Trollheart's Chart Fifty

Trollheart · 11-04-2022, 09:06 PM

No, not me running down through the top fifty! Sure why would I want to do that, and why would you want me to? No, this is, as usual, something far more complicated and involved. I’ll be looking at the top forty/fifty/seventy-five/whatever the hell it is these days, choosing one single at random. I’ll write as much as I can about it (big surprise there, TH! Shut the hell up, you!) and telling you what I personally think of it. Then I’ll be going back fifty years in ten year segments, to check out what was at that place in the chart at this time ten years ago, twenty years ago, and so on, all the way back to the seventies, hence the “fifty” in the title. Neat, huh? What do you mean, no?

I’ll be looking at how the chart has changed - one single at a time - over the course of five decades, and each time I do a new selection I’ll mention how the one(s) I’ve already done are now doing at this point in time: have they slid down the chart, risen, got to number one, fallen out? Well, the point is to make it fun. What? No, for me. Not for you. You can all fuck off. Oh well, I suppose if you want to you can check the songs out with me. Nobody should take offence as my opinion is blah blah yadda yadda rhubarb rhubarb you know how it goes by now.

Oh yeah, I've decided also that I'll check out the number one from each decade as well, so this year, 2012, 2002, 1992, 1982 and 1972.

Trollheart · 11-04-2022, 09:10 PM

My first random spin gave me number 33, so what's there this week and what was there this week up to fifty years ago? Well, this week (or as close to it as I can get anyway) we have this:

Title: “Super Freaky Girl”
Artist: Nicki Minaj
Nationality: Trinidadian
Genre: Hip-hop, Pop Rap
Written by: Rick James, Alonzo Miller, Lukasz Gottwald, Aaron Joseph, Lauren Miller, Vaughan Oliver (Lyrics by Onilka Maraj/Nicki Minaj and Gamal Lewis/LunchMoney Lewis)
Original release date: August 22 2022
Highest chart position (at time of writing): 10 (1 in the USA)
Chart position (at time of writing): 33
Progress, if any, at time of writing: Descending
From the album: N/A
What do I know about this artist? Very little; I know her name and that she’s a rapper/pop artist and usually has pink hair, but other than that, nada.
What do I think of this single? Okay, hands up anyone who thought I liked it? Huh? Oh, right. You just joined today. Well, you’ll learn once you get to know me. Look, it wasn’t as terrible as I had expected it to be, but let’s be honest here: the main thrust (ooer) or if you prefer the meat (double ooer) of the song is in the original: that instantly recognisable keyboard riff, the beat, it’s all James and then she’s spouting sexual not-quite-innuendos all over it. Yeah it’s okay and I can see how it was so popular, and you can’t fault the video (not that that should really factor into my decision, but this is the age of MTV, sort of). But really the only thing this song showed me was that I do actually know “Super Freak”, and it’s a cool song. This is okay but you know, meh.
What have I learned about this single? Seems to have been very successful, taking her to number one in the US, in fact debuting at number one, though it didn’t do quite as well over here, as you can see. Still made the top ten. Just. It’s not from any album, as seems to be increasingly the norm these days with pop artists - probably due to the popularity of streaming sites: indeed, this was the highest-charting debut for a female solo rap singer (well, it says biggest debut, but I assume that’s what it means) on Spotify. It liberally samples Rick James’s 1981 hit “Super Freak” (which then proves she didn’t exactly go outof her way to title it, just adding a “y” and “girl” to the song) but I’m no fan of James so could not tell you how, if at all, it compares to the original.

Some controversy apparently, if you care, about her being annoyed it was chosen as a pop rather than a rap single, which kind of seems like splitting hairs to me, but there you go. Then some sort of “Twitter battle” between her and some other rapper, Latte or Ladder or, no, Latto, that’s the one. As if I care.
My rating: A-

Mindy · 11-04-2022, 09:22 PM

I hate that song^ she's a nice lady though^ definitely has good ones other than that bullshit lol

A- thou eh

Trollheart · 11-04-2022, 10:34 PM

Yeah well my general view of the charts is that much of it is ****, but I'm always ready to give something a chance. It's hard to rate this song, as it's not really hers. She's just sort of piggy-backing on Rick James's melody, but I guess she does it well. Rap is not for me though, so while I'm initially averse to it, I understand too that I am outside my wheelhouse a considerable deal here, and I would not make judgements on it - other than a very surface one - in the same way I would not do with a jazz or rockabilly record. As ever, what's written here is my own impression of the song and my own personal opinion of it. Yours may of course vary.

Trollheart · 11-05-2022, 07:15 AM

And going back 10 years….

Title: “Little Talks”
Artist: Of Monsters and Men
Nationality: Icelandic
Genre: Indie Rock
Written by: Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar Þórhallsson
Original release date: December 20 2011
Highest chart position: 12 (20 in USA)
Progress, if any, at that time: Descending
From the album: My Head is an Animal
What do I know about this artist? Nothing other than I’ve heard the name
What do I think of this single? It has a nice bouncy tempo and a sort of Celtic feel; certainly does not sound Icelandic - no Bjork or Sigur Ros here - and the dual vocal works very well. Not sure I would become a fan but this is pretty decent.
What have I learned about this single? Not an awful lot really. Other than that it became the highest-charting single for a band from Iceland on the Billboard Hot 100 and seems to have received a lot of praise. Oh, also that it was their debut single.
My rating: A

Lisnaholic · 11-05-2022, 08:36 AM

Good luck with this thread, TH. I'm intrigued by your plan to look at a rather random collection of pop singles, and your process has already thrown up a small gem, imo - and that is the video for "Little Talks". The style of the video is a nice balance between strange and mildly amusing, with it's touch of old-style animated figures. When I open a thread called Ephemera Better Than You Expected, I'm going to steal your clip for my OP.

Pop charts the way they used to be:
In Britain, there was just one weekly best-selling singles chart from the record industry. That one chart was accepted as definitive and used by every media source and pop tv program; the simply-calculated rankings were never doubted. But today things are more diverse aren't they? Popularity on Spotify, downloads, singles bought, YouTube hits - so I'm curious about what charts you're using, TH, and how (inter)national they may be.

Mindy · 11-05-2022, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

And going back 10 years….

Title: “Little Talks”
Artist: Of Monsters and Men
Nationality: Icelandic
Genre: Indie Rock
Written by: Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar Þórhallsson
Original release date: December 20 2011
Highest chart position: 12 (20 in USA)
Progress, if any, at that time: Descending
From the album: My Head is an Animal
What do I know about this artist? Nothing other than I’ve heard the name
What do I think of this single? It has a nice bouncy tempo and a sort of Celtic feel; certainly does not sound Icelandic - no Bjork or Sigur Ros here - and the dual vocal works very well. Not sure I would become a fan but this is pretty decent.
What have I learned about this single? Not an awful lot really. Other than that it became the highest-charting single for a band from Iceland on the Billboard Hot 100 and seems to have received a lot of praise. Oh, also that it was their debut single.
My rating: A

This song is awesome, thats cool you went with an A.

The album that this is on is one of my favorites of all time, I own the vinyl.

rubber soul · 11-05-2022, 12:27 PM

Since you didn't have the guts to go back sixty years, here are the number one and number 33 songs for November 3, 1962 respectively...

1. The Crystals- He's a Rebel. Phil Spector really exploded onto the scene with this gem. Pity he was a violent loony.

33. Roy Orbison- Working For the Man- This Roy Orbison classic actually peaks here. Guess they didn't like his rockers so much, not until Oh Pretty Woman anyway.
.

Trollheart · 11-06-2022, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Good luck with this thread, TH. I'm intrigued by your plan to look at a rather random collection of pop singles, and your process has already thrown up a small gem, imo - and that is the video for "Little Talks". The style of the video is a nice balance between strange and mildly amusing, with it's touch of old-style animated figures. When I open a thread called Ephemera Better Than You Expected, I'm going to steal your clip for my OP.

Pop charts the way they used to be:
In Britain, there was just one weekly best-selling singles chart from the record industry. That one chart was accepted as definitive and used by every media source and pop tv program; the simply-calculated rankings were never doubted. But today things are more diverse aren't they? Popularity on Spotify, downloads, singles bought, YouTube hits - so I'm curious about what charts you're using, TH, and how (inter)national they may be.

Hi Lisna. This came about when I was doing my "Memory Lane" thread. I came across this link Official Charts which describes itself thus: The Official UK Top 40 chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on official sales of sales of downloads, CD, vinyl, audio streams and video streams. The Top 40 is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, the full Top 100 is published exclusively on OfficialCharts.com.

Once I realised I could select any year, any week and see the full chart for that week, I thought this would be a cool thing to do. Also gives me a chance to listen to current chart music, something I haven't done since I had no choice and that was all I had access to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubber soul

Since you didn't have the guts to go back sixty years, here are the number one and number 33 songs for November 3, 1962 respectively...

1. The Crystals- He's a Rebel. Phil Spector really exploded onto the scene with this gem. Pity he was a violent loony.

33. Roy Orbison- Working For the Man- This Roy Orbison classic actually peaks here. Guess they didn't like his rockers so much, not until Oh Pretty Woman anyway.
.

I knew you'd be on about the sixties. But you see, I don't like the sixties and I hate the fifties, and anyway it's not called "Trollheart's Chart Sixty or Seventy"...

Trollheart · 11-06-2022, 10:08 AM

And what was occupying the number 33 slot twenty years ago on this week?

Title: “You Were Right”
Artist: Badly Drawn Boy
Nationality: English
Genre: Alt rock
Written by: Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Michael Gough)
Original release date: October 14 2002
Highest chart position: 9
Progress, if any, at that time: Descending
From the album: Have You Fed the Fish?
What do I know about this artist? Nothing other than I’ve heard the name
What do I think of this single? Seems a little fractured, musically, to me: the chords keep descending and somehow don’t seem to match his singing, but hell, what do I know? Reminds me a little of The Lightning Seeds. Some nice orchestration, though it’s a little sporadic I feel. I also get a sense of early Divine Comedy from it, sort of Liberation/Promenade/Casanova era. It’s not really for me though.
What have I learned about this single? That it was his highest-charting single (bit of a theme going on here), that the lyric was assembled from random phrases which recall his idols, and that it was highly acclaimed.
My rating: B+

11-04-2022, 09:06 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Trollheart's Chart Fifty No, not me running down through the top fifty! Sure why would I want to do that, and why would you want me to? No, this is, as usual, something far more complicated and involved. I’ll be looking at the top forty/fifty/seventy-five/whatever the hell it is these days, choosing one single at random. I’ll write as much as I can about it (big surprise there, TH! Shut the hell up, you!) and telling you what I personally think of it. Then I’ll be going back fifty years in ten year segments, to check out what was at that place in the chart at this time ten years ago, twenty years ago, and so on, all the way back to the seventies, hence the “fifty” in the title. Neat, huh? What do you mean, no? I’ll be looking at how the chart has changed - one single at a time - over the course of five decades, and each time I do a new selection I’ll mention how the one(s) I’ve already done are now doing at this point in time: have they slid down the chart, risen, got to number one, fallen out? Well, the point is to make it fun. What? No, for me. Not for you. You can all fuck off. Oh well, I suppose if you want to you can check the songs out with me. Nobody should take offence as my opinion is blah blah yadda yadda rhubarb rhubarb you know how it goes by now. Oh yeah, I've decided also that I'll check out the number one from each decade as well, so this year, 2012, 2002, 1992, 1982 and 1972. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-04-2022, 09:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	My first random spin gave me number 33, so what's there this week and what was there this week up to fifty years ago? Well, this week (or as close to it as I can get anyway) we have this: Title: “Super Freaky Girl” Artist: Nicki Minaj Nationality: Trinidadian Genre: Hip-hop, Pop Rap Written by: Rick James, Alonzo Miller, Lukasz Gottwald, Aaron Joseph, Lauren Miller, Vaughan Oliver (Lyrics by Onilka Maraj/Nicki Minaj and Gamal Lewis/LunchMoney Lewis) Original release date: August 22 2022 Highest chart position (at time of writing): 10 (1 in the USA) Chart position (at time of writing): 33 Progress, if any, at time of writing: Descending From the album: N/A What do I know about this artist? Very little; I know her name and that she’s a rapper/pop artist and usually has pink hair, but other than that, nada. What do I think of this single? Okay, hands up anyone who thought I liked it? Huh? Oh, right. You just joined today. Well, you’ll learn once you get to know me. Look, it wasn’t as terrible as I had expected it to be, but let’s be honest here: the main thrust (ooer) or if you prefer the meat (double ooer) of the song is in the original: that instantly recognisable keyboard riff, the beat, it’s all James and then she’s spouting sexual not-quite-innuendos all over it. Yeah it’s okay and I can see how it was so popular, and you can’t fault the video (not that that should really factor into my decision, but this is the age of MTV, sort of). But really the only thing this song showed me was that I do actually know “Super Freak”, and it’s a cool song. This is okay but you know, meh. What have I learned about this single? Seems to have been very successful, taking her to number one in the US, in fact debuting at number one, though it didn’t do quite as well over here, as you can see. Still made the top ten. Just. It’s not from any album, as seems to be increasingly the norm these days with pop artists - probably due to the popularity of streaming sites: indeed, this was the highest-charting debut for a female solo rap singer (well, it says biggest debut, but I assume that’s what it means) on Spotify. It liberally samples Rick James’s 1981 hit “Super Freak” (which then proves she didn’t exactly go outof her way to title it, just adding a “y” and “girl” to the song) but I’m no fan of James so could not tell you how, if at all, it compares to the original. Some controversy apparently, if you care, about her being annoyed it was chosen as a pop rather than a rap single, which kind of seems like splitting hairs to me, but there you go. Then some sort of “Twitter battle” between her and some other rapper, Latte or Ladder or, no, Latto, that’s the one. As if I care. My rating: A- __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-04-2022, 09:22 PM	#3 (permalink)
Mindy ask me about cosmology Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Milky Way Galaxy Posts: 9,012	I hate that song^ she's a nice lady though^ definitely has good ones other than that bullshit lol A- thou eh __________________ https://www.instagram.com/shhons_meme_agency

11-04-2022, 10:34 PM	#4 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Yeah well my general view of the charts is that much of it is ***, but I'm always ready to give something a chance. It's hard to rate this song, as it's not really hers. She's just sort of piggy-backing on Rick James's melody, but I guess she does it well. Rap is not for me though, so while I'm initially averse to it, I understand too that I am outside my wheelhouse a considerable deal here, and I would not make judgements on it - other than a very surface one - in the same way I would not do with a jazz or rockabilly record. As ever, what's written here is my own impression of the song and my own personal opinion of it. Yours may of course vary. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018*

11-05-2022, 07:15 AM	#5 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	And going back 10 years…. Title: “Little Talks” Artist: Of Monsters and Men Nationality: Icelandic Genre: Indie Rock Written by: Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar Þórhallsson Original release date: December 20 2011 Highest chart position: 12 (20 in USA) Progress, if any, at that time: Descending From the album: My Head is an Animal What do I know about this artist? Nothing other than I’ve heard the name What do I think of this single? It has a nice bouncy tempo and a sort of Celtic feel; certainly does not sound Icelandic - no Bjork or Sigur Ros here - and the dual vocal works very well. Not sure I would become a fan but this is pretty decent. What have I learned about this single? Not an awful lot really. Other than that it became the highest-charting single for a band from Iceland on the Billboard Hot 100 and seems to have received a lot of praise. Oh, also that it was their debut single. My rating: A __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-05-2022, 08:36 AM	#6 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	Good luck with this thread, TH. I'm intrigued by your plan to look at a rather random collection of pop singles, and your process has already thrown up a small gem, imo - and that is the video for "Little Talks". The style of the video is a nice balance between strange and mildly amusing, with it's touch of old-style animated figures. When I open a thread called Ephemera Better Than You Expected, I'm going to steal your clip for my OP. Pop charts the way they used to be: In Britain, there was just one weekly best-selling singles chart from the record industry. That one chart was accepted as definitive and used by every media source and pop tv program; the simply-calculated rankings were never doubted. But today things are more diverse aren't they? Popularity on Spotify, downloads, singles bought, YouTube hits - so I'm curious about what charts you're using, TH, and how (inter)national they may be. __________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953 Last edited by Lisnaholic; 11-05-2022 at 08:43 AM.

11-06-2022, 10:08 AM	#10 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	And what was occupying the number 33 slot twenty years ago on this week? Title: “You Were Right” Artist: Badly Drawn Boy Nationality: English Genre: Alt rock Written by: Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Michael Gough) Original release date: October 14 2002 Highest chart position: 9 Progress, if any, at that time: Descending From the album: Have You Fed the Fish? What do I know about this artist? Nothing other than I’ve heard the name What do I think of this single? Seems a little fractured, musically, to me: the chords keep descending and somehow don’t seem to match his singing, but hell, what do I know? Reminds me a little of The Lightning Seeds. Some nice orchestration, though it’s a little sporadic I feel. I also get a sense of early Divine Comedy from it, sort of Liberation/Promenade/Casanova era. It’s not really for me though. What have I learned about this single? That it was his highest-charting single (bit of a theme going on here), that the lyric was assembled from random phrases which recall his idols, and that it was highly acclaimed. My rating: B+ __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018