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Post by Unkie on May 25, 2020 21:17:58 GMT -5
On June 17, 2017, inspired by John's House of Randomness music countdown videos on YouTube - on which he counted down his favorite Billboard Hot 100 peakers by position to correspond with the month he did the video, for example, #6s for June - I launched a three-year project on 20Hitz on M4BCC Radio, where I counted down the station's listeners' favorite Hot 100 top 10 peakers by decade over the course of 57 episodes. Initially, the idea was to go from the 1970s to the 2000s, but I expanded it to include the 1960s in August 2019 due to popular demand (August was chosen as the air date to count down #1s through #6s of the 60s in a weekend-long marathon to commemorate the birthday of the Hot 100) and the 2010s following the conclusion of the decade. The 60s through 2000s episodes completed December 14, 2019 with a marathon of the first 49 shows on M4BCC Radio and a 3+ hour live extravaganza for the 2000s #10s show. I completed the project on April 26, 2020 with the airing of the final 2010s episodes. The miniseries will conclude June 13, 2020, commemorating the three-year anniversary of the miniseries' launch, with two battle royales: a second chance battle pitting the 57 #2 songs against each other for a chance for one of them to get #1 after missing out in their eligible episode, and a tournament of champions featuring the 57 #1 songs, which include many of the show's all time biggest songs, including five members of the show's four timers club of songs to reach #1 in at least four episodes (the Eagles' "Hotel California", Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" and 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye"), and two songs, the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", that are one 20Hitz victory away from the four timers club. In the leading up to this conclusion, I thought I'd offer up another battle royale - a rankdown of my personal favorites of the 57 episodes in the 20Hitz Billboard miniseries. I've had opinions of my own shows during and after airing them - in some moments, I felt proud of both the outcomes and my showmanship. In others, it's clear I was uninspired, and the body of work played in the episode highlights why that lack of inspiration came through. But no matter how I felt about a given episode, one thing was clear through most if not all of these episodes - they represented the high marks of what was possible with 20Hitz, displaying a fierce competitive spirit, capturing strong listener interaction and serving as solid time capsules for both the decades they represented and the time on M4B when the episodes were recorded.
So gather round, chartaholics, for my favorite (and least favorite) 20Hitz Billboard episodes from 57 to 1.
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Post by Unkie on May 25, 2020 21:49:54 GMT -5
57. Billboard #9s of the 1960s First aired: September 7, 2019 #1: The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic
The most interesting thing about this episode was just how you could hear how uninspired I was as I was recording this. The pool of eligible songs for this episode was far from the greatest, and the songs I believed were the best of the bunch - "Heart Full Of Soul" by the Yardbirds, "I Can See For Miles" by the Who and "The Last Time" by the Rolling Stones - all underperformed. While I thought the top 2 by the Lovin' Spoonful and the Bobby Fuller Four was worthy enough, the overall survey just felt so weak to me, I opted to play only four countdown extras instead of the usual six.
56. Billboard #9s/#10s of the 2010s First aired: April 26, 2020 #1: One Direction - Perfect
Kim's votes, which included a message at the end that I read out loud in the show's intro, speaks for itself: "There isn't 20 good songs in this list, don't even pretend there is." Because of the extreme difficulty voters had selecting songs, this episode had the lowest threshold of the miniseries, with the #20 song "Drive By" by Train getting in with only 18 points. While the show was far more tolerable than it would have been if I had to really use the explainer on Quavo that I read to joking effect in the intro, it was still the least tolerable of the 2010s episodes - and even still I took points off for the presence of "Love Somebody". The good: Paramore's first 20Hitz appearance, Kelly Clarkson's record 10th top 10 of the miniseries (besting the high mark of nine that Madonna and the Beatles earned in the original 60s through 2000s miniseries), One Direction's "Perfect" reaching #1 to become the boy band's first 20Hitz #1 after previously being overshadowed by Harry Styles' solo material, and a double dose of Demi Lovato shade (directed at her more recent material that has received criticism for screechy sounding oversinging).
55. Billboard #4s of the 2000s First aired: September 16, 2018 #1: 'N Sync - Bye Bye Bye
Yes, this was the episode where I introduced "four timers club" to describe the show's biggest winners, including this episode's #1, 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye". Yes, this episode worked well for its musical diversity. Yes, this was the most Lenny Kravitzful episode of 20Hitz ("Again" was #3, his best rank to date). But a criticized troll moment (which has since been removed from the stream) tainted this episode's legacy.
54. Billboard #7s of the 1960s First aired: September 7, 2019 #1: The Kinks - You Really Got Me
The first half of the episode ranged from dull to outright annoying (the less said about "Who Put The Bomp", the better) but what carried it and kept it interesting throughout was the random Chris Cornell references spliced within each intro. The music got better into the top 10 as well, particularly with the presence of "For What It's Worth" and "The Boxer" in the top 5.
53. Billboard #9s of the 1980s First aired: July 6, 2019 #1: Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
One observation I made about this episode during the 20Hitz Billboard marathon was how so many of the songs in the ranking (particularly "Walking On Sunshine", "I Ran", "I'm So Excited" and the entire top 5) were songs that FM radio had played out to death, to the point that I felt like they charted higher than they really did. It was not my favorite episode due to the proliferation of overplayed FM radio staples - though I'm one to talk as "Don't Stop Believin'", the #4 song on the survey, was my #1.
52. Billboard #3s of the 2010s First aired: February 15, 2020 #1: fun. - Some Nights
More notable for the roasting than the actual music, this episode had a cast of overplayed to death pop and hot AC radio singles that made listening bearable if you're numb to hearing "Love Me Like You Do" a 500th time while out at retail stores. But one of the few saving graces of the episode was the unexpected victory of fun.'s "Some Nights", which upset both Lady Gaga songs in the running despite "The Edge Of Glory" leading for most of the week. (Gaga still emerged a winner here - her performance in this episode, and the following #4s show in which "Million Reasons" ranked fourth, convinced me she was worthy of a 20Hitz artist spotlight, which - shameless plug - is airing this Saturday at 9 p.m. EST on M4B Radio, to time with the release of her sixth album Chromatica.)
51. Billboard #10s of the 1960s First aired: November 9, 2019 #1: Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual
The selections in this episode ranged from the memeworthy ("It's Not Unusual", the episode's #1) to the timeless ("Brown Eyed Girl") to well known for other musicians ("Another Saturday Night", "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" and "Tracks Of My Tears"). While the episode was a dramatic improvement over the previous episode in the 60s series, one song in particular stood out for all the wrong reasons - Billy Stewart's part-sung, part-gibberish rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, which ranked #19.
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Post by Unkie on May 27, 2020 22:26:00 GMT -5
50. Billboard #6s of the 2000s First aired: February 9, 2019 #1: Nine Days - Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)
I found this episode a little too poppy for my liking and it hasn't held up with me as well as others - though the presences of "Dani California", "All The Small Things" and the song Kim wishes he could have debuted at #1 on his chart if only he had the room to do it, "Wake Me Up When September Ends", were saving graces. Doing the episode also helped me rediscover Linkin Park's latter day single "New Divide", and recall what made the Backstreet Boys' "Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" (which ranked #2 behind Nine Days) one of the era's best pop songs. I also worked in some shade of Ariana Grande's then-current "7 Rings" by playing another Sound Of Music-sampling song, Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up", as an extra. The original airing of the episode also featured one of my greatest dummy mummy moments of the series - claiming Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" was eligible, without realizing it actually peaked at #8 (the actual #6 peaker Carrie Underwood earned in the decade was her cover of the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You"). The chart and the episode were redone to correct the error.
49. Billboard #7s/#8s of the 2010s First aired: April 26, 2020 #1: Adele - Skyfall
Like 2000s #6s, this episode suffered for similar reasons (despite the fact the episode started with a song featuring vocals from Ozzy Osbourne), though it did show some strengths. It seemed to be a Noah's Ark of 2010s superstars - two from Ariana Grande, two from The Weeknd, two from Kendrick Lamar, and most notably two from Adele, including her 2012 Bond theme "Skyfall", which came out on top in a landslide victory and became the second 007 theme to hit #1 on 20Hitz, following Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" in 70s #2s. The episode was also notable for a lengthy Maroon 5 rant that somehow managed to squeeze in the phrase "down with Moronsey".
48. Billboard #4s of the 2010s First aired: February 15, 2020 #1: Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times
The good: "Feel It Still", Prince earning the miniseries' first two-time top 10 song (he also earned the second in 2010s #7s/#8s), and Harry Styles taking #1 in an unexpectedly close race for #1 against the likes of Walk The Moon, Lady Gaga and himself (with One Direction). The bad: excessive EDM and overplayed to death modern pop staples. The ugly: Imagine Dragons' first ever top 20 ranking.
47. Billboard #5s/#6s of the 2010s First aired: April 26, 2020 #1: Bruno Mars - Treasure
Despite Imagine Dragons and Maroon 5 managing top 10 rankings, this turned out to be one of the better 2010s episodes (though not saying much), largely because of how the episode was constructed. It was not only an effective time capsule of the 2010s in pop music, but also the 2010s in the radio hobby - the episode extensively utilized clips from the Jessica's Top 40 Countdown (the Evil Song of the Week segment on Selena Gomez's "Good For You", multiple Text To Speech Bop segments, the montage of "I had a shit day" rants against Pink's "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"), and also used clips from a Sebastian Prospero song (the Jason Derulo saying "Jason Derulo" montage in "This Is How We Suck"), my old show the Time Travel Top 40 (a rant about grammatical asymmetry in reference to Shawn Mendes' song "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back") and Adam's "Attention, We Play Hits" station ID. Other highlights of the episode: substituting the studio version of Lady Gaga's "You And I" for the MTV Video Music Awards performance as an excuse to air Dave Grohl's excited reaction to Brian May, and Bruno Mars earning his first ever 20Hitz #1 with "Treasure".
46. Billboard #9s of the 1970s First aired: July 6, 2019 #1: Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun
Despite being musically strong, this episode hasn't held up well with me because the intros were uninspired, the top 10 felt weaker to me than previous episodes (even though "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Witchy Woman" ranked very high in my votes), and because of a behind the scenes moment that led to a rule change. After a partial vote influenced the #1 outcome, I decided effective after this episode that partial lists of fewer than 10 songs would be disqualified.
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Post by Unkie on May 31, 2020 21:45:38 GMT -5
45. Billboard #8s of the 1980s First aired: May 4, 2019 #1: Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Overall, I found the music in this episode to be mixed - FM radio evergreens dominated, though there were plenty of outliers to be had (JessieLou's influence clearly showed in "Close My Eyes Forever" and "Hurt So Bad" being among those outliers). Perennial 20Hitz favorite "Separate Ways" by Journey was victorious, with the more popular with the panel than I expected "Rock The Casbah" by the Clash (this show marked its third top 5 appearance!) putting up a close challenge. The mixed nature of the body of eligible songs made it so I wasn't as enthusiastic, with one exception - the outro for "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday, which placed eleventh, in which I used the time to reference an inside joke among my family where the song was called "Horse Named Gary".
44. Billboard #5s of the 1970s First aired: November 3, 2018 #1: Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
While this episode proved to be one of the most popular among the panelists - the #20 song from Bread had 36 points! - it has not held up with me as much as some of the other 70s shows. I also feel like the production work on this could have been much, much better as there are points where you can notice it was very, very obviously edited. The show did have a handful of good one liners, such as referencing JessieLou's dislike of Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" ("Get the mute button ready!) and mocking Dionne Warwick's "Warwicke" era and the Uncle Kracker remake of "Drift Away". It also helped that the musical selections, though not perfect, weren't 2010s pop songs. There was clear consensus on Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind", coming 25 points ahead of the #2 song from Toto to become the Canadian singer's first 20Hitz #1 after the song twice ranked but never went higher than #18.
43. Billboard #1s of the 2010s First aired: January 18, 2020 #1: Adele - Hello
Like most decades, the #1s episode was among the best in the 2010s episodes of the Billboard miniseries because of how the pool of eligible contenders included a number of decade highlights. As explained in the intro for the show, the votes - which included a whopping zero "mumble rap" songs (only three rap songs were played during the broadcast, all three among the better rap songs to reach #1: "Can't Hold Us" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at #20, "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem at #19, and the first countdown extra "HUMBLE." by Kendrick Lamar) - represented the panelists' preference for quality and timelessness. And that preference shined in the show's upper half, particularly in Adele's dominance as all four of her #1s ranked top 10 ("Set Fire To The Rain" at #8, "Someone Like You" at #4, "Rolling In The Deep" at #2 and "Hello" at #1) and the high ranks for panel favorites "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson (#5) and "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (#3). The episode had a number of strong one liners: "pyro-tit-nics" to refer to the visuals in Katy Perry's "Firework" video, describing Pitbull's "Give Me Everything" as a "loving Lindsay Lohan tribute" (she didn't like the line "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan" very much), impersonating DJ Khaled, saying Sam's votes gave us a bathroom break extra contender in a little known remix of "Old Town Road" featuring Adam Faith (it was a reference to a similar joke in a Making Kanye Mad episode about 20Hitz) and a backstory on the similarities between Katy Perry's "Roar" and Sara Bareilles' "Brave".
42. Billboard #2s of the 2010s First aired: January 18, 2020 #1: Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky
Say what you will about the 2010s, but this was a pretty decent episode (well, except for the fact Maroon 5 had two songs here). There was a Casey Kasem-style backstory on "Take Me To Fungusland", Jess's nickname for Hozier's "Take Me To Church". "Gangnam Style" was the bathroom break extra. "Get Lucky" was #1 - by far. And we also had the first two appearances for Twenty One Pilots (#19 and #20, but still enough to make Jess hurl in rage.) Like Adele in the #1s show, who had four songs in the top 10, Taylor Swift dominated here with three in the top 10 (five of her songs were eligible).
41. Billboard #4s of the 1960s First aired: August 5, 2019 #1: The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin'
Despite an uneven start to the show - one in which I made a joke about the "until next time" closers - there was a lot to like about the top 10, especially the top 2 from the Mamas and the Papas and Ben E. King. There were also some notable jokes at the expense of Sebastian, Sam, Kim, and "Family Guy".
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Post by Unkie on May 31, 2020 22:48:11 GMT -5
40. Billboard #9s of the 2000s First aired: July 13, 2019 #1: Kelly Clarkson - Miss Independent
An opener can clearly set the tone... and when you open with Rihfund (her obscure 2009 single "Russian Roulette" was #20), you know a rough ride is in the cards. Dated pop and post grunge dominated the survey, and in the case of the bathroom break extra from Uncle Kracker's "Drift Away", songs I will pay money to make people not play. Despite the misfires in this episode, what made up for it were the outliers, two of which came in the same set - My Chemical Romance ranking #13 (a prophetic placement for an emo band) with "Welcome To The Black Parade" and "Weird Al" Yankovic just barely missing the top 10 with "White And Nerdy".
This episode was one of the few episodes in the miniseries (though it would be a predictor of the 2010s episodes) where the top 5 was not dominated by rock music. The highest ranked rock song was "Drive" by Incubus, which ranked #5. The rest consisted of three pop songs and an R&B song: Kelly Clarkson's "Miss Independent" (#1, her first and only of the miniseries, helped in part by Sebastian failing to vote), Britney Spears' "Oops!...I Did It Again" (#2) and "Toxic" (#3), and the late Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" (#4).
39. Billboard #8s of the 2000s First aired: May 25, 2019 #1: Pink - Just Like A Pill
Right from the start, the show was pretty shady. I opened the show by saying R&B singer Bobby Valentino missed the list by replaying the legendary doctored clip of DJ Jason created by Jess that made him appear to say, "Bobby Valentino sounded pretty bad." Like the intro for Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" in 2000s #6s, I used the outro for Debelah Morgan's "Dance With Me" - a reinterpretation of "Hernando's Hideaway" from the musical The Pajama Game - to trash Ariana Grande's "7 Rings" and its interpolation of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound Of Music. Immediately after I commented that Madonna's "Die Another Day" got a bigger ranking than "Medallion" (the nickname for her 2019 single "Medellin") will ever get. When I played Nivea's "Don't Mess With My Man" as the fourth countdown extra, I remarked just how creative it was that the song was similarly titled to her previous hit, "Don't Mess With The Radio". And it could be said I shaded the M4B regulars by playing the hated "Gossip Folks" as the bathroom break extra.
However, the top 2 were strong favorites of the M4B regulars - Pink's "Just Like A Pill", which received top 10 support from every single voter on the survey, came in at #1, beating Kelly Clarkson's "Never Again" by only two points.
After Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" placed #15, I chose to jokingly acknowledge the error in the original airing of the Billboard 2000s #6s show (which would be re-recorded and corrected) by referencing the error in the HQ Trivia show where "raspberry" was identified as a correct answer to a question when it should have been "cranberry", which required the game to restart from the beginning, by saying I would restart #6s from the very beginning before finishing the #8s show (followed by me impersonating host Matt Richards by singing "Gotta be fair! No time for fantasy football!" in his voice).
38. Billboard #5s of the 1960s First aired: August 5, 2019 #1: The Mamas and the Papas - Creeque Alley
This was the most anticipated episode of the 60s miniseries because of an intense chart battle between two beloved M4B favorites - "Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane and "Creeque Alley" by the Mamas and the Papas, the latter being memed out for years over a lyric about a coffee drinking Sebastian, ironically loathed by M4B's own coffee drinking Sebastian. Like #4s, the first half of the show was uneven but it improved later on, especially during the top 5, which started out with Cream, the Beach Boys and the Beatles.
"Somebody To Love" led in the early voting, but John's #1 rank for "Creeque Alley" in his votes pushed it ahead. The last vote to come in after that was Sebastian's, and all he had to do to prevent "Creeque Alley" from topping was rank "Somebody To Love" #18 or higher. His failure to do so (he ranked it #20) meant we got to sing along to "In a coffee house Sebastian sat!" at #1.
37. Billboard #6s of the 1970s First aired: January 19, 2019 #1: Elton John - Rocket Man
I enjoyed this episode more for the gags than the music, mostly because classic hits radio burned me out of many of the songs on the survey. But the top 5 was pretty much iconic - especially "Dream On" at #3 and "Rocket Man" at #1. Moments that made the show worth listening to include jokingly claiming "Clap For The Wolfman" was Jess's #1 and cheerfully exclaiming that "Feelings" by Morris Albert and "Midnight At The Oasis" by Maria Muldaur didn't make the list.
36. Billboard #6s of the 1980s First aired: January 19, 2019 #1: Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
From October 2018 to March 2019, Phil Collins was on an incredible 20Hitz hot streak, helped by Adam's influence on the panel. It started in the 20Hitz #2s episode done to celebrate my two-year anniversary of hosting the show, in which "Easy Lover" - thrice denied #1 on 20Hitz up to that point - finally reached the summit. Two months later in the songs with subtitles episode, "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" came out on top. In the 2018 Book Club Alumni episode, the Genesis deep cut "Just A Job To Do" infamously blocked the song JessieLou felt was the highlight of the year's discoveries, Audioslave's "I Am The Highway", from reaching #1. And Phil got one more chart topper in after that two months later, with "I Don't Care Anymore" in the "Number Furty Nine" episode spotlighting #39-peakers on Billboard's Hot 100. But in this episode, Phil's 20Hitz hot streak was shockingly interrupted. The Genesis hit "That's All" was a frontrunner in this episode because of Phil's track record - yet, "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman, helped by strong votes from the likes of Jessica, put up a strong enough fight that it came in points ahead of the Genesis song. Chapman's victory - also one of the rare moments where an artist's first 20Hitz appearance is a #1 ranking - became one of the show's most memorable upsets. (Chapman also is one of three 20Hitz one-episode wonders to reach #1; she, along with Lara Fabian and Heart Attack Man, never ranked on 20Hitz before or after their #1 appearance.)
This was one of the 80s episodes with some of the biggest outliers, with a handful songs that don't get strong FM radio play today winning support - admittedly, this episode was the first time I had heard "Late In The Evening" by Paul Simon in several years. I was also thrilled to see Foreigner's criminally underrated "Say You Will" sneak into the top 10. Of course, the FM favorites made it in here too (although calling Poison a favorite is a large stretch, but whatever floats your boat).
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Post by Unkie on Jun 1, 2020 19:55:28 GMT -5
35. Billboard #2s of the 1990s First aired: February 10, 2018 #1: Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back To Me Now
The 90s #2s show was one of the best examples of how I described the 90s Billboard episodes as like listening to the radio during me and Jess's childhood, more specifically, songs played on Long Island radio stations WALK and WBLI. Most of the songs on the show were songs one or both stations played frequently in the late 90s - especially the songs by Sixpence None the Richer, Jewel, Backstreet Boys, Sheryl Crow, LeAnn Rimes and Donna Lewis.
While the intros for the show were recorded in a low voice (I was staying at my parents' house and needed to keep my voice down for them) there were still some good one liners in the bunch, including a jab at Alanis Morissette for a soundalike, Meredith Brooks, outpeaking her - though Alanis had the last laugh, the #13 rank for "Bitch" was beaten by all three eligible Alanis songs in later episodes (#4 in 90s #4s, #6 and #7 in 90s #6s). There was also my shock that people actually remember Ricky Martin's now-obscure "Livin' La Vida Loca" followup "She's All I Ever Had", which ranked at #10. The show was defined by a neck and neck battle for #1 between Celine Dion and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was decided in Celine's favor thanks to John's vote - despite, surprisingly, Celine not earning his #1 (his went to Donna Lewis, who finished fourth). The victory made Celine the series' second four timers club entrant just one week after the Eagles got the first.
34. Billboard #1s of the 2000s First aired: October 7, 2017 #1: Matchbox Twenty - Bent
Points off for many songs in the ranking either not aging well for me, or being overexposed to death to the point that listening to them makes me think not so nice thoughts ("No One", in particular). But in a pattern that would be followed by many of the 60s episodes, the lower portion of the show would feel inferior to me after getting to the top 10, especially with Matchbox Twenty taking #1 with "Bent". And this top 10 gave us one of my personal favorite one-liners, on #2 song "It's Gonna Be Me" by 'N Sync - in a reference to the now-ubiquitous "It's gonna be May" meme, I described it as "the unofficial theme song of April 30."
33. Billboard #6s of the 1960s First aired: August 5, 2019 #1: Cream - White Room
Despite this show's musical diversity through the songs in the top 20 and the extras spotlighted, it will probably be best known for the close race for #1 between Cream's "White Room" and the Guess Who's "These Eyes", both marking the best ranks to date for each band (Cream won). This episode also was where most M4B members were first introduced to one of Sebastian's favorites, Paul Petersen (often confused with another Sebastian favorite with a similar name, Prince collaborator Paul Peterson) - Petersen's only top 10 single, "My Dad", was the show's first countdown extra.
32. Billboard #5s of the 2000s First aired: December 1, 2018 #1: Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone
This show was responsible for some of my most savage takedowns of certain artists on the ranking - I twice insulted Macy Gray, I referred to Staind as "Alice In Chains for people who don't like Alice In Chains", and called 2009-present era Train "ukulele-playing basic boys" (a joke I would repeat when "Drive By" appeared in 2010s #9s/#10s). But most memorably, when Maroon 5 placed two songs in the top 10, I used the opportunity to sarcastically overpraise them (the joke being that I hate their music with every fiber of my being). Chartwise, the show was best known for Matchbox Twenty becoming the first artist to have two songs in the top 3 of the Billboard miniseries, taking #3 with "Unwell" and #1 with "If You're Gone". Britney Spears in 2000s #9s, Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1960s #2s, Adele in 2010s #1s and Harry Styles in 2010s #4s (which included one solo and one with One Direction) would follow suit.
31. Billboard #3s of the 2000s First aired: July 7, 2018 #1: Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
I had a lot of fun recording the 2000s #3s episode, mainly because of two moments that caused me to break out in relentless fits of laughter (I should have the bloopers on my hard drive somewhere). The first was the outro to Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music" at #19, in which I called her "Rihfund" with a straight face. The other involved an inside joke from the week of the episode's airing related to a question on HQ Trivia in which Jess answered "owl" to a question about an extinct animal, not realizing in the moment that owls are not extinct - in the outro for O Town's "All Or Nothing", which was #10, I said of the boy band's short lived fame, "They're extinct, because the O stands for owl." (Coincidentally, Jess actually used the phrase "Owl Town" in the days of her heavy metal show The Awesome Show as a joking nickname for Owl City.) I also introduced two of the countdown extras with a bit of snark, describing Kanye West's "Love Lockdown" as a song that "basically invented Drake" (p.s. Drake sucks) and quoting the director of the video of Sisqo's "Thong Song" as saying the song is "about asses". The overall episode was not my favorite musically, but my favorite song by far on the survey, Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River", came in all the way at #1.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 1, 2020 21:01:52 GMT -5
30. Billboard #7s of the 2000s First aired: March 30, 2019 #1: Aerosmith - Jaded
An overall strong episode, with a number of pop (Kylie, Madonna and Kelly in the top 3), rock and alternative (Evanescence, The Fray, Shinedown, Panic! At The Disco, and yes, even Nickelback - with what was their first 20Hitz rank since November 2016), rap (Nelly, Missy Elliott and Kanye West all ranked between #9 and #13) and country highlights (the Dixie Chicks' "Landslide" cover was #20). But the biggest musical moment of the episode by far was "Jaded" by Aerosmith reaching #1, which did so in a decisive victory helped in part by three panelists (including myself) ranking it #1.
This episode was notable for uncharacteristically X-rated humor - introducing "Landslide" with an explainer on Harry Styles inducting Stevie Nicks in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that included a bleeped out "f*** me Harry", and introducing the third countdown extra, "Bust It Baby (Part 2)" by Plies and Ne-Yo, by saying it "turned Janet Jackson's 'Come Back To Me' into a song about squirting". My play of the latter song was also notable for introducing the concept of the "bathroom break extra", where the extra between #11 and #10 would be the song either relentlessly disliked by at least one of the panelists or offbeat compared to the rest of the show's voted songs. The feature got its name following a comment I made in the Chris Cornell artist spotlight episode, which aired exactly a week later, by saying my play of "Bust It Baby" sent listeners rushing to the bathroom. (The comment was made in the leadup to my play of the series' second bathroom break extra designee, Audioslave's "Cochise", which Bryan strongly dislikes.)
29. Billboard #2s of the 1980s First aired: January 13, 2018 #1: Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
It's hard to dislike an episode that contains references to some of M4B's most enduring inside jokes, like "No Tori Us", "Juice, go to your room" and "WF*GLY". It helped that many of the eligible songs were well worth listening to. The episode perpetuated Def Leppard's winning status on 20Hitz as "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was #1, following their victory with "Love Bites" in 80s #1s, and also marked the second of three infamous near misses for the Phil Collins and Philip Bailey duet "Easy Lover", coming after its loss in a duets and collaborations episode to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty's "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (which would top the next 80s show) and two weeks before it came second to "In The Air Tonight" in a Phil Collins artist spotlight. "Easy Lover" broke its curse nine months later, fittingly, in an episode spotlighting 20Hitz #2s that failed to reach #1.
The episode's intro (with a fakeout "cowpunk and bedroom pop" theme being teased) and "Until next time..." greeting featured the song "Turtleneck" by the little known DIY singer-songwriter Richie Woods. The gag made fun of an episode of my old show the Time Travel Top 40 that aired two days earlier, in which I counted down Rolling Stone's top albums of 2017 and switched out the song "Turtleneck" from the National's album Sleep Well Beast with the Richie Woods song of the same name from his 2015 album Wow Cool. The song was relentlessly panned by the audience during the show's airing, leading me to skip to the next song after only going through a minute of it.
The outro, unfortunately, jinxed another miniseries, the In Memory Of miniseries paying tribute to artists who died in a given time period. While the first one was done in memory of Chris Cornell, the second and third unexpectedly coincided with the deaths of Chester Bennington and Tom Petty. I said, "Hopefully this time it doesn't time with a high profile musical death ... I'd like to do this miniseries without people dying on us, even though this miniseries is about dying." Two days later, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries (a band that would later top their eligible Billboard episode) died unexpectedly at age 46. The episode that followed to this day remains my least favorite 20Hitz broadcast...which says a lot because the Beatles were #1.
28. Billboard #3s of the 1960s First aired: August 4, 2019 #1: The Beach Boys - Surfin' U.S.A.
Like the 60s #1s show, this episode had wall to wall classics. (But it also had "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!") Despite one glaring issue with the ranking - "Fortunate Son", one of my personal favorite CCR songs, missing the top 10 - the overall show was chock full of the best the decade could offer. Most notably, the Beach Boys managed their first 20Hitz #1 despite a split vote between three of their songs. It also gave us the highest 20Hitz rank to date for the Rolling Stones, with "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
27. Billboard #6s of the 1990s First aired: February 9, 2019 #1: Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
The theme of the musical selections was pretty well established early in - a mix of R&B and hip hop (the first set and most of the extras), hot AC mainstays of the era (Jewel, Alanis Morissette, and the first ever 20Hitz appearance for Hootie & the Blowfish) and easy listening favorites (Michael W. Smith, Sophie "Basic" Hawkins). So when the show reached the top 2 and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on (upset at #1 by "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba) it was one of the most jarring outliers of any 20Hitz episode. (Perhaps just as jarring: the song preceding it, the final countdown extra, was Adam's Michael Bolton/Lil' Jon mashup "The Mean Song", which was swapped out in place of Bolton's #6-peaking "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" (which was sampled in Adam's mashup with Lil' Jon's "Snap Yo Fingers").
26. Billboard #7s of the 1970s First aired: March 16, 2019 #1: Cat Stevens - Peace Train
While I could take or leave the first two sets of the evening (though the play of the first extra led to one of the best jokes of the show, trolling Oasis's "Shakermaker" prior to the New Seekers' "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing", which "Shakermaker" was accused of ripping off), everything else was on point - from the double dose of Chicago to the triple punch of Paul McCartney-penned songs in the top 5 and Cat Stevens earning his first 20Hitz #1 with "Peace Train". (And let's not forget substituting the Atlanta Rhythm Section's "Imaginary Lover" with the "Stevie Nicks" version.)
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Post by Unkie on Jun 2, 2020 20:49:31 GMT -5
25. Billboard #2s of the 1960s First aired: August 4, 2019 #1: The Beatles - Twist And Shout
Obviously not as strong as the excellent #1s show, but still a solid episode regardless - Stevie Blunder and Elvis ranked twice, there was a triple shot of CCR, Bob Dylan ranked top 5 with "Like A Rolling Stone", and the Beatles took #1 a second time in the miniseries.
24. Billboard #3s of the 1990s First aired: July 7, 2018 #1: Duran Duran - Ordinary World
This was an early indication of me flexing the Casey muscles - there were backstories on the origin of the hook in "Whatta Man" (as told by Jason), why "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" is considered a 90s song in North America but an 80s song in Europe, and why JessieLou thinks Billy Joel's "The River Of Dreams" is mediocre. On top of that, the episode's music was solid, especially the top 3. Most notably, Duran Duran came in at #1 (beating consistent 20Hitz favorite "November Rain") with support from every single person who voted that week.
23. Billboard #1s of the 1970s First aired: June 13, 2017 #1: Eagles - Hotel California
The very first episode of the miniseries, this wasn't the most memorable intro-wise - the original show wasn't even backed up, which prompted me to re-record it in December 2019 just so I could air it as part of a Billboard episode marathon - but its strength was in the musical selections. It established "Hotel California" as a 20Hitz force to be reckoned with spending its second of five shows at #1, as well as Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, as "Dreams" came in at #2 in this episode and its following three entries would all reach #1.
22. Billboard #4s of the 1990s First aired: September 16, 2018 #1: Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
An ultra competitive episode - Disney film classics from Vanessa Williams and Elton John came up short, typical top vote getters Spice Girls, Phil Collins and Celine Dion couldn't hit the top 10, and one of the ultimate meme songs, "All Star" by Smash Mouth, couldn't crack the top 5. But it's that level of unpredictability that has always made the Billboard episodes so interesting - especially as I hyped up the possibility that "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette could be the show's second song to top two consecutive 20Hitz episodes after topping the JessieLou 350 show a week earlier, only to reveal it topped out at #4. The top 2 songs - "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind and "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. - were notable for being the exact top 2 for three panelists: Bryan, Kim and yours truly. (Oh, and let's not forget I led into "Mouth" by Merril Bainbridge with the Mumble Rap The Classics rendition that was the prototype for the popular sketch from John's broadcasts.)
21. Billboard #4s of the 1980s First aired: August 4, 2018 #1: Michael Jackson - Thriller
This was a great episode. The Billboard marathon reinforced it for me when I was finding myself enjoying most if not all of what was played - and the extras were on point as well. Highlights included a Phil Collins double dose (including the song that gave us the Cowboy Phil nickname at #6), Journey's underrated "Who's Crying Now", Foreigner's "Urgent", and a top 3 that included two JessieLou Queens and the first ever 20Hitz #1 for Michael Jackson.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 4, 2020 22:08:57 GMT -5
20. Billboard #2s of the 1970s First aired: December 2, 2017 #1: Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better
While the 80s episodes tended to be the most fiercely competitive, many of the first few positions in the 70s could give it a run for the money, with this one serving as one of the best examples because of the number of classics in contention. There was Pipaful representation with plaintive, pleading Susan Jacks at #9 and Gordon Lightfoot's six minute (not two day, looking at you Jess) story song epic "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald", soul from Marvin Gaye, soft rock from that duo who's not talking about the linen, two Bond themes in the top 5 and three Elton John songs in the top 20 (one from each of the latter two categories making up the top 2). Among the strongest pools for the 70s episode, it was also notable for an early crashout for the Eagles, the defending champions at the time ("Lyin' Eyes" was #15, down 14 spots from their prior appearance with "Hotel California").
19. Billboard #7s of the 1990s First aired: March 30, 2019 #1: Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home
Yeah, when the pool for voting includes Tom Petty and Pearl Jam, of course it's a frontrunner in my book. This show not only was very musically varied, with plenty of rock songs like Petty's "Free Fallin'" (#4) and Pearl Jam's "I Got Id" (#13), but R&B was represented with Faith Evans and Mary J. Blige on the survey, country with Faith Hill and Shania Twain, and plenty of pop rock to go around, most notably the "battle of the Shawns" in the top 2, with Shawn Mullins' 1998 hot AC staple "Lullaby" at #2 and Shawn Colvin's Grammy-dominating megahit from 1997 "Sunny Came Home" at #1 - one of only four times John's #1 was also #1 on the overall survey in the Billboard miniseries.
18. Billboard #1s of the 1990s First aired: September 2, 2017 #1: Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
This was the first Billboard episode to truly feel like an event - it aired during a "90s week" on M4BCC Radio, which included replays of the entirety of the 90s Yearbook episodes of The Book Club in the leadup to the 1999 episode airing that Sunday (a tactic I'd utilize with the Billboard miniseries two years later). And the previous week's episode's #1 further built up anticipation for a potential series first - whether Aerosmith, whose "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" came in at #1 in the John's House of Randomness episode the week earlier, would repeat at #1 the following week. The show went through a number of major 90s pop and hip hop songs beloved by the panel, with surprise crashouts along the way (Whitney topped out at #19, Mariah at #17, and even perennial favorite "Baby One More Time" underperformed, coming in at #8). But it came down to perpetual 20Hitz favorites for the top 2, with the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" at #2 (it was ranked the greatest hit of the series' run in an April retrospective special) and Aerosmith pulling the first and to date only victory in back to back weeks. Later attempts in the miniseries by "Miracles" by Jefferson Starship and "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette to repeat Aerosmith's feat were thwarted.
The episode also had a joking intro in which I claimed I was not really interested in 90s music and abruptly changed the theme to a Maroon 5 artist spotlight, playing "Love Somebody" for a few seconds before stopping the song and asking the audience if they really believed I would do that.
During the show's intro, I acknowledged one of the failings of the Billboard Hot 100's historical accuracy in the 90s - how Billboard did not count songs without physical single releases into the chart's methodology, leading many significant pop radio hits to either not rank or chart so belatedly it deprived them of a high position. This led to two 2019 episodes that gave some of those ignored songs their due - a hot AC radio #1s show and a pop radio top 10s of the 90s show. ("Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia, "One Headlight" by the Wallflowers and "Don't Speak" by No Doubt, three of the most glaring Hot 100 snubs, were top 5 in both episodes.)
17. Billboard #9s of the 1990s First aired: July 13, 2019 #1: Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Despite one glaring offense - "Epic" by Faith No More underperforming because of Kim forgetting to vote for it - this was an overall solid episode and by far the best of the #9 shows. Highlights included 2Pac's first non-"California Love" appearance with "Dear Mama", Queensryche's first ever appearance with "Silent Lucidity", two Gin Blossoms classics in the top 10 ... the entire top 5, actually. Oh yes, and "Iris" was #1.
16. Billboard #5s of the 1980s First aired: November 4, 2018 #1: Lou Gramm - Midnight Blue
"THE MEMES HAVE WON! THE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEMES! HAVE WONNNNNN!" Those words opened the intro to the episode's #1, "Midnight Blue" by Lou Gramm, which playing at midnight became a station tradition after it became common practice on DJ Adam's broadcasts. (Coincidentally, the episode's first airing allowed for "Midnight Blue" to be played at midnight.) "Midnight Blue" defeated Bryan Adams' "Summer Of '69" by only a single point, and kicked off a trend that would be seen in other Billboard #5 episodes where memed out songs would come out at #1 ("Save Tonight" by Eagle-Eye Cherry in 90s, and "Creeque Alley" by the Mamas and the Papas in 60s, also winning by just one point). But this episode proved to have other musical highlights as well (Springsteen, MJ and Quiet Riot kicked off the top 10, no less) and other worthwhile moments like introducing "Take It On The Run" by REO Speedwagon with the M4B Radio "Who Needs" ID featuring Pitbull's "Messin' Around", and a one-liner on Madonna's "Dress You Up" being named on Tipper Gore's Filthy 15 list.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 6, 2020 10:40:56 GMT -5
15. Billboard #2s of the 2000s First aired: February 24, 2018 #1: Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
If you forget "Tipsy", "Ignition", and Fergie's very, very, very bad rendition of the National Anthem (in the style of Sebastian Prospero) were played, this was a flawless episode. It showcased some of the decade's strongest pop, rock and hip hop music. The presences of "Survivor" and "Bad Romance" had me nostalgic for the days when A-list pop musicians made comeback singles that actually sounded like comeback singles. Playing T.I.'s "Dead And Gone" as the final extra gave me an excuse to reference John's "T.I. (Currently In Jail)" MP3 tag from back in the day. And while the show proved to be a competitive one because of the strong pool of contenders, including many M4B favorites, one stood out among the pack - Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", with its Billboard episode marking its second 20Hitz victory of four to date.
14. Billboard #1s of the 1980s First aired: July 15, 2017 #1: Def Leppard - Love Bites
The #1s of the 1980s show established some of the hallmarks of the miniseries, especially in the 80s episodes - ultra competitive fields (you know it's a tough battle when the song behind the meme "Workin' In A Cocktail Bar" comes in at the very bottom), core JessieLou artist dominance (Grace and Heart ranked twice, including once each in the top 5), and the staples of both classic rock and classic hits radio scoring big (who cares that we're going to hear "Every Breath You Take" forever, of course it was going to rank). The episode was one of the earliest to establish Def Leppard, a huge favorite of both Kim and Jess, as one of 20Hitz' biggest core artists - "Love Bites" came on top just two weeks after another song from the band, the Pyromania deep cut "Stagefright", ranked #1 in the M4BCC Song Contest episode.
13. Billboard #8s of the 1960s First aired: September 7, 2019 #1: Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
This episode had a lot going for it - apart from the good mix of consistently strong music and savagery (see my reactions to the extras from Hayley Mills and Boyce & Hart), the entire top 5 was in strong contention for #1. While Shirley Bassey, the Beach Boys, the Beatles and Aretha Franklin all placed strong, the episode will be remembered for the fact Grace Slick via Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" finally got a #1 in the Billboard episodes after three previous close defeats.
12. Billboard #7s of the 1980s First aired: March 16, 2019 #1: Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive
#7s was one of my personal favorites of the 80s shows because of just how solid the eligible songs were. This was arguably the most challenging 80s episode for me to vote in because most if not all of the songs that ranked in the top 7 could have been easily #1 or #2 for me in any other episode. I ultimately gave my #1 vote to "Welcome To The Jungle" (it ranked sixth), but the songs that beat it were also on point.
The episode marked the first 20Hitz victory for Bon Jovi, with "Wanted Dead Or Alive" topping one week after they lost #1 in the Number Furty Nine episode with "Runaway". Closely following it were a who's who of 80s rock and alternative classics: "Poison" by Alice Cooper at #2, "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS at #3, "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys at #4, and "You May Be Right" by Billy Joel at #5, with the latter famously being guest introduced by Sebastian Prospero via the intro of "70's Whore", which used the glass breaking effect at the start of "You May Be Right" between JessieLou's spoken intro and a hype shout set to a fungused up "Muskrat Love".
The episode proved so competitive that two M4B core artists that usually did well on the Billboard episodes missed the top 10 - Phil Collins topped out at #13 with "Take Me Home" and Heart came ahead at #12 with "Who Will You Run To".
11. Billboard #10s of the 1970s First aired: November 9, 2019 #1: Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
The last of the 1970s episodes turned out to be one of the most competitive, considering the top 10 consisted almost entirely of classics. While Fleetwood Mac took #1 in a landslide victory with "Go Your Own Way", giving all four of Rumours' singles top 2 rankings in the miniseries, they faced a who's who of challengers in "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney, "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos, and "Evil Woman" by Electric Light Orchestra, the latter exceeding expectations by ranking #3.
The show had two personal highlights for me, both of which came back to back. First, declaring the Guess Who's "Share The Land" as the bathroom break extra solely because of Kim's facepalm-worthy ballot where all the artist and song names were changed to include his nickname in some form, in this case, changing the artist name to "Guess Who? It's Pipa!" And second, dedicating an entire set to play the full 14-minute version of Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive version of "Do You Feel Like We Do", which ranked #10. Also worth noting: the Captain and Tennille's "You Never Done It Like That", the prototype song for JessieLou Reads The Hits on the Jessica's Top 40 Countdown show, ranked #18; naturally, I played Jess's dramatic reading before the song, in all its "to be specific" glory.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 10, 2020 13:28:21 GMT -5
10. Billboard #8s of the 1970s First aired: May 4, 2019 #1: Elton John - Your Song
This episode would be best known for a moment that actually no longer exists in the stream. At the time this episode aired, the Makeavoice server hosting M4B Radio was down for maintenance, and since I wasn't sure when (or if) the server would go back up, I decided the show must go on and aired 20Hitz via a livestream on Hearthis.at, the cloud host for the station's archived shows. But what I didn't know when I launched the livestream was that the show wasn't broadcasting the audio from my laptop's speakers - it was broadcasting via the built in mic. As a result, Jess and I were caught on a hot mic during the #10 song "Jet Airliner" by the Steve Miller Band, when Jess asked me, "Is 'Count On Me' #1 yet?" (Of course, she would find out the Jefferson Starship hit was the next song, at #9.) When I heard the banter go live, I quickly fixed the settings to broadcast using the speakers and not the mic, and the unscripted moment was not included in the file I uploaded. But listeners caught the improvised banter, and "Is 'Count On Me' #1 yet?" has since become an enduring inside joke - to the point that I had those words end the 60s #8s show that aired four months later, the final episode in the miniseries Grace Slick was eligible for, in which Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" ranked #1.
The rest of the show was worthwhile too - you know the threshold is high when "Long Train Runnin'", "Magnet and Steel" and "Lotta Love" miss the top 10 - but in perhaps the best known moment still on the stream, I teased the #2 song "Come Sail Away" by Styx by leading into it with Cartman's version from South Park. Elton John earned his second 20Hitz #1 in this episode with "Your Song", which won in a landslide victory. (Just before that was another animated moment - in an intro to the final countdown extra "Year Of The Cat" by Al Stewart, I pointed out the number of instruments in the song and compared it to current top 40 radio, noting the seeming lack of non-computerized musical elements by playing a clip of Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants asking, "Is mayonnaise an instrument?")
9. Billboard #5s of the 1990s First aired: December 1, 2018 #1: Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
The 90s were one of the most eclectic eras of popular music, and the #5s show was one of the best representations of it. There were the new pop stars (Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees) and rock's elder statesmen (Rod Stewart had two songs on the survey). There was blues rock (Bonnie Raitt), Latin pop (Jon Secada), Babyface (Eric Clapton's ageless "Change The World") and Sebastian triggers (Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train"). The countdown extras were even more eclectic - new age (Enigma), ambient house (the KLF) and neo soul (Groove Theory). But the era's great pop rock music was dominant in this show, especially Third Eye Blind, the Goo Goo Dolls, and what was one of the strongest top 3s in series history - interesting given the three songs are by one hit wonders - with all three songs earning 100+ points. Eagle-Eye Cherry led the pack with "Save Tonight", a 90s radio staple that became an M4B classic after Sebastian claimed it was an obscurity. Two other late 90s pop and hot AC staples took the remaining spots, "Breakfast At Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something at #2 and "The Freshmen" by the Verve Pipe at #3.
This episode also accurately predicted the outcome of the 90s #10s episode that would air one year later. Following Sheryl Crow's #11 rank with "Strong Enough", I predicted "If It Makes You Happy" would far surpass it in the #10s show. (It did - it went to #1.)
8. Billboard #4s of the 1970s First aired: August 4, 2018 #1: Chicago - 25 Or 6 To 4
Seriously, how can you lose with a roster like this? The entire top 13 is on point, in a field so competitive that Ike and Tina and Bob Seger missed top 10, Marvin Gaye just barely got in, and Zeppelin, CCR and America (three of the countdown extras) were shut out entirely! One of the miniseries' most musically strong episodes, featuring a number of classic AOR, yacht rock and pop staples of the era, the panel's top 3 - "25 Or 6 To 4" by Chicago at #1 (the band's first), "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple at #2 (matching "Space Truckin'" in the space and planets episode as their best showing) and "Day After Day" by Badfinger (a two-time 20Hitz #2 with another top 3 rank) - helped in part to make this episode must hear listening. And while the Craptain and Tennille did have a presence here with "Shop Around" (which I jokingly referred to as "the unofficial theme song of Sawgrass Mills," an inside joke referring to John playing the song on his phone to annoy Jess into leaving one of the stores in the South Florida outlet mall), fortunately, they didn't come anywhere close to making it in with that horny muskrat song. The show also featured an opening joke parodying Sebastian's association of "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons with Canadian geography.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 10, 2020 22:14:49 GMT -5
7. Billboard #8s of the 1990s First aired: May 25, 2019 #1: The Cranberries - Linger
Aside from this episode's diverse musical selections, with many pop, rock and hip hop classics in the mix, this was one of the rare Billboard episodes where I truly let my personality shine - for starters, I did Casey Kasem-style backstories on singing along to "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle as a child when my parents would watch Cops and a parody of "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" by Paula Cole my mom would sing about Paula Cole not shaving her armpits. The episode contained a reference to the "Is 'Count On Me' #1 yet?" incident from 70s #8s in the introduction of Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans' "Count On Me", played as the first extra. I also coined the phrase "countdizzle extrizzle" in my introduction of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's "Dre Day", the third countdown extra of the night (which awkwardly transitioned into 'N Sync's "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You").
But most notably, this episode featured a shocking upset at #1. In the days leading up to the episode's airing, it was widely expected that "Wonderwall" by Oasis would come out on top and become the show's fifth entrant of the 20Hitz four timers club, but the Cranberries - who a month later would beat them to the club with "Zombie" - upset the drunk brothers with "Linger" coming out on top by only four points. I used the moment to parody an incident that happened during an episode of the mobile game show app HQ Trivia that week, when a round had to be done over because of a mistake where "raspberry" was identified as the correct answer to a question when it should have been "cranberry" ("Never trust a game show that features a graphic of a coffee drinking 8!") As for "Wonderwall", it would join the four timers club three months later when it topped the Oasis artist spotlight.
6 & 5. Billboard #3s of the 1970s / Billboard #3s of the 1980s First aired: April 27, 2018 #1: Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop (70s) / Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (80s)
This was the first 20Hitz double feature episode, an idea I created as a way to get through the Billboard miniseries without limiting myself to a single episode a week, thereby allowing the miniseries to progress quicker but still allow me to alternate the themes. I figured doing Billboard episodes every week until the miniseries ended would be uninteresting. The concept was positively received upon its debut, and I not only kept it for the remainder of the miniseries but also incorporated double features for related artist spotlights (for example, Nirvana/Chris Cornell, Elton John/Billy Joel and Christina Aguilera/Britney Spears). Both episodes were notable for surprise upsets - "Miracles" by Jefferson Starship lost to "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac by only a handful of points, and despite Def Leppard being favored to top again after "Love Bites" in 80s #1s and "Pour Some Sugar On Me" in 80s #2s, "Armageddon It" only ranked #5, with Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty topping the survey with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". But the 80s show was perhaps best known for two more memorable moments: switching out Huey Lewis's "Hip To Be Square" with the Youtube-created meme version "f*ck Bees", and trolling Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me" as the final countdown extra.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 12, 2020 11:42:39 GMT -5
4 & 3. Billboard #10s of the 1980s / Billboard #10s of the 1990s First aired: December 7, 2019 #1: Pat Benatar - Invincible (80s) / Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy (90s)
The second to last episodes of the 1960-2009 Billboard miniseries, and the last ones broadcast in a double feature, were both musically strong, had exciting intros and kept things dramatic when it came to the battles for the top spot. Both episodes were also longer than the typical Billboard episode because I engaged more than I usually do, which meant longer intros than usual. On top of that, I spun the full album versions of long songs like "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring, "Bed Of Roses" by Bon Jovi (both of which were Bryan's #1s in their respective episodes) and "Carnival" by Natalie Merchant. Highlights of the 80s #10s episode included one-liners on Gloria Estefan's artist spotlight episode becoming a meme and "Borderline" by Madonna being by "Fetus Grandma", playing "Pass The Dutchie" as the bathroom break extra, playing John Lennon as the final extra of the 80s episodes, and the battle of JessieLou Queens in the top 2 with Heart at #2 with "What About Love" and Pat Benatar at #1 with one of Jess's favorite songs of all time, "Invincible". 90s #10s built on what made the 90s #8s episode so great - like that episode, it also featured a Casey Kasem-style backstory on my childhood memories (in this case, "The Motown Song" by Rod Stewart being a hit in an alternate universe I imagined where the biggest artist was a cover band of my stuffed animals called the Dancing Party Animals, whose hits included a cover of "The Motown Song"), bizarre transitions (a set of teen pop fare from Joey McIntyre, Five and LFO being immediately followed by rock band Tesla), and a close race for #1 that ended with a tiebreaker and a stunning upset - most listeners expected "One" by U2 would be #1, but when voting closed, it was tied in points with "If It Makes You Happy" by Sheryl Crow. Needing a way to break the tie, I recounted the votes and found that the Sheryl Crow song ranked higher for the majority of the panel, so I awarded it an extra point as a result. Sheryl Crow's unexpected victory came after she never peaked higher than #8 in previous episodes.
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Post by Unkie on Jun 12, 2020 12:23:36 GMT -5
2. Billboard #1s of the 1960sFirst aired: August 4, 2019 #1: The Beatles - Hey Jude It was hard to pick just a few highlights among all the Billboard 20Hitz episodes, but if I had to pick just one episode that made the miniseries feel like an event, the edge goes to the 60s #1s episode. First, this episode - airing two years and two months after I launched the miniseries, timing with the birthday of Hot 100 (and in poor timing for a celebration of the Hot 100, the same week "Old Town Road" broke the #1 longevity record) was widely anticipated among the panelists, especially Sam, Kim and Sebastian. Second, it proved particularly competitive because of the pool of exceptionally strong contenders - all four 60s #1s that ranked in the top 10 of Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time made up this survey's top 4, topped by "Hey Jude" by the Beatles (#8 on the RS list) and followed by "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys (#6 RS), "Respect" by Aretha Franklin (#5 RS) and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones (#2 RS). (Worth mentioning: "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, #1 on the RS list, would place #5 in the following 60s #2s episode). The episode was also notable for the Supremes overcoming split voting to place fifth with "Baby Love", Simon and Garfunkel getting two top 10 placements, the Monkees ranking top 10 for the first time ever, and for some reason, "Dominique" by the Singing Nun clinching a spot on the survey. My reaction to "Hey Jude" being #1 was probably the most noticeably genuinely happy I was on the show about a song reaching #1, introducing it by saying, "the last 51 years of music have been better for this song's existence." (I thought it was the best way for me to put how I felt about the song, that I decided to replay it when "Hey Jude" also topped the Beatles' artist spotlight episode in May 2020.) 1. Billboard #10s of the 2000sFirst aired: December 14, 2019 #1: No Doubt - It's My Life The conclusion of the 1960-2009 miniseries became a full blown celebration in December 2019, with an 11-day marathon on M4BCC Radio of the first 49 shows leading up to the last one in the series. (There were 47 episodes at the time the miniseries started; 80s and 90s #10s premiered the week prior to this show's airing.) This show was memorable for pulling all the punches to send the miniseries out with a bang - a live broadcast, an overwhelming number of tension-building extras (furthering the tension was the fact that any song in the top 5 could have been #1 because of the eight-point gap between #1 and #5), a surprise drop of a new Sebastian Prospero single, a phone call with John as Faith Hill, and a half-hour post-show where panelists' #1s I did not play during their eligible episodes received the spin they should have at the time their episodes aired. The end result was one of the most unpredictable 20Hitz broadcasts in history, the second longest episode that counted down only 20 songs (and the longest in the Billboard miniseries) and affirmation in the most grandiose sense that the Billboard miniseries was one of the - if not the - greatest moments of 20Hitz. The opener of the show, which stretched more than seven minutes long (typical episodes, especially during double features, skipped the pretenses and got right to the countdowns), used its time to both highlight why the miniseries was so important and establish just how surprising it was that the show was on the air in real time (a disastrous live broadcast counting down cover songs in April 2017 left listeners believing I likely would never do a live show again). After the first three songs on the chart was yet another shocker: the first countdown extra wouldn't be a song that made it to #10 - or anywhere for that matter - on the Hot 100! I revealed that I had selected countdown extras to highlight the importance of each of the panelists and their influences on the show's outcomes; Jessica would adopt a similar practice when she began hosting the M4B Radio Top 40 in April 2020. (One extra, Audioslave's "Like A Stone", also represented the coalition of myself, Jess and Kim that helped influence the successes of many of the show's greatest hits). In total, the broadcast had a whopping 15 extras - seven 2000s songs paying tribute to the panelists, five close calls below the top 20, a bonus extra of the Sebastian Prospero classic "Everytime I Hear Cascada, I Think Of Leigy" following Cascada's appearance at #6 with "Everytime We Touch", a surprise drop of a new Prospero song called "MCP", and once the broadcast reached the midnight mark, of course, "Midnight Blue" by Lou Gramm. The chart itself had its shockers, especially with such a close race for #1. The first shock came from "Never Had A Dream Come True" by S Club 7, which came in at (coincidentally) #7 despite strong support from pop-leaning panelists who tipped the song to be a #1 contender. Then "Only Time" by Enya, a two-time 20Hitz #2, only got as high as #5 despite its unlikely feat of being both John and Kim's #1. The Killers exceeded expectations with "Mr. Brightside", which was #4 on the survey and became their best ranking at the time by far. Faith Hill's "There You'll Be" - to date the only song for the country star to rank in the 20Hitz top 10 - came in at #3, a spot higher than its rank in the Diane Warren episode John guest hosted ("Faith Hill", as depicted by John, seemed vindicated upon learning that she placed higher than Carrie Underwood did in the miniseries). Ultimately, the big question of the show was whether Evanescence would finally reach #1 after four #2 rankings from August 2018 to March 2019... and they fell two points short of doing so as "Call Me When You're Sober" marked their fifth #2 placement, just barely losing to No Doubt's "It's My Life".
In an interesting twist of fate, the Evanescence curse was finally broken five months later, when "Bring Me To Life" ranked #1 in the year 2003 episode in a landslide victory. The last countdown extra to miss the top 20 that was played before the top 2 reveal? "It's My Life".
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Jun 12, 2020 19:28:59 GMT -5
The Billboard 20hitz episodes were truly THE hallmark of the series, the gold standard to which it can achieve. The sheer variety of music featured, and memorable moments, have really defined everything 20hitz can be.
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