January 1972 -- Michael Jackson gets rolling

This week's AT40 was from January 1972, when Michael Jackson was enjoying his first solo top 40 hit "Got to Be There."  Casey highlighted how he already had 4 #1 hits to his credit (with his brothers, who were also on the countdown with "Sugar Daddy") and he wasn't even a teenager!

What Casey didn't know was that in the next 50 years anyway, the Jackson 5 would never hit #1 again, but Michael would hit #1 by year's end with "Ben," have a little gap, then begin a huge streak in 1979 through 1995, ending with 13 solo #1's (including two duets) plus the work with his brothers.

He was also the first artist to debut* at #1 with "You are Not Alone" (* before chart rules changed to allow radio-only songs to chart)

At the time, it was quite unknown if Jackson or Donny Osmond would end up the bigger hitmaker, but let's just say it wasn't close...

1 2 AMERICAN PIE (Parts 1 and 2) –•– Don McLean (United Artists)-8 (1 week at #1) (1)
2 1 BRAND NEW KEY –•– Melanie (Neighborhood)-12 (1)
3 4 LET’S STAY TOGETHER –•– Al Green (Hi)-7 (3)
4 7 SUNSHINE –•– Jonathan Edwards (Capricorn)-10 (4)
5 3 FAMILY AFFAIR –•– Sly and the Family Stone (Epic)-11 (1)
6 6 SCORPIO –•– Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band (Sussex)-12 (6)
7 8 I’D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING (In Perfect Harmony) –•– The New Seekers (Elektra)-7 (7)
8 5 GOT TO BE THERE –•– Michael Jackson (Motown)-12 (4)
9 10 HEY GIRL / I KNEW YOU WHEN –•– Donny Osmond (MGM)-8 (9)
10 13 CLEAN UP WOMAN –•– Betty Wright (Alston)-8 (10)
11 11 YOU ARE EVERYTHING –•– The Stylistics (Avco)-11 (11)
12 12 SUGAR DADDY –•– Jackson 5 (Motown)-6 (12)
13 14 I’D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING (In Perfect Harmony) –•– The Hillside Singers (Metromedia)-8 (13)
14 16 DAY AFTER DAY –•– Badfinger (Apple)-7 (14)
15 15 ONE MONKEY DON’T STOP NO SHOW (Part 1) –•– The Honey Cone (Hot Wax)-9 (15)
16 17 DROWNING IN THE SEA OF LOVE –•– Joe Simon (Spring)-8 (16)
17 9 CHERISH –•– David Cassidy (Bell)-11 (9)
18 24 NEVER BEEN TO SPAIN –•– Three Dog Night (Dunhill)-4 (18)
19 18 AN OLD FASHIONED LOVE SONG –•– Three Dog Night (Dunhill)-10 (4)
20 22 HEY BIG BROTHER –•– Rare Earth (Rare Earth)-8 (20)
21 25 IT’S ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS (Yes Love) –•– The Partridge Family (Starring Shirley Jones and Featuring David Cassidy) (Bell)-5 (21)
22 23 ANTICIPATION –•– Carly Simon (Elektra)-6 (22)
23 26 ONCE YOU UNDERSTAND –•– Think (Featuring Lou Stallman) (Laurie)-7 (23)
24 20 ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU –•– Sonny and Cher (Kapp)-14 (7)
25 27 KISS AN ANGEL GOOD MORNIN’ –•– Charley Pride (RCA)-9 (25)
26 19 HAVE YOU SEEN HER –•– The Chi-Lites (Brunswick)-13 (3)
27 29 THE WITCH QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS –•– Redbone (Epic)-9 (27)
28 30 WHITE LIES, BLUE EYES –•– Bullet (Big Tree)-11 (28)
29 21 RESPECT YOURSELF –•– The Staple Singers (Stax)-14 (12)
30 35 LEVON –•– Elton John (Uni)-5 (30)
31 37 THAT’S THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT ‘CHA –•– Bobby Womack and Peace (United Artists)-6 (31)
32 38 MAKE ME THE WOMAN THAT YOU GO HOME TO –•– Gladys Knight and the Pips (Soul)-5 (32)
33 42 BLACK DOG –•– Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)-4 (33)
34 28 AN AMERICAN TRILOGY (Dixie / Battle Hymn Of the Republic / All My Trials) (Medley) –•– Mickey Newbury (Elektra)-11 (26)
35 46 STAY WITH ME –•– The Faces (Warner Brothers)-3 (35)
36 54 WITHOUT YOU –•– Nilsson (RCA)-5 (36)
37 51 FIRE AND WATER –•– Wilson Pickett (Atlantic)-4 (37)
38 33 GEORGE JACKSON –•– Bob Dylan (Columbia)-7 (33)
39 48 LOOKING FOR A LOVE –•– The J. Geils Band (Atlantic)-7 (39)
40 43 ME AND BOBBY McGEE –•– Jerry Lee Lewis (Mercury)-8 (40)

Artist Collaborations featuring "Featuring"

Following on the Elvis and Drake discussion and "featuring" songs, on a recent retro 1970s American Top 40 show, Casey mentioned how Odia Coates had moved up over the years from appearing uncredited Paul Anka on "(You're) Having My Baby" to appearing "with" him eventually to being Paul Anka "&" her on later hits.  He mentioned that that reflected more status for Coates and more royalties.

For such equal status duets, using the "&" makes such multi-artist collaborations seem more like regular recording duos, ala Hall & Oates or Simon & Garfunkel.  In addition to status, seeing an "&" usually means a roughly balanced duet, while a "with" artist may simply sing only a single verse.  The late 70's began a major stretch of equal status duets.

In such collaborations, the first artist listed generally sings first and is the bigger star, but almost always reflects that the recording first appears on their album (though if the secondary artist later achieves a Greatest Hits album, the song is often there).

As late as the 80s, the distant 3rd choice for collaborations was "featuring" which originally meant a group trying to highlight their lead singer (Dawn featuring Tony Orlando), a one-off vocalist for an instrumental group (Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones), or the very rare producer big enough to get top billing (Quincy Jones often "featured" or "introduced" vocalists).

But with the advent of rap, "featuring" became the go-to word for either singers on a rap record or a rapper on an otherwise sung record.  If a singer features a rapper, the rapper’s part is usually not integral to the song, allowing record companies to market both with and without.  These have been ubiquitous for the last 25 years...the first #1 of this type I found was "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio featuring L.V. from 1995.

In the UK, many more producers are famous in their own right, including some who've crossed over to the U.S. like Calvin Harris.  Their vocal records may have an uncredited singer, but if credited are usually "featured," with "&" generally implying a traditional duet if the producer also sings.

A more recent 4th choice for collaborations is “vs," (or equivalently "x") usually with two collaborating DJs or a DJ doing a radical remix but still prominently featuring the main artist.  JXL (a producer/DJ) vs. Elvis was the first I remember with "A Little Less Conversation," bringing us full circle.  I think Drake definitely needs to work with the Presley estate... :-)

Most charted Songs (Elvis vs Drake)

By the time AT40 started in July 1970, Elvis' biggest charting days were behind him, but he'd already wracked up over 100 Hot 100 hits, clearly leading the pack of all artists.  Casey acknowledged this in his intro for "The Wonder of You" this week in 1970 (the 3rd episode of AT40), and as Elvis kept charting through the 70's, Casey normally acknowledged how Elvis kept breaking his own record, up to this week in 1977 when Elvis had his "134th chart record."

What Casey said less often, but did this week in 1970, was guessing no one would _ever_ break the record.  At the time, Ray Charles and James Brown were his nearest competition, and they were also past their peak.

As late as 2010 (the year of my latest Top Pop Singles book), Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Jay-Z had the most of active artists, each with about 50 hits.  Joel Whitburn, the author of Top Pop Singles, did not count any song an artist was "featured" on (which in the industry is a step below being the lead, or "with" or "&" another artists, but became commonplace in the 2000s.)  Even including the "featuring"s, would've only taken Jay-Z to 76.  In all cases, double-sided hits count as two.

But then around 2010, with the breakout of digital releases, the chart records were all re-written.  The Glee Cast alone charted over 200 songs, as an entire episode's worth of songs would all drop on one day.  The next week another batch would drop, driving the previous ones off the chart.  None hit #1, and none charted more than a few weeks, but each was legitimately among the top 100 in sales/airplay for that week....without the trouble of having to actually physically make, ship, and market a 45-rpm record around the country.

Another repercussion with the digital revolution was that artists could drop an album's worth of material with no designation of which were "singles"...then the buying public could download (and later stream) the songs they liked the best, and for the biggest artists, 10 or more songs on an album might make enough of an impact to be on the top 100 for a week or two during the initial surge.  The top performers would give record executives great data about what songs to release to radio.  Taylor Swift, Adele, and Mumford and Sons have all charted dozens of songs this way.

But the King of these developments is clearly Drake.  From his own albums as lead artist, he's beaten Elvis with 195 songs, but I feel safe characterizing over 100 of them as fundamentally album tracks, not singles.  But, throw in the "featurings" (of which Elvis had none, nor even a duet!), he picks up another 86 songs, which are indeed overwhelmingly actual singles.

My bottom line -- Casey was obviously wrong in his predictions in the strict sense of counting Hot 100 entries, but even counting songs intended as singles, Drake's got Elvis beat.  Casey himself, I expect, would've counted all duets and "featuring"s.

Someday, I'll do the analysis to include group participation to see where Paul McCartney falls.