot In Herre"

2. "Dilemma" featuring Kelly Rowland

OutKast 2003

1. "Hey Ya!"

2. "The Way You Move" featuring Sleepy Brown50 Cent 2005

1. "Candy Shop"

2. "Hate It Or Leave It" (The Game featuring 50 Cent)Mariah Carey 2005

1. "We Belong Together"

2. "Shake It Off"Akon 2006

1. "I Wanna Love You" featuring Snoop Dogg

2. "Smack That" featuring EminemAkon 2007

1. "Don't Matter"

2. "The Sweet Escape" (Gwen Stefani featuring Akon)T.I. 2008

1. "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna

2. "Whatever You Like"The Black Eyed Peas 2009

1. "Boom Boom Pow"

2. "I Gotta Feelin'"

Collaborations: How Much Is Too Much?

Two of the biggest forces in popular music during the 1990's were Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. By themselves they ruled the charts, and a superstar collaboration was inevitable. It came in the form of 1995's "One Sweet Day", a single that dominated the Hot 100 with a jaw-dropping and record-setting 16 weeks at #1. Despite the success that the collaboration yielded, acts teaming up for singles remained events as opposed to the norm.

Flash forward to the twenty-first century, and collaborations have become a common occurrence. Some of them are the lovechild of two massive musical forces such as Alicia Keys and Usher teaming up for "My Boo" or Justin Timberlake and Madonna on "4 Minutes". On the other hand, some of them, like Pharrell's "Can I Have It Like That" featuring (and I use that term lightly)Gwen Stefani, make you wonder if the featuring credit is really necessary.

Apparently it is. Looking at the #1 singles of each decade reveals an increasing trend to jam-pack credits with multiple artists. In the 1980's, collaborations accounted for only 6% of all #1 hits. In the 1990's this grew to 13%. With just over twelve months in this decade left, collaborations make up 38% of the chart toppers in the 2000's, including the current one, "Live Your Life" by T.I. featuring Rihanna. One could argue that the massive success "Life" has achieved is a direct result of the featuring credits. Although T.I. has done quite well on his own (#1 album Paper Trail and #1 solo single "Whatever You Like"), "Life" utilized Rihanna for cross-over appeal to music fans who listen to more Beyonce than Big Boi.

The best example of getting the most mileage out of a cross-over hit is Nelly & Tim McGraw's "Over And Over". Talk about reaching across party lines, "Over" unites red states and blue states in a smooth twangy guitar R&B tear jerker about lost love. Pro-life or pro-choice, we all hurt. Isn't that what collaborations should be all about? Isn't that what music is all about? Bringing people together, despite our differences, because there are somethings, like the joy of love and the pain of losing it, that are universal.

Admittedly, collaborations are made more often for the purpose of selling records than for art's sake, but can you blame them? Rihanna's so hot right now, it's a wonder that only T.I. and Maroon 5 have grabbed a hold of her coattails. Looking at the growing number of collaborative hits over the past thirty years makes you wonder what the 2010's hold. With a record industry in decline, it may become a necessity to tack on as many artists as possible to a song to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. But, at what point does the excitement of having multiple big names headlining a song wear off? What about with "Stand Up To Cancer", the charity single featuring Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Nicole Scherzinger , Natasha Bedingfield, Miley Cyrus, Leona Lewis, Keyshia Cole, Ashanti and Ciara. It only made it to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. You can argue that it's because it's a crappy song to begin with, but is it that much worse than "We Are The World" which was #1 for a month?

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The market has been inundated with artists featuring other artists and having Justin Timberlake or Jay-Z tack on an intro or bridge to a song isn't news anymore. The very integrity of the collaboration is at stake. The only solution is for record companies to revert back to releasing only event collaborations. Can I have it like that? You got it like that.

Highs & Lows in Collaboration History:

High: "One Sweet Day" - Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men

Low: "Can I Have It Like That" - Pharrell feat. Gwen Stefani

High: "Over And Over" - Nelly feat. Tim McGraw

Low: Artists Stand Up To Cancer - Just Stand Up

In the 50 year history of the Billboard Hot 100, 23 songs have topped the charts for 10 weeks or longer. These songs are so diverse that it would make the weirdest mix with the most counter-intuitive track listing ("Candle In The Wind" followed by "Macarena"?) and there probably are a lot of things that just piss you off about it (Two Santana songs? Two Mariah Carey songs? Thank Heavens Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven" went #1 for a week during the reign of "We Belong Together" or it would have 15 weeks at #1. Ew.). Regardless, here are the songs with the longest stay at #1: