(Billboard) – John Legend’s “All of Me” rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a third week with “All of Me,” while Michael Jackson rewrites a pair of vaunted Hot 100 records, as “Love Never Felt So Good,” with Justin Timberlake, blasts 22-9. Plus, Coldplay soars into the top 10 with “A Sky Full of Stars” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” flies to No 1 on Streaming Songs and pushes 3-2 on the Hot 100.
“Good” rockets into the top 10, as parent album ‘Xscape’ launches at No 2 on the Billboard 200. The song’s ascent makes history on the Hot 100: with the advance, Jackson becomes the first artist to notch a top 10 Hot 100 hit in each of five decades. Dating to his first top 10, the No 4-peaking “Got to Be There,” in 1971, he’s now reached the top 10 with songs in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and ‘10s. (His breakdown of top 10s in those decades, respectively: four, 17, six, one, one. “Good” is Jackson’s first top 10 since he died in 2009.)
Jackson passes five artists that have tallied Hot 100 top 10s in each of four decades: Barbra Streisand, Cher (both ‘60s-’90s), Aerosmith (‘70s-’00s), Madonna and Whitney Houston (both ‘80s-’10s). (Houston joined the elite club posthumously and, unlike Streisand, Cher, Aerosmith and Madonna, did so by returning to the top 10 with a song that had previously reached the region: her 1992-93 14-week No. 1 “I Will Always Love You” returned and rose to No 3 following her passing in 2012.)
Jackson topples another notable mark: he extends his span of appearing in the Hot 100’s top 10 to a record-breaking 42 weeks, six months and one week. “Got to Be There” began his top 10 history when it lifted 13-9 on the Nov 20, 1971 chart; this week’s chart is dated May 31. He passes Santana, whose top 10 discography spans 33 years and eight months, from 1970’s “Evil Ways” to 2003’s “Why Don’t You & I.” Cher ranks third with a 33-year, one-month, three-week top 10 span (1966-99).
“Good” is Jackson’s 29th Hot 100 top 10, granting him sole possession of the third-most top 10s in the chart’s 55-year history. (The sign, as always, that Jackson and the Hot 100 were meant to be together: both arrived the same month, August 1958. The Hot 100 launched on Aug 4 that year, while Jackson was born 25 days later.) He passes Stevie Wonder (28 top 10s), with whom he’d been tied since Jackson scored his last top 10, the No 10-peaking “You Rock My World,” in 2001. Madonna leads all acts with 38 top 10s, while the Beatles rank second with 34. Following Jackson and Wonder are Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Elton John, each with 27. (Jackson danced to another 10 top 10s with the Jackson 5/Jacksons in 1970-84.)
How does “Good” reach to the Hot 100’s top 10? It gains by 9 per cent to 110,000 downloads sold (despite slipping 6-7 on the Digital Songs chart) in the Nielsen SoundScan tracking week ending on May 18, the same night that the much-buzzed-about virtual Jackson took to the stage on the Billboard Music Awards (for a
performance of fellow ‘Xscape’ track “Slave to the Rhythm”). With the video for “Good” having premiered on May 14, the song re-enters the Streaming Songs chart at No 9 with a 299 per cent surge to 4.6 million US streams, according to Nielsen BDS, good for top Streaming Gainer honours on the Hot 100. Fifty-nine per cent of its streaming points are from Vevo on YouTube views. “Good” debuts on the subscription services-based On Demand Songs chart at No 20 with 1.2 million on-demand streams (up from 2,000 the week before). It concurrently re-enters Radio Songs at No 44, up by 37 per cent to 30 million audience impressions, according to BDS. It had charted at No 38 two weeks ago (with 34 million), aided by promotional play on May 2 by Clear Channel Media and Entertainment-owned stations across multiple formats.
In addition to Jackson’s honours, Timberlake, of course, adds to his rising Hot 100 legacy, as “Good” marks his 16th top 10 (in addition to six as part of ‘N Sync). He also becomes the fourth artist to duet with Jackson on a top 10: Jackson and Paul McCartney reached No 2 in 1983 with “The Girl Is Mine” and spent six weeks on top in 1983-84 with “Say Say Say”; the Siedah Garrett-assisted “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” crowned the Sept 19, 1987, Hot 100; and, Michael and Janet Jackson teamed for the No 5 family affair “Scream” in 1995. (Fun fact, via Billboard 200 chart manager Keith Caulfield: Timberlake is the only artist to have shared Hot 100 artist credit with both Jackson and Madonna, aka, the respective King and Queen of Pop. Madonna’s “4 Minutes,” featuring Timberlake and Timbaland, hit No 3 in 2008.)
A third star male artist adds acclaim with the jump of “Good”: Jackson co-wrote the song with Paul Anka, who scored 10 Hot 100 top 10s as an artist in 1959-76. Two of his songs hit No 1: “Lonely Boy” (1959) and “(You’re) Having My Baby” (1974). The pair wrote “Good” in 1983 (and Johnny Mathis released a version in 1984).
Jackson and Timberlake (and writer Anka) aren’t the only acts reaching the Hot 100’s top 10 this week: Coldplay’s’ EDM-infused “A Sky Full of Stars,” co-written and -produced by Avicii, vaults 43-10, marking the band’s third top 10. “Speed of Sound” reached No 8 in 2005 and “Viva La Vida” led the June 28, 2008, chart. Shooting “Stars” up the Hot 100? Sales; the song actually drops off Digital Songs (from No 9), but its slide is owed to iTunes’ customers who opted to “complete” their purchase of Coldplay’s new album, ‘Ghost Stories’, by upgrading their earlier purchases of “Stars” to a full album; the set will debut on next week’s Billboard 200. Effectively, consumers who completed the album were returning the song, thus translating to its sales chart absence. For the purposes of the Hot 100, however, aggregate sales contribute to the song’s overall point total.
“Stars” charges 6-1 to become Coldplay’s first leader on Hot Rock Songs.
Back at the top of the Hot 100, Legend’s “All of Me” logs a third week at No 1, leading Radio Songs for a fourth week (176 million audience impressions, down 5 per cent). It rebounds 4-3 on Digital Songs, where it peaked for eight weeks at No 2, with a 10 per cent gain to 158,000 downloads sold; Legend performed the song on the Billboard Music Awards, which likely aided its gain (although, since the SoundScan tracking week ended the same night, the show could affect next week’s sales totals more). “All” holds at No 2 on On-Demand Songs
(2.9 million, up 2 per cent), which it ruled for four weeks, and slips 3-4 on Streaming Songs (7.4 million, up 1 per cent).
“All” leads the sales/airplay/streaming-based Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for a third week.
As “All” maintains its Hot 100 command, rap newcomer Iggy Azalea pushes 3-2 with “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), which takes over atop Streaming Songs (2-1; 8.4 million, up 14 per cent) and dominates On-Demand Songs for a third week (3.4 million, up 4 per cent). It keeps at its No 2 peak on Digital Songs (234,000, up 8 per cent) and reaches the Radio Songs top 10 (11-7; 85 million, up 29 per cent). Azalea performed the song on the Billboard Music Awards.
With “All” up by 1 per cent in overall Hot 100 points and “Fancy” up by 12 percent, the former sports 4 per cent more chart points to hold on to the Hot 100’s top spot. (Last week, “All” won by a mere .01 per cent over Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”; keep reading to see where the latter song ranks this week.)
Azalea likewise rises a rung as the featured artist on Ariana Grande’s “Problem,” which rebounds 4-3 on the Hot 100, returning to its highpoint first set upon its debut two weeks ago. The track, another performed on the BBMAs, tops Digital Songs for a third week (247,000, up 5 per cent); climbs 4-2 on Streaming Songs (7.5 million, up 15 per cent); and rockets 30-16 on Radio Songs (56 million, up 38 per cent), granting it the Hot 100’s top Airplay Gainer award.
Williams’ “Happy” drops 2-4 on the Hot 100 (and 1-2 on Streaming Songs after four weeks at No 1), while DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What” revisits its highest Hot 100 rank (6-5). “Turn” tops Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for an eighth week.
Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10 (above Jackson, Timberlake and Coldplay), Katy Perry’s former four-week No. 1 “Dark Horse,” featuring Juicy J, descends 5-6; Jason Derulo’s No 3-peaking “Talk Dirty,” featuring 2 Chainz, holds at No 7; and Timberlake’s own “Not a Bad Thing” maintains its No 8 peak rank, fueled by advances on Radio Songs (4-3; 121 million, up 4 per cent) and Streaming Songs (21-21; 2.7 million, up 11 per cent). It’s all good for Timberlake, as, with “Good” and “Bad” in the top 10 simultaneously, he boasts two titles in the tier for a lucky 13th time; he last doubled up on the Aug 3, 2013, Hot 100 as a guest on Jay Z’s “Holy Grail” and with his own “Mirrors.”
With two new Hot 100 top 10s, two songs depart the top bracket: Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun” (10-12, despite a 7 per cent gain in chart points), and Idina Menzel’s No 5 “Frozen” soundtrack hit “Let It Go” (9-13).
