At #12 on this week’s Hot 100 is rapper Doechii with ‘Anxiety,’ a 2019 track that she re-recorded after it picked up steam on TikTok.
The track heavily samples Gotye’s 2011 ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ — so heavily that you’re 20 seconds in before you realize it’s a sample and not the actual song. I’m not a big fan of songs that rely so heavily on samples, especially of well-known tracks, but this one is decent.
I’m skipping over #9 and #10 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 because they’ve already been featured on the blog: Teddy Swims’ ‘Lose Control’ and Benson Boone’s ‘Beautiful Things.’ Those songs have been on this chart for quite a while, a record-breaking number of weeks in the case of ‘Lose Control.’
At #11 is a country/rap hybrid by Texan rapper BigXthaPlug, accompanied by Illinois country singer Bailey Zimmerman. This is the first foray into country music by BigXthaPlug and by far his most successful release, having peaked at #4. His next highest charter reached #63.
Morgan Wallen holds both the seventh and eighth slots in this week’s Billboard Hot 100. And spoiler alert: this isn’t the last time you’ll hear from him this week.
‘I Ain’t Comin’ Back’ is a promotional single from Wallen’s upcoming album, not to be confused with the four proper singles he has released. If you think five singles dropping in advance of a new album is too many, consider that the album has 37 tracks.
Getting back to the latest installment of ‘What the Kids are Listening To,’ we arrive at this week’s #7, where Morgan Wallen sits with the title track of his upcoming fourth album, I’m the Problem.
This is the fourth single from the album, which comes out this Friday. All four have reached the top ten, with one hitting #1 and one (this one) hitting #2. Suffice it to say, this album is going to be big.
The top four of the Hot 100 was pretty locked in the week of May 11, 1985. I’ve featured all four already: Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You,’ ‘We Are the World,’ Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me),’ and DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm of the Night.’
That brings us to #5, where the unlikely New Wave/hip-hop hit ‘One Night in Bangkok’ sat, on its way to peaking at #3. This was a single from the concept album Chess, released by Broadway songwriter Tim Rice and ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The album was later turned into a hit musical in both England and the United States.
Meet Me In Montauk 