I often stumble across the website songfacts.com when doing research for the blog. If you have the right song, you’ll find a treasure trove of illuminating information.
Today’s Random Song of the Day, ‘Big River’ by Johnny Cash, features a few such nuggets, including the following quotes about the track by Bob Dylan and Tom Petty.
Today is my birthday, and while it doesn’t fall on a Random Weekend, the nature of my Billboard countdown means today’s song choice isn’t in my control. So what did the hands of fate serve up in tribute?
‘Thunder,’ by Imagine Dragons, which occupies the #5 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. This is the 4th top ten hit for Imagine Dragons, a Las Vegas-based indie rock band, and their second this year (‘Believer’ reached #4 over the summer).
In the #4 spot this week is one of those entries so unfamiliar to me that I can’t tell which name is the song and which is the artist. Is it ‘Gucci Gang’ by Lil Pump or ‘Lil Pump’ by Gucci Gang?
Turns out it’s the former. Lil Pump is a 17-year-old underground rapper from Miami, my old stomping grounds, who is part of a new young rap movement often compared to the punk scene of the late 70s. He’s also the second non-black rapper in the top four, which has to be some kind of milestone.
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’ climbs to #3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in its 14th week on the chart. This is Sheeran’s sixth top ten hit, and the highest climber outside of ‘Shape of You,’ his only #1 hit, and ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ which reached #2.
‘Perfect,’ like ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ is a straightforward love ballad destined to play at weddings for years to come. Sheeran says he thinks he topped the former hit with this one, but I’d have to give the edge to ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ which feels like a new standard. I say that having only heard ‘Perfect’ a couple of times, though.
Singer Camila Cabello unexpectedly left girl group Fifth Harmony one year ago (the band’s official press release noted that they had been informed “via her representatives”) to embark on a solo career. Good move on her part, it seems, as her first single sits at #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
‘Havana’ is a sultry fusion of Latin influences and American pop and hip-hop. Cabelo, who was born in Cuba and spent her childhood moving between her home country and Mexico before relocating to Miami, manages to pay effective tribute to her culture while delivering a massive radio hit.
Meet Me In Montauk 