Not one rock-based track has reached the top two slots of the Billboard Hot 100 during the past couple of years until this week.
The dearth of retail singles for such songs, coupled with the massive audience potential of R&B/hip-hop titles, has all but relegated rock, and some pop titles, to the middle of the top 10.
But Hoobastank defies the recent trend, as “The Reason” jumps 5-2 to become the highest-charting rock track on the Hot 100 since Linkin Park took “In the End” to No. 2 in March 2002.
With the surrounding R&B tracks having reached their peak almost simultaneously at R&B and top 40 stations, “Reason” sneaks ahead with an audience gain of 7.5 million listener impressions.
“The Reason” was one of many tracks that took an audience hit last week because of Memorial Day weekend specialty programing, which cut into normal station playlist rotations. It is now at a weekly high of 105.7 million impressions.
BACK BURN
Another track that makes an impressive post-holiday audience rebound is Usher’s “Burn.” It turns a decline of 13 million from one week ago into a 17 million jump on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, good enough to become the Greatest Gainer/Airplay winner in its fifth week at No. 1.
The bulk of the Hot 100 audience bump (almost 11 million) comes from R&B/hip-hop outlets, primarily WQHT New York, WGCI Chicago and KKBT Los Angeles. Combined, they account for an increase of 4.7 million listener impressions. It is no surprise, then, that “Burn” also earns Greatest Gainer stripes atop Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.
SUMMER SALE
Seals & Crofts return to the Adult Contemporary chart for the first time in 24 years with “Summer Breeze,” a track they took to No. 4 in 1972.
The song’s re-entry at No. 24 was fueled by its inclusion in the latest Gap commercials, which tout the chain’s summer wares. A new mix of “Breeze” was cut for the ad, and Warner Bros. shipped it to radio. The label will include the track with some other remixed golden oldies from the likes of Rod Stewart and the Doobie Brothers on an album due in August.
WLTW New York is one of the many stations that jumped on board, as the station is playing “Breeze” for the first time in a few years, with the new mix getting a great reaction, music coordinator Morgan Prue says.
COTTER IN THE ACT
After bowing one week early because of street-date violations, second-season “Nashville Star” winner Brad Cotter logs the biggest week the Hot Country Singles Sales chart has seen since last fall. He also collects the fattest sum by a new artist’s debut single since the USA Network show’s first-round winner last summer.
Cotter’s “I Meant To” scans 5,000 copies and vaults 9-1, the largest sales mark since Kid Rock’s “Picture” with Allison Moorer reigned with 5,000 copies the week of Sept. 13, 2003.
Among acts without any prior chart history, Cotter’s total is the biggest since inaugural “Star” winner Buddy Jewell scanned 7,000 and 6,000 copies during a two-week stint at No. 1 in July 2003 with “Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey’s Song).”
“I Meant To” rises 45-43 on Hot Country Singes & Tracks and whets “Star” watchers’ appetites for Cotter’s “Patient Man” album, slated for July 17.
Elsewhere on the chart, Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” is flat-out hauling ass, to put it in the most blunt terms. The song rockets into the top 10 in its third chart week, a feat superstars typically accomplish on this chart with songs that contain profound lyrics.
McGraw’s stop-you-in-your-tracks song about mortality is country’s quickest top 10 climb since Darryl Worley’s contemplative “Have You Forgotten?” took three weeks to rise to No. 10 the week of March 22, 2003.
McGraw is one of only five artists in the modern era to enter the top 10 that fast and one of three to have accomplished it twice, along with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. McGraw’s “It’s Your Love” (with wife Faith Hill) did so in 1997.
