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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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Song of the Day #5,472: ‘La Bamba’ – Los Lobos

In August of 1987, Los Lobos’ version of ‘La Bamba’ became the fifth non-English song to top Billboard’s Hot 100. The song was included on the soundtrack of the film of the same name, a biopic of 50s rock star Ritchie Valens.

Valens’ version of ‘La Bamba,’ which Los Lobos channeled quite well, reached #22 on the same chart in 1958. It peaked the day before he died, at just 17, in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper).

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Song of the Day #5,471: ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ – Falco

It took 23 years before another non-English track topped the Billboard Hot 100, with Austrian artist Falco achieving the feat with his New Wave bop ‘Rock Me Amadeus.’ The song remains the only German-language song to ever reach #1 on the Hot 100. Nena came close a few years earlier, but her ’99 Luftballons’ peaked at #2.

The song’s lyrics describe Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a womanizing rock star in his day, incredibly talented but saddled by debts. This depiction was familiar to audiences who had watched Milos Forman’s film Amadeus nearly sweep the Academy Awards just two years earlier.

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