Noah Kahan charted with “Dial Drunk”

Dial Drunk Noah Kahan with Post Malone

Writer(s): Noah Kahan, Austin Post, Noah Levine (see lyrics here) Released: July 17, 2023 First Charted: June 17, 2023 Peak: 25 BB, 21 AC, 9 A40, 12 AA, 12 MR, 32 UK, 14 CN, 45 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK, 3.15 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 40.97 video, 747.21 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Everyone has songs that are personally iconic for them. Some resonate as mantras (Indigo Girls’ “Closer to Fine,”Michael Franti’s “Everyone Deserves Music”) or reflections on life (XTC’s “Dear God,” Crowded House’s “Silent House”). There are those that capture pivotal moments of young adulthood either in mood or message (Styx’s “Renegade,” David + David’s “Welcome to the Boomtown”). For me, there are also songs that will forever represent a time where my sense of musical discovery expanded (Marillion’s “Kayleigh,” Tori Amos’ “Silent All These Years”). On the latter front, most people tend to abandon the pursuit of new music in their thirties, preferring to soak up the nostalgia of their youth. Even at 57, however, I’m always interested in finding new artists, new songs, and new sounds. “Dial Drunk” became one of those latter songs. My son Evan was home from college over Christmas break 2023 and expressed surprise at hearing me listen to Noah Kahan on Spotify. Evan had just seen Kahan live in New York with a friend. I confessed that the song “Dial Drunk” had just randomly popped up on my playlist and I hadn’t been familiar with the artist although I’d heard the song a few times. The song became a launching point for me as I delved deep into Kahan’s music and was especially taken by the slew of musicians with whom he’d dueted (Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone, and Joy Oladokun). It sent me down a very welcomed rabbit hole for 2024 as I embraced what I call “New Americana” music, which included the artists I’ve listed as well as Benson Boone, Shaboozey, Teddy Swims and others. As for Noah Kahan’s background, the folk-pop singer/songwriter was born on January 1, 1997 in Strattford, Vermont. He released his first album, Busyhead, in 2019 but it wasn’t until his third album, 2022’s Stick Season, that his career really took off. The double-platinum release peaked at #2 on the Billboard album chart propelled by the top-10 success of the title cut as well as top-40 success with “Northern Attitude” and “Dial Drunk.” The latter – the third single – caught the attention of rapper and singer Post Malone. Kahan said of the collaboration, which included a new verse written by Malone, that “it has been a dream come true to make this collaboration happen.” WK Kahan also said of the song in general, “I never know when or why a song is going to land and to see the meaning and connection you have drawn from this track has inspired me in a way I have never been inspired before.” WK Songfacts.com said of the song, “In this raw and introspective narrative, Noah Kahan finds himself in a dire situation, having just been arrested for drunk driving and desperately needing help. Struggling with his own demons and breaking a promise, he dials his ex's phone number, which he knows will go unanswered. From the very beginning of the song, the tone is set, as he reflects on the irony of remembering his promise not to contact his ex, yet succumbing to the allure of the past while under the influence of alcohol.” SF Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/15/2024; last updated 11/21/2025.

Keb’ Mo’ “This is My Home” released

This Is My Home Keb’ Mo’ with Jaci Velasquez

Writer(s): Kevin Moore, John Lewis Parker (see lyrics here) Released: May 31, 2019 First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.14 video, 2.92 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blues singer/songwriter and guitarist Kevin Roosevelt Moore (stage name “Keb’ Mo’”) was born in South Los Angeles, California, on October 3, 1951. He began his musical career playing steel drums in a calypso band before playing blues in various backup bands in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He released his first album, Rainmaker, in 1980 but it was fourteen more years before he put out a follow-up. It was at that point that his career as a solo artist really took off. To date, he has won four Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album and a Grammy for Best American Album. The latter award was for his 2019 album, Oklahoma, which featured the track “This Is My Home.” The song “considers the immigrant experience” AM by telling “a trio of stories about people searching for a better life.” AM He said, Americans need “a reminder that…the longest most of us have been here is 400 years…So we’re all immigrants.” AM “When people start getting down on immigrants, it makes me want to tell a story about Americans who I really respect.” AM The song was inspired by Lupe, his housekeeper in L.A., and the people she introduced him to as well as Mohammed, an Iranian taxi driver who was very kind to Keb’ Mo’ when he didn’t have his wallet. He explained that he opted for a stripped-down arrangement featuring just steel guitar, accordion, and backing vocals from Jack Velasquez. He said, “the point was to not overshadow the story.” AM He also said, “I wanted the guitar to sound a little more exotic, more like world music, tribal, just different, like something from a foreign land.” AM Resources: AM AllMusic.com (5/31/2019). “Keb’ Mo’ Tells the Story Behind His All-American New Track, ‘This Is My Home’” by Chris Steffen Related Links: First posted 3/13/2025.

Nathaniel Rateliff “S.O.B.” released

S.O.B. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

Writer(s): Nathaniel Rateliff (see lyrics here) Released: July 16, 2015 First Charted: September 5, 2015 Peak: 14 AA, 18 AR, 3 MR, 36 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.32 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 111.32 video, 201.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff was born in 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2002, he formed the band Born in the Flood in Denver, Colorado. They released one album in 2007 and in 2010 Rateliff established himself as “critically celebrated folksy Americana singer/songwriter” AM with his first solo album. He also fronted the Wheel before, in 2013, forming the Night Sweats with longtime collaborator Joseph Pope III. They released their self-titled debut album in 2015. It was “a hard-swinging, house-rocking affair that draws heavily on vintage R&B, soul, and proto rock & roll.” AM The album reached #17 in the United States and went gold. The lead single, “S.O.B.,” reached #1 on the adult alternative chart and went platinum. Rateliff said it was a joke song WK that “I didn’t really want to put on the first record. It just wasn’t something I connected with but I knew that when we played it live, people loved it.” SF He said the song is, “at heart, a troubled song about drinking one’s life away after a break-up.” WK The “southern-gospel influenced song” SF sounds like it could come from Music from Big Pink by the Band. AM The song starts off “with foot stomping and handclaps as the only accompaniment, before the entire band erupts in a carousing chorus. This reverses gospel’s usual Saturday-night-to-Sunday-morning course; it is one of the rowdiest broken-heart songs you'll ever hear.” AM “S.O.B.” got a major boost when Rateliff and his band performed it on The Tonight Show on August 5, 2015. WK Host Jimmy Fallon tweeted before the show, “If you believe in soul…if you believe in rock ‘n’ roll…if you believe in performing your guts out…Enjoy the band on our show tonight.” SF Resources: AM AllMusic.com album review by Thom Jurek SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/6/2025.

 

Stone Roses “I Wanna Be Adored” charted

I Wanna Be Adored The Stone Roses

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The Replacements “Unsatisfied” released on Let It Be

Unsatisfied The Replacements

Writer(s): Paul Westerberg (see lyrics here) Released: October 2, 1984 (album cut) First Charted: -- Peak: 9 CO, 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.24 video, 8.94 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Replacements formed in 1979 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For most of their existence, they were comprised of singer/songwriter and guitarist Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars. They are considered one of the pioneers of alternative rock, thanks to acclaimed albums such as Let It Be and Tim. One of their most important songs was “Unsatisfied” from Let It Be. Medialoper.com’s Jim Connelly went so far as to say it “just might be the greatest song Paul Westerberg has ever written…it might just be the greatest song anybody’s ever written.” ML Diffuser.fm called it “an anthem for a legion of depressed and misunderstood teens and college-music fans.” WK Indeed, it could be considered the theme song for ‘80s youths who were teetering on the brink of adulthood. PopMatters.com called it “absolultely one of the most cathartic rock songs of all time.” WK The song has been viewed “as an answer or at least a variant” ML to the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “with the difference being that Mick saw his dissatisfaction as an annoyance that was going to be resolved in the near future, whereas Paul clearly saw his as the end of the fucking world.” ML He said it was as “melancholy as we want to get and [still] be alive.” WK “Paul’s nailing it with the singing, his voice rough and sad and hoarse, and every time he holds out the word ‘satisfiiiieeeeeeed’ it’s a whole universe in and of itself.” ML He “takes his dissatisfaction, and my dissatisfaction, and your dissatisfaction, and puts them all into his voice and just lets loose, pain and desperation pouring out of every single note.” ML “One of the tricks of ‘Unsatisfied’ [is] the contrast between the desperation of the choruses and the resignation of the verse.” ML In addition, the song features a rhythm guitar that has “too much distortion to be jangly, but has too much jangle to be full grunge.” ML That “raggedy feel” ML grew out of Bob Stinson’s improvised guitar lines which he added while they recorded in the studio, despite never hearing the song before. WK Resources: ML Medialoper.com (7/14/2020). “Certain Songs #1866: The Replacements – ‘Unsatisfied’” by Jim Connelly WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/8/2025.

Toto hit #1 with “Africa”

Africa Toto

Writer(s): David Paich, Jeff Porcaro (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 29, 1982 Peak: 11 US, 3 CB, 2 GR, 2 RR, 5 AC, 3 UK, 11 CN, 5 AU, 16 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.8 UK, 8.89 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 855.0 video, 1475.62 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Africa” was the third single from Album of the Year Grammy winner Toto IV. The lead single, “Rosanna,” was a #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy for Record of the Year. The follow-up, “Make Believe,” was a minor hit, peaking at #30. “Africa,” however, went all the way to the top of the charts and, thanks to a revival in the 2010s, ended up selling over 4 million copies in the United States. In December 2017, a 14-year-old girl launched a viral Twitter campaign to get the band Weezer to record the song. They did – and it gave the band their first Hot 100 hit since 2009. SF The band’s keyboardist, David Paich, created what became the song’s opening riff when playing around with a new keyboard. Regarding the lyrics, bandmate Jeff Porcaro joked that “a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.” WK Paich said he watched a TV documentary about the suffering in Africa and imagined how he’d feel if he was there. He based the landscape descriptions on a National Geographic article. WK He’s also said the song isn’t about a romance, but a man’s love of a continent. WK Band members Steve Porcaro and Steve Lukather have described the song as a dumb experiment with goofy lyrics as placeholders. Porcaro said it was the last song the band recorded and it barely made the album. WK Lukather said it was the worst song on the album. SF The video was directed by Steve Barron, who would go on to do classics like a-ha’s “Take on Me” and Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” Paich is in a library doing research, trying to match a scrap of a picture to the book from which it was torn. His efforts are interspersed with shots of a spinning globe and the band performing. It’s “a very stylized, conceptual video with memorable imagery and an abstract storyline…What’s going on is clearly open to interpretation.” SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Toto FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 567. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/17/2019; last updated 7/14/2023.

Alan Parsons Project charted with “Old and Wise”

Old and Wise Alan Parsons Project

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Big Star “Thirteen” released (March 1972)

Thirteen Big Star

Writer(s): Alex Chilton, Chris Bell (see lyrics here) Released: March 1972 First Charted: -- Peak: 29 CL, 19 CO, 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 5.76 video, 53.90 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Big Star was formed in 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee, by singer/guitarists Alex Chilton and Chris Bell with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. Despite never achieving any real commercial clout, they achieved cult status and “immeasureable” “influence on pop music” AM with their three album releases. “They were at once ahead of their time (witness '80s and '90s alternative rock) and behind it,” AM with their jangly pop serving as a bridge from the Byrds to artists like Tom Petty and R.E.M. The group’s first album, 1972’s #1 Record, featured “In the Street,” which became the theme song for That ‘70s Show on television in the 1990s. The album also spawned “Thirteen,” which was also showcased via That ‘70s Show on several episodes. The song has been covered by a variety of artists including the Lemonheads’ Evan Dando, Garbage, Elliott Smith, Wilco, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Alex Chilton “wrote this acoustic ballad about two kids in love with rock & roll and each other.” SF “Over gorgeous folk-pop acoustic guitars, Chilton's vulnerable-sounding voice shakes with the tentative insecurity of the 13-year-old narrator tenderly trying to gain the affection of his crush.” AM “The song has a Zen/haiku-like quality in its concise, yet powerfully evocative form.” AM AllMusic.com’s Bill Janovitz said, “There are few songs that capture the aching innocence of adolescence as well as the ballad Thirteen,’ and fewer that are as pretty as this song.” AM Rolling Stone described the song as “one of rock’s most beautiful celebrations of adolescence.” WK Resources: AM AllMusic.com song review by Bill Janovitz SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/9/2025.