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Song of the Day #5,477: ‘Attention’ – Doja Cat

What better way to celebrate American’s birthday than by posting a new song by Doja Cat? ‘Attention’ is the rapper/singer’s first new material since last year’s Elvis soundtrack song ‘Vegas.’

This track, the first single from upcoming album First of All (currently without a release date), signals a shift away from pop and toward hip-hip. Doja disparaged her first two albums on Twitter, writing “Planet her and hot pink were cash-grabs and yall fell for it” and promised to return to her rap roots on her next release. ‘Attention’ suggests she’s following through.

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Song of the Day #5,476: ‘Thinking About You’ – Beck

I read in the New York Times last week that Beck has a new song out with the alternative band Phoenix, with whom he will be touring. I decided to feature it this week along with some other recent releases.

When looking up that song, a fun Euro pop track called ‘Odyssey,’ I came across another new Beck tune, this one released in February. ‘Thinking About You’ is in the vein of his albums Sea Change and Morning Phase — my favorite flavor of Beck — so I called an audible and featured it instead.

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Song of the Day #5,475: ‘Weak’ – SWV

This is the second time I’ve had to bypass the #1 hit in the summer of 1993 because Janet Jackson had a stranglehold on the position with ‘That’s the Way Love Goes.’ I don’t remember that song having such a stranglehold on the pop music landscape, but I guess I wasn’t listening to much radio in 1993.

That theory is certainly borne out by the fact that I have zero familiarity with the song at #2, ‘Weak’ by R&B trio SWV. In fact, I’d never heard of SWV before today, despite the fact that the group had three top ten songs in the early 90s in addition to this, their only #1 hit.

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Song of the Day #5,474: ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ – Culture Club

Throwing back to the week of June 25, 1983, gives us a repeat at the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100 as Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling’ continued its six-week run at #1.

That brings us to the week’s #2 song, ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ by Culture Club. This single, the second from the band’s debut album Kissing to Be Clever, spent two weeks at #2 but couldn’t crack the top spot (thanks, Irene Cara!). It matched the performance of previous single ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,’ which also fell one slot short of #1.

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Song of the Day #5,473: ‘Life Goes On’ – BTS

The eighth non-English song to reach the top of the Hot 100 belongs to K-pop sensations BTS. ‘Life Goes On’ was the band’s third #1 hit on the chart in three months, following ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Savage Love,’ but the first in their native tongue. It’s the first song in Korean to top the chart.

This laid-back hip-hop track is the definition of rising high and falling fast. It debuted at #1, slid to #28 in its second week, fell to #93 in its third, and was off the chart completely the week after that. The difference between the staying power of this track vs. its predecessors was largely due to a lack of radio play, likely stemming from it being in Korean.

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