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Song of the Day #5,630: ‘How Will I Know’ – Whitney Houston

Three albums released in 1985 are among the 40 top-selling albums of all time. I covered two of them in recent weeks: Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms and Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required.

The third is Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut, an album that crawled out of the gate in February of ’85 and slowly picked up steam, eventually becoming a record-breaking juggernaut. Despite coming out in early ’85, it ended up as the best-selling album of 1986. It also produced three #1 singles, a first for a debut album or an album by a solo woman.

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Song of the Day #5,629: ‘The Monster’ – Eminem feat. Rihanna

Throwing back to the week of Nov. 30, 2013, we find Lorde atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Royals.’ The rest of the top ten is a mix of the same artists and songs that have been dominating the chart for several installments of Throwback Weekends, but we do have a new entry at #2.

Eminem’s ‘The Monster,’ featuring Rihanna, spent four weeks in the #2 spot before finally reaching #1 in December. This was Eminem’s fifth #1 on the Hot 100 (and, as of today, his last) and his first since 2010’s ‘Love the Way You Lie’ (another collaboration with Rihanna). As for Rihanna, this is one of 14 #1 hits on her resume, putting her behind only The Beatles and Mariah Carey on the all-time list.

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Song of the Day #5,628: ‘Holidae In’ – Chingy feat. Ludacris & Snoop Dogg

Throwing back to the week of November 29, 2003, we find Beyoncé and Sean Paul still dominating the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Baby Boy.’ That song was in the last of its nine weeks atop the chart, soon to be replaced by #2 track ‘Stand Up‘ by Ludacris.

At #3 was the Outkast classic ‘Hey Ya!,’ a song that prompted me to wax nostalgic 12 years ago on the blog. That song would soon ascend to its own nine-week run at #1.

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Song of the Day #5,627: ‘In Between Days’ – The Cure

The Cure’s sixth studio album, 1985’s The Head on the Door, saw the band introducing a new pop sensibility to the mopey goth rock of earlier releases.

Sparked by successful lead-off single ‘In Between Days,’ the album gave the English band its first foothold in the U.S. and led to a run of platinum-selling albums in the late 80s and early 90s.

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Song of the Day #5,626: ‘Alive and Kicking’ – Simple Minds

Scottish rock band Simple Minds released their seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time, on the heels of their breakout hit, ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me).’ That track was the band’s first to chart in the U.S. and it made it all the way to #1, an ironic achievement given that they had little interest in recording the song in the first place.

The band chose to leave the hit song (which was released on the soundtrack of The Breakfast Club) off of their next album, but the anthemic pop sound of the tune was present throughout this great collection.

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