Rihanna hit #1 with Anti

Anti Rihanna

Released: January 27, 2016 Peak: 12 US, 14 RB, 7 UK, 11 CN, 5 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.3 UK, 3.75 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Consideration (with SZA) (2/20/16, 38 RB, 88 UK) James Joint Kiss It Better (2/20/16, 62 US, 21 RB, 46 UK, 48 AU) Work (with Drake) (1/27/16, 1 US, 9 RR, 1 RB, 2 UK, 1 CN, 5 AU) Desperado (2/27/16, 36 RB) Woo Needed Me (2/20/16, 7 US, 1 RB, 38 UK, 25 CN, 44 AU) Yeah, I Said It (2/27/16, 41 RB) Same Ol’ Mistakes Never Ending Love on the Brain (6/11/16, 5 US, 9 AC, 7 A40, 3 RB, 22 CN) Higher Total Running Time: 43:36

Rating: 3.572 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Anti “began in the autumn of 2014 and proceeded in semi-public, progress being measured in Instagram posts and tweets, along with intermittent singles, each released to white-hot anticipation but none metamorphosing into massive hits.” AMG However, when the album was released, it didn’t have any of the singles released from 2015, which included “Four Five Seconds” with Kanye West and Paul McCartney and “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Neither “functioned as appropriate anchors for the album,” AMG which would be Rihanna’s first release “to feel constructed as a front-to-back album.” AMG After predecessors “where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts” AMG this made Anti “an ambitious album-statement” RS’20 “whose heart lies within its deep cuts.” RS’20 “On Anti, she recast pop as her own hazy playground, referencing Dido and hair metal, covering Tame Impala, and merging dancehall and torch ballads.” RS’20 “Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it’s a subdued, simmering affair,” AMG “brilliantly sustaining the tipsy two-in-the-morning vibe of this moody midcareer reinvention.” RS’20 Rihanna said, “I just gravitated toward the songs that were … the things I want to listen to…The things that I want to smoke to.” RS’20 The songs are “subtly shaded yet interlocked to create a vibe caught halfway between heartbreak and ennui. The latter has always been a specialty of Rihanna – her distance from her material was at once appealing and alienating – so hearing her lean into Love on the Brain and Higher is something of a revelation: her voice is hoarse and ravaged, yet she’s also controlled and precise, knowing how to hone these imperfections so her performance echoes classic soul while feeling fresh.” AMG “These songs come at the end of the album, after a series of songs that drift and wonder, the sound of an artist trying to figure out not only what her album is but who she is. By the end of Anti, Rihanna may not arrive at any definitive conclusions about her art but she’s allowed herself to be unguarded and anti-commercial, resulting in her most compelling record to date.” AMG Notes: “Goodnight Gotham,” “Pose,” and “Sex with Me” were added to the deluxe edition.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 4/23/2022.

Today in Music (1816): Rossini's Barber of Seville premiered

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) Gioacchino Rossini (composer)

Composed: 1816 First Performed: February 20, 1816 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > opera

Parts/Movements: Overture Act I: a. "Piano, pianissimo" b. "Ecco, ridente in cielo" "Mille grazie" "Largo al factotum" "Se il mio nome" a. "Oh cielo" b. "All'idea di quel metallo" c. "Numero quindici" a. "Una voce poco fa" b. "Io son docile" "La calunnia" "Dunque io son la fortunata?" "A un dottor della mia sorte" "Ehi, di casa!" "Fredda ed immobile" Act II: "Pace e gioia" "Contro un cor" (Lesson Scene: Rosina & Count Almaviva) "Don Basilio!... Cosa veggo!" "Buona sera, mio signore" "Il vecchiotto cera moglie" "Storm Music" "Ah! qual colpo inaspettato... Zitti, zitti" "Cessa di piu resistere" "Di si felice" Replacement arias: a. "Ma forse, ahime Lindoro" b. "L'innoenza di Lindoro" "La mia pace, la mia calma" Average Duration: 132:30

Rating: 4.369 out of 5.00 (average of 8 ratings) Quotable: “Widely considered the greatest of comic operas” – Joseph Stevenson, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: The Barber of Seville “has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music.” WK It is “widely considered the greatest of comic operas.” AM It is an opera buffa in two acts. The Italian libretto, by Cesare Sterbini, was based on the 1775 French Comedy Le Barbier de Séville by Pierre Beaumarchais. WK in which nobility were depicted as buffoons dependent on their servants. AM “After two hundred years, it remains a popular work.” WK The opera premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on February 20, 1816. WK It “was a fiasco.” AM In 1782, Giovanni Paisello composed an opera, also called The Barber of Seville, based on the same story. Rossini got permission from Paisello to compose a new opera based on the same text and initially called his Almaviva. AM However, the premiere was “a fiasco” AM marked by “under-rehearsal, sloppy production, and stage effects which failed to work properly,” AM not to mention followers of Paisiello determined to sabotage the production. AM A reworked version of the opera, however, “was a success, and by the third performance it resulted in ovations and quickly went on to sweep the operatic world.” AM “The plot involves the efforts of the amorous young Count Almaviva to woo and win the lovely Rosina, in the process outwitting her ward, Dr. Bartolo, who fancies her for himself. There are textual difference among production of the opera. The primary decision is whether Rosina’s part should be sung by a mezzo-soprano (as Rossini originally intended) or by a soprano, as it has commonly been done since 1826, apparently with Rossini’s permission. An aria for Bartolo was lost, and has been replaced by one composed by a composer named Romani. And the Lesson Scene is also lost, so the soprano gets to choose music by another composer to use in its place. Some of the great popular numbers in the opera are Almaviva’s serenade Ecco ridente in cielo and the more passionate Se il mio nome. Rosina’s Una voce poco fa is probably the most popular of all coloratura arias, while Bartolo gets his own aria, La Calunnia (Calumny), all about the evil power of slander. Incidentally, the famous overture to the opera, which is probably among the most frequently heard compositions of Rossini’s in the concert hall, was not composed originally for this opera at all! Rossini was short of time, so he simply grabbed an overture he had written earlier.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Joseph Stevenson WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: Last updated 2/25/2026.

100 years ago: “M-O-T-H-E-R” hit #1

M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me) Henry Burr

Writer(s): Theodore Morse (music), Howard Johnson (words) (see lyrics here) First Charted: February 1, 1916 Peak: 16 US, 18 GA, 18 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.06 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This song was written by Howard E. Johnson, an American Navy veteran and songwriter. Composer Theodore F. Morse set the tune to music. While people typically only sing the chorus, the original song had two verses. RU While it has no specific religious words, the song is often sung in churches on Mother’s Day. RU Mother songs were especially popular “among the sentimental ballads of the 1890s and the early years of the 20th century.” TY2 In this case, the song “spelled out the letters in the word ‘mother’ and what each of them meant” SM to the singer. “M is for the million things she gave me / O means only that she’s growing old / T is for the tears she shed to save me / H is for her heart of purest gold / E is for her eyes with love light shining / R means right and right she’ll always be / Put them all together they spell mother a word that means the world to me.” Al Wohlman introduced the song in vaudeville DJ and Sophie Tucker helped popularize it in her vaudeville act. TY2 Singer Eva Tanguay performed the song as well and helped drive sheet music sales. It was first released in 1915 by Leo Feist Inc. of New York RU and at least two sheet music covers identified the song as “Eva Tanguay’s Great ‘Mother’ Song.” TY2 Henry Burr took the song to #1 in 1916. He was the #1 ballad singer of the pioneer era from 1890 to 1930. PM He charted 116 songs as a solo act from 1903 to 1928; this was his tenth of sixteen chart-toppers. He scored another 48 hits with duet partner Albert Campbell from 1911 to 1925. Eight of those went to #1. PM George Wilton Ballard also charted with the song that year, reaching #7. PM The song was also used in the 1947 movie musical Mother Wore Tights. TY2 Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 137. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) RU Rustling.org TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 86. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 65-70 and 552. Related Links: First posted 3/18/2023.