The Weeknd hit #1 with “Starboy”

Starboy The Weeknd with Daft Punk

Writer(s): Abel Tesfaye, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Thomas Bangalter, Martin McKinney, Henry Walter, Jason Quenneville (see lyrics here) Released: September 22, 2016 First Charted: October 8, 2016 Peak: 11 US, 11 DG, 26 AC, 10 A40, 17 RB, 2 UK, 17 CN, 2 AU, 26 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 1.18 UK, 13.26 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2042.0 video, 2548.04 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After landing two #1 hits from his previous albums, the Weekend found his way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a third time with the title cut from his next album, Starboy. It also reached the pinnacle in Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden. The song’s road to #1 was not a quick one. “Starboy” debuted at #40 and made an impressive leap to #3 the next week. However, it got stuck in the runner-up position for eight non-consecutive weeks behind the Chainsmokers’ “Closer” and Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles” before finally ascending to the top. The song grew out of a beat by Guy Manuel de Homen-Christo. He heard the song while in a studio in France. He’d been invited to Paris after expressing interest in working with Daft Punk. WK The R&B and electropop song shows how the Weeknd “understands the impotance of constant evolution in both his music and his image.” WK Like David Bowie and his Starman persona, the Weeknd sought to create a new image for himself. He developed Starboy, which was Jamaican slang for a cool or important person, by shedding his famous dreadlocks. SF [is infused] with lyrics that contain themes of extravagance of a celebrity life” WK and how it “can make an entertainer fragile.” WK Meanwhile, the video creates a story around “the Weeknd’s attempt to murder his former personality” WK by “suffocating himself, clipping his old hairstyle, and crushing his glass-framed platinum records.” WK Grant Singer directed after previously working with the Weeknd on “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills.” Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/6/2021; last updated 7/22/2023.

Daft Punk released “Get Lucky”

Get Lucky Daft Punk with Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers

Writer(s): Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams (see lyrics here) Released: April 19, 2013 First Charted: April 27, 2013 Peak: 2 US, 2 RR, 18 AC, 8 A40, 29 AA, 37a RB, 5 MR, 14 UK, 2 CN, 11 AU, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, 1.82 UK, 11.34 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.25 radio, 1018.55 video, 1181.82 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: For the lead single for fourth album, Random Access Memories, French dance duo Daft Punk released the feel-good party song “Get Lucky.” The song was a move away from Daft Punk’s pure house music of the past to a more funk style. SF The song is “about the good fortune of connecting with someone as well as sexual chemistry.” WK It went top ten in more than 30 countries. WK On the day of release, “Get Lucky” garnered more streams on Spotify in the UK and U.S. than any other song had to that point. SF The Guardian’s Michael Cragg said “it was the best thing Pharrell Williams has been involved with for a long time” WK while Pitchfork said the song’s “real elegance lies in the hands of Nile Rodgers.” WK The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones echoed that sentiment, saying Rodgers’ performance was “as close to magic as pop comes.” WK BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac said Daft Punk weren’t making electronic dance music, but “real music to dance to.” WK PopCrush’s Amy Sciarretto said “it represents all that’s right with electronic music.” WK They reached out to Nile Rodgers, best known for his work with Chic. They met him at a listening party in New York City for their 1997 album, Homework and acknowledged his influence in their song “Around the World.” WK After a series of scheduling conflicts, they finally came together to collaborate on three songs which ended up on Random Access Memories. For “Get Lucky,” Rodgers stripped down what they’d recorded to just drums, plugged in his 1959 Fender Stratocaster, and went searching for a groove. SF He kept playing with guitar lines until, as he said, he saw “both guys smiling. Then I thought, ‘OK, I’m there.’” SF He told The Daily Telegraph, “In my way of composing, of feeling if something is grooving, it’s got to himt me in the soul.” SF He said collaborating with them makde him realize that he needed “to be in the studio with people…I just started going in with whomever I could” SF The duo met Pharrell Williams at a Madonna party and he offered his services, jokingly saying “if you just want me to play a tambourine, I’ll do it.” SF Pharrell met with the duo in Paris and shared of his material that coincidentally was inspired by Rodgers, unaware they were already working with him. SF They looked at each other and then played a clip of the riff Rodgers had already given them. Williams jokingly refers to the duo as “the robots,” talking about them as if they came from another planet, but marveling at their ability to write “human” music. SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Daft Punk DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Pharrell Williams DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Nile Rodgers SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Last updated 7/23/2023.

Kanye West “Stronger” hit #1

Stronger Kanye West with Daft Punk

Writer(s): Kanye West, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Edwin Birdsong (see lyrics here) Released: July 31, 2007 First Charted: July 22, 2007 Peak: 11 US, 12 RR, 11 BA, 12 DG, 30 RB, 12 UK, 13 CN, 2 AU, 30 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 0.27 UK, 14.55 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.4 radio, 453.4 video, 1194.39 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In 2007, Kanye West was “the most interesting person in all of popular music. He knew it, too. If anything he knew it too well.” SG On the strength of his critical and commercial successes with his first two albums, College Dropout and Late Registration, he “had emerged as a new evolution of the A-list rap star – the middle-class striver who produces his own tracks, who’s more interested in fashion and tastemaker business than the sometimes-hermetic rap world, and whose insecurity and egomania often melted together into one enormous whole.” SG After touring stadiums as an opening act for U2 and the Rolling Stones, he “figured out that dense wordplay and meditations on internal conflict simply couldn’t work on that big a scale. Instead, Kanye wanted to make…songs that would sound enormous, songs that could trigger mass singalongs. ‘Stronger’ might represent the biggest, loudest, most successful example of the form.” SG The song is built on a sample of “French house duo Daft Punk’s almight 2001 track ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.’” SG His first exposure to the group was via the Busta Rhymes’ 2005 “Touch It” which sample Daft Punk’s “Technologic.” Kanye’s tour DJ, A-Trak, played more Daft Punk for Kanye, who decided he had to sample “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” A-Trak thought it “was a terrible idea, that the samle was too obvious. Kanye didn’t care.” SG Interestingly, Daft Punk built the song on a sample as well – of “Edwin Birdsong’s 1979 funk obscurity ‘Cola Bottle Baby.’” SG Birdsong and both members of Daft Punk get songwriting credits on “Stronger.” West “arguably did more with his Daft Punk sample than Daft punk did with their Edwin Birdsong sample” SG and “encouraged other hip-hop artists to incorporate house and electronica elements into their music.” WK Kanye also “did everything in his power to make the original track sound ever bigger and more cinematic,” SG reportedly remixing the song 75 times. WK Daft Punk were “delighted” WK with the results. West, however, did not “give that same obsessive attention to his ‘Stronger’ lyrics,” SG a song “about the resolve that comes when one is faced with adversity.” WK “Most of Kanye’s lines are about his own greatness” SG and some of the lyrics are “dumb…and “derivative”SG but also nonspecific enough “that people can use [them] as thei own anthems.” SG That’s why the song ultimately works “as a colossal anthem about personal empowerment.” SG Resources: SG Stereogum (3/31/2023). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/25/2023.