The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music

by Tom Breihan

Overview

Beloved music critic Tom Breihan's fascinating narrative of the history of popular music through the lens of game-changing #1 singles from the Billboard Hot 100.

When Tom Breihan launched his Stereogum column in early 2018, “The Number Ones”—a space in which he has been writing about every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, in chronological order—he figured he’d post capsule-size reviews for each song. But there was so much more to uncover. The column has taken on a life of its own, sparking online debate and occasional death threats.

The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958, and after four years of posting the column, Breihan is still in the early aughts. But readers no longer have to wait for his brilliant synthesis of what the history of #1s has meant to music and our culture. In The Number Ones, Breihan writes about twenty pivotal #1s throughout chart history, revealing a remarkably fluid and connected story of music that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

The Numbers Ones features the greatest pop artists of all time, from the Brill Building songwriters to the Beatles and the Beach Boys; from Motown to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Mariah Carey; and from the digital revolution to the K-pop system. Breihan also ponders great artists who have never hit the top spot, like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and James Brown. Breihan illuminates what makes indelible ear candy across the decades—including dance crazes, recording innovations, television phenomena, disco, AOR, MTV, rap, compact discs, mp3s, social media, memes, and much more—leaving readers to wonder what could possibly happen next.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306826542
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	179,134
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tom Breihan is the senior editor at the music website Stereogum, where he writes "The Number Ones," a column where he reviews every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. He's written for Pitchfork, the Village Voice, the AV Club, GQ, and the Ringer, among others. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife and kids. He is seven feet tall.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Chubby Checker-"The Twist" 11

(Released June 1960; hit #1 September 19, 1960; one-week reign; hit #1 again January 13, 1962; two-week reign.)

Chapter 2 The Shirelles-"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" 23

(Released November 1960; hit #1 January 30, 1961; two-week reign.)

Chapter 3 The Beatles-"I Want to Hold Your Hand" 35

(Released December 26, 1963; hit #1 February 1, 1964; seven-week reign.)

Chapter 4 The Supremes-"Where Did Our Love Go" 49

(Released June 17, 1964; hit #1 August 22, 1964; two-week reign.)

Chapter 5 The Byrds-"Mr. Tambourine Man" 67

(Released April 12, 1965; hit #1 June 26, 1965; one-week reign.)

Chapter 6 The Beach Boys-"Good Vibrations" 83

(Released October 10, 1966; hit #1 December 10, 1966; one-week reign.)

Chapter 7 George McCrae-"Rock Your Baby" 99

(Released April 1974; hit #1 July 13, 1974; two-week reign.)

Chapter 8 Fleetwood Mac-"Dreams" 113

(Released March 24, 1977; hit #1 June 11, 1977; one-week reign.)

Chapter 9 The Human League-"Don't You Want Me" 127

(Released November 27, 1981; hit #1 July 3, 1982; three-week reign.)

Chapter 10 Michael Jackson-"Billie Jean" 141

(Released January 2, 1983; hit #1 March 5, 1983; seven-week reign.)

Chapter 11 Prince-"When Doves Cry" 159

(Released May 16, 1984; hit #1 July 7, 1984; five-week reign.)

Chapter 12 Bon Jovi-"You Give Love a Bad Name" 175

(Released July 23, 1986; hit #1 November 29, 1986; one-week reign.)

Chapter 13 Mariah Carey-"Vision of Love" 189

(Released May 15, 1990; hit #1 August 4, 1990; four-week reign.)

Chapter 14 Vanilla Ice-"Ice ice Baby" 203

(Released August 22, 1990; hit #1 November 3, 1990; one-week reign.)

Chapter 15 Puff Daddy-"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" (Featuring Mase) 217

(Released February 11, 1997; hit #1 March 22, 1997; six-week reign.)

Chapter 16 Britney Spears-"… Baby One More Time" 233

(Released October 23, 1998; hit #1 January 30, 1999; two-week reign.)

Chapter 17 T-Pain-"Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" (Featuring Yung Joe) 249

(Released February 20, 2007; hit #1 May 26, 2007; one-week reign.)

Chapter 18 Soulja Boy Tell'em -"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" 263

(Released May 2, 2007; hit #1 September 15, 2007; seven-week reign.)

Chapter 19 Rae Sremmurd-"Black Beatles" (Featuring Gucci Mane) 277

(Released September 13, 2016; hit #1 November 25, 2016; seven-week reign.)

Chapter 20 BTS-"Dynamite" 293

(Released August 21, 2020; hit #1 September 5, 2020; three-week reign.)

Outro 313

Acknowledgments 317

Selected Bibliography 321

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

Tom Breihan’s The Number Ones is a glorious rabbit hole dive into the biggest hits in popular music, analyzing the very physics of how they became hits and taking a forensic look at what made them ‘pop.’ It’s massively enjoyable when you love the song in question, and perhaps even more so when you don’t. One of the most enjoyable books on pop to ever roar up the charts."—Edgar Wright

"Tom Breihan is an absolutely crucial chronicler of the hit parade, a madman scholar digging deep in the vaults. The Number Ones is a revelatory celebration of pop history in all its glorious weirdness, the way only Breihan could tell the tale. These are classic tunes that everybody knows, but Breihan brilliantly blows away the dust, and makes them sound fresh and new. A hell of a storyteller, and a hell of a T-Pain fan."—Rob Sheffield

“The engaging, illuminating, and exhilarating The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music….Breihan brings a laser-like focus and fan’s sensibility to stone-cold classic No. 1 hits….Perhaps nobody writing about music today is better equipped to grapple with those questions….Whether in his column or The Number Ones, Breihan unearths fascinating nuggets about even the most pedestrian songs. Like a Russian nesting doll, his writings contain multitudes…. Breihan has penned a work that resembles some of the indelible hits he spotlights: memorable, timeless and worth revisiting again and again.”—The Los Angeles Times

“Breihan displays a keen eye (and ear) for identifying landmark moments…. Breihan will have you building out playlists and diving down new musical rabbit holes, but he will also leave you questioning how many times you’ve dismissed something as a passing trend.”—The New York Times (audiobook)

“A rich critical history of pop at its most universally revelatory.”—Rolling Stone

“Briskly written, a pleasure to read, The Number Ones is a musical treat.”—The Wall Street Journal

“For longtime readers of Breihan’s work, the tone will be instantly familiar: affable, conversational, and always funny, with surprising insights and ear-catching phrasings gliding in from every direction….The jokes, asides, and loping digressions all mimic the texture of conversation, pointing to Breihan’s enduring strength as a critic: when you read him, it feels like he’s talking to you.”—Pitchfork

One of Variety’s Best Music Books of 2022

“Ripe with opinion and spiced by peppery humor….Breihan’s book also lovingly looks into deserving artists (e.g., Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) who have never topped the singles charts.”

—Variety

“The book [is a] fascinating look at the last six-plus decades of popular music through the prism of Billboard‘s signature songs chart, digging into the nooks and crannies of both the music and the chart itself as the subject requires.”—Billboard

“The Number Ones is a tour de force of Breihan at his most nerdy, intricate, and enjoyable….No one parses the stories or puts the popular songs that have defined generations into perspective better than Breihan, who has delivered on the promise of his crazy column idea.”—The Aquarian

“An ideal way into the larger story of pop, and all its relations.”

—The Current

“The Number Ones remains a breezy read, packed with interesting facts and historical context….[Breihan] also found creative ways to weave into the narratives stories about acts that never made it to No. 1, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and the Backstreet Boys.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Trying to capture the last seven decades of popular music through 20 songs sounds daunting, but this breezy history is gripping and entertaining…he attacks his subject with an engaging mix of clever facts and savvy observations…. For those looking for more conventional commentary, Breihan offers plenty of interesting insights into hits from the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, and Mariah Carey, but the surprises are where he shines brightest. A fun, buzzy history that effectively uses context and criticism to explain the effervescence of pop music.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“This fantastic overview carries loads of fascinating trivia. Great fun for any music fan."—Booklist (starred)

A LitHub Pick to Bring on Weekend Travels

From the Publisher

12/12/2022

Music critic Breihan debuts with a rich analysis of chart-topping hits from the Billboard Hot100 charts from 1960 to 2020, contending that each song marks a moment in history when pop culture pivoted in a new direction. Breihan starts with Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” noting the dance sensation it caused, and goes on to correlate hit songs with changes in the musical landscape: Brian Wilson used different studios and musicians to record the Beach Boys’ 1966 song “Good Vibrations,” making it the most expensive single of its time; 2007’s “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” harnessed the power of the internet to rise to fame; and Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit “Billie Jean” was a “marvel of engineering” that melded different styles into one “layered psychological portrait.” Breihan also addresses how the music business was reflected in songs and the performance of them, whether via Dick Clark’s strict onstage dress code, Motown’s upsurge from a small label to an empire (triggered by the Supremes), or the role MTV played in moving heavy metal into the mainstream. Breihan makes a persuasive case for the broader power of a #1 hit, spotlighting music’s ability to connect on a deep level in the most unexpected ways. Music lovers will find this universally appealing. Agent: Jack Gernert, Gernert Company. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2022

In 1958, Billboard magazine combined its singles sales and radio-play charts into one list, calling it the Hot 100. Breihan assigned himself the daunting task of reviewing every song to reach the number one spot on the magazine's Top 100 chart for stereogum.com. Collected here are the stories of 20 songs the author deems historically important, from Chubby Checker's "The Twist" in 1960 to BTS's "Dynamite" in 2020, with other songs by the likes of the Supremes, the Beach Boys, Prince, and Puff Daddy. Breihan admits that being ranked number one doesn't mean that these are necessarily the best songs of their time; there are many wonderful releases and performers that did not grace that top spot, and several fairly questionable ones that did. What makes this book fascinating is the author's ability to set these songs firmly in their social, cultural, and musical contexts. These songs often act as apt representations of pivotal and changing times and tastes. VERDICT An entertaining and informative survey of some milestones of popular music. This book should delight anyone who has felt the magic only pop music can provide.—Bill Baars

Library Journal

★ 2022-09-10
Trying to capture the last seven decades of popular music through 20 songs sounds daunting, but this breezy history is gripping and entertaining.

Breihan is a senior editor at Stereogum, where he writes “The Number Ones” column, which catalogs the story behind every No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. In this book version of his project, he attacks his subject with an engaging mix of clever facts and savvy observations. With only 20 slots to fill, he has to make some tough choices, meaning the Rolling Stones and Elton John aren’t on the list, but Rae Sremmurd and Soulja Boy are. It’s a testament to Breihan’s arguments that all these choices make sense, as he tries to explain how we moved from Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” to the current state of pop music. That road involves shifting business and racial influences in addition to musical developments, and the author reveals it all. Writing about “Billie Jean,” Breihan notes, “Michael Jackson is a tragic and troubling figure, but he’s also a pivotal one. [He] changed the size and scope of pop music. He moved things away from segregated radio formats and toward a pan-racial, pan-genre music-video future.” The author also explains the current power of streaming services and social media. “Since the streaming services’ playlists and algorithms constantly updated themselves,” he writes, “a viral fad like the Mannequin Challenge could have an immediate effect on the charts. Rae Sremmurd and their label were smart enough to connect the group to a viral fad, and in the new streaming economy, this was enough to push them to #1.” For those looking for more conventional commentary, Breihan offers plenty of interesting insights into hits from the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, and Mariah Carey, but the surprises are where he shines brightest.

A fun, buzzy history that effectively uses context and criticism to explain the effervescence of pop music.

Kirkus Reviews