Saturday, August 25, 2001

Linkin Park “In the End” charted

In the End

Linkin Park

Writer(s): Brad Delson, Chester Bennington, Joe Hahn, Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon (see lyrics here)


Released: October 9, 2001


First Charted: August 25, 2001


Peak: 2 US, 16 RR, 15 A40, 3 AR, 15 MR, 8 UK, 2 CN, 4 AU, 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.2 UK, 5.66 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.7 radio, 1400.0 video, 1615.11 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Linkin Park formed in Agoura Hills, California in 1996. Their debut, 2000’s Hybrid Theory, has sold more than 27 million worldwide and become a foundational album in the nu metal scene. Four singles were released from the album with “In the End,” the last one, being the most successful. It is one of the group’s three songs to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #2. It was the first of ten top-40 hits for the group.

“In the End” has become Linkin Park’s signatur song and the first nu-metal song to pass one billion streams on Spotify. WK Critics have complimented the piano riff and rapping from Mike Shinoda. In 2015, the song topped Kerrang! magazine’s list of rock songs. WK

The song was about Chester Bennington, the group’s lead singer, and his childhood struggles with being picked on. SF Shinoda said, “There’s a weird battle with hopelessness…that the song is really about…What’s so odd…is its almost talking about these things and saying ‘I don’t have any answers.’” SF

Bennington initially opposed its inclusion on Hybrid Theory. WK He said later he realized choosing singles wasn’t his strong suit “so I leave that to other people who are actually talented at somehow picking songs people are going to like the most.” SF By contrast, Shinoda thought the song showcased Linkin Park’s range of skills because “it contrasted with the more aggressive tunes in their catalog.” SF


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First posted 7/25/2023.

Saturday, August 18, 2001

Alicia Keys hit #1 with “Fallin’”

Fallin’

Alicia Keys

Writer(s): Alicia Keys (see lyrics here)


Released: April 2, 2001


First Charted: May 5, 2001


Peak: 16 US, 15 RR, 24 AC, 14 A40, 14 RB, 3 UK, 24 CN, 7 AU (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.6 UK, 5.04 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.6 radio, 378.0 video, 468.18 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Alicia Augello Cook (aka “Alicia Keys”) grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan with her mother. She has said her mother was the inspiration for the song “Fallin’,” about caring deeply about a person who one loves very much, but drives one crazy at times. SF Musically the song revealed Keys’ roots playing classical piano; it opens with a piece taken from Chopin. SF However, she was also inspired by the Motown greats and looked to Mary J. Blige as her “contemporary role model.” SS

She graduated from high school as the valedictorian at sixteen. She signed a record deal with Columbia Records but never saw an album release with them. RC Then Arista Records executive Clive Davis saw her perform and thought she was “about the brightest star to come around in years.” RC. He kicked off his new company, J Records, with Keys at the forefront. He wrote a personal letter to Oprah Winfrey landing Keys a gig on The Oprah Winfrey Show before the album had even come out. SF

There proved to be an audience. She fit into the neo-soul genre “without being as spacy as Macy Gray or as hippie mystic as Erykah Badu while being more reliable than Lauryn Hill.” AMG “Fallin’” “is a testament to Keys’ skills as a musician;” AMG it “was rich enough to compensate for some thinness in the writing” AMG and has become her signature song. WK

It was an “aching piano ballad” TB which made Keys “an instant heartthrob and a household name in record time.” TB “The lyrics are simple, but her vocal is powerfully soulful.” SS Entertainment Weekly’s Beth Johnson described the song as “gospel fervor of lovesick righteousness.” WK PopMatters.com’s Mark Anthony Neal said it combined “Keys’ natural blues register with a subtle, and brilliantly so, sample of James Brown’s ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.’” WK

The song cleaned up at the Grammys nabbing awards for Song of the Year, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Vocal Performance. She also took home the prizes for Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. MTV gave her the award for Best New Artist in a Video.


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Last updated 4/24/2024.

Friday, August 10, 2001

100 years ago: “Hello Central, Give Me Heaven” hit #1

Hello Central, Give Me Heaven

Byron G. Harlan

Writer(s): Charles K. Harris (music and lyrics) (see lyrics here)


First Charted: August 3, 1901


Peak: 15 US, 13 GA, 13 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

This “classic tearjerker” DJ is songwriter Charles K. Harris “at his weepiest.” DJ It was a contrast to early telephone songs like “Hello Ma Baby.” DJ The song relays the tale of a young girl who wants to use the phone to contact her dead mother. Harris was inspired by a newspaper story about a seven-year-old who tried to make such a call. WK The term “Hello Central” refers to the need at that time to go through an operator to connect to another party. The song was a hit with children’s acts. DJ

Harris was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. The “Tin Pan Alley pioneer” SH and “king of the tear jerkers” SH was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1867. He started out as a banjo player who wrote for vaudeville acts and silent films. He found his first major success with “After the Ball,” a song which George J. Gaskin took to #1 in 1893.

Byron G. Harlan took the song to #1 in 1901. It was his first trip to the top as a solo act although he’d previously reached the pinnacle with Frank Stanley, Joe Belmont, and the Flordora Girls with “Tell Me, Pretty Maiden.” He hit the top spot 24 times total – half of those were with frequent duet partner Arthur Collins. His solo hits were usually sentimental ballads while his work with Collins focused on “ragtime and minstrel humor.” PM His combined work as a solo artist and with Collins made him one of the top 10 artists of the pre-rock era (1890-1954). PM

Harlan’s version omitted a verse in which the operator connects to heaven and the girl gets a message from her mother. SM In 1913, the song’s title and story was used for an eleven-minute short film written by Dwight M. Wiley. A little girl is told by her pastor that heaven is real so she calls the operator and asks to speak to heaven. She mistakenly “overhears a dire plot – and foils it by her own efforts.” IM


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First posted 12/2/2022; last updated 12/15/2022.

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

In Concert: Barenaked Ladies

image from rateyourmusic.com

Venue: City Market; Kansas City, MO


The Set List:

1. Never Do Anything
2. It’s All Been Done
3. The Old Apartment
4. Filthy Frenchmen (improv)
5. Falling for the First Time
6. Pinch Me
7. Ear (improv)
8. Get in Line
9. Alcohol
10. Turn Me Loose (Loverboy cover)

11. Break Your Heart
12. One Week
13. Shoebox
14. If I Had a Million Dollars
15. Medley of other people’s hits

Encore:

16. Careless Whisper
17. Too Little, Too Late

Encore 2:

18. Brian Wilson