98 Degrees To Cash In On Nostalgia By Reuniting?

Boy band 98 Degrees, who, let's face it, were always a subpar version of *NSYNC, but at least far superior to, say, O-Town, have the Internet in a whirl over the fact that their website was updated on Wednesday for the first time since 2004.

This caused the site RumorFix to report the following:

"Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre are set to go on a fifteen city tour this summer between July and August, a source close to the band tells RumorFix. Rumors of a reunion tour began Wednesday night when the band’s website –revealing a new design and logo — was updated for the first time in a decade — and our source says it’s because of the tour."

First things first: 98 Degrees landed a handful of utterly forgettable Top 10 hits between 1998 and 2000, the biggest of which were "Because Of You"(#3 on the Hot 100), "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)" (#2) and the Mariah Carey team-up "Thank God I Found You" (#1). I vaguely remember the first one (only because I have the CD single buried somewhere in the closet), and have zero idea how "Give Me Just One Night" goes.

But their best song was "The Hardest Thing" (#5), which was a TRL staple in spring 1999, right around the time I moved to Los Angeles. Good memories.



Longtime Chart Rigger readers may recall that I stanned hard for Nick Lachey's 2006 solo hit "What's Left Of Me." But as for the band reuniting for a tour, better cash would be spent/made if they just joined Jeff Timmons as a member of Chippendales.

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US Chart Roundup: Fun. Have The Best Selling Single Of The Year To Date

Fun. and Janelle Monae's "We Are Young" is tops on the Billboard Hot 100 for a fourth week, thus giving the song the longest run at #1 so far this year. It's no surprise that the publication notes "We Are Young" is the best-selling single of 2012 to date, based on sales of 2.39 million paid downloads. Right behind it is Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," which previously spent three weeks at #1 and stands at 2.25 million in sales so far. 

Looking at the rest of the Top 10 this week, it's snooze village, as no new songs make a dent in the upper tier of the chart. Just outside it, however, Billboard cover boys One Direction climb to #11 with "What Makes You Beautiful." Their album Up All Night gets bumped off the throne of the Top 200 by the arrival of the soundtrack to The Hunger Games, however, and slides down to #4.

Meanwhile, Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close" moves up three positions to #15 and Carly Rae Jepsen's addictive jam "Call Me Maybe" jumps to #18.

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "We Are Young" - fun. feat. Janelle Monae *4 weeks*
2. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Kelly Clarkson
3. "Glad you Came" - The Wanted
4. "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye feat. Kimbra
5. "Starships" - Nicki Minaj
6. "Set Fire To The Rain" - Adele
7. "Wild Ones" - Flo Rida feat. Sia
8. "Part Of Me" - Katy Perry
9. "Take Care" - Drake feat. Rihanna
10. "Turn Me On" - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj

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The Wanted & One Direction Cover 'Billboard'

With The Wanted's "Glad You Came" currently at #3 on the Hot 100 and One Direction's Up All Night topping last week's Top 200 album chart, Billboard has inevitably slapped the UK boy band's on dueling covers of the publication. (The Wanted's debut US LP is out on April 24.)

It's been over 10 years since boy bands had the charts looking like a total sausage fest, and wise old sage Simon Cowell piped up on the resurgence of pop in Billboard's cover story:

"It's a track-oriented chart at the moment. When we used to put records out years ago, two singles was the norm, three singles was a lot. And you have these solo artists now who could be, with collaborations, putting out seven or eight singles a year. [Even if] you go back to the Motown days, every time, it always comes back to 12 o'clock. It felt like that time again."

Cowell, of course, manages One Direction, while Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun is in charge of The Wanted. (What happened to Jayne Collins?)

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Blake Want To Be Your Favorite Man Band With "Start Over"

UK quartet Blake, who found success by performing songs in the pop-classical fusion vein, are aiming to fill the gap created by Take That's current hiatus. They're even going a step further by working on straight-up pop jams with Diane Warren on music for their first US release.

Here's the album's first single, a fairly inoffensive, Take That-esque tune called "Start Over".

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Madonna's 12 Studio Album Covers, Ranked From Worst To Best

I've assessed Ye Olde Vampyre's 12 studio album covers over at Idolator. Particular fun was had by riffing on Hard Candy.

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UK Chart Roundup: Katy Perry's Worst Single Yet Is #1 In Another Country

Katy Perry earns her third UK #1 this week with "Part Of Me," a song that I'm annoyingly finding is growing on me. To be quite honest, the song is utter shit, and Max Martin, Dr Luke, etc. were smart to leave it off Teenage Dream that first time around. But, you know how it goes — hear something enough times and your ears start to give in. It's Katy Perry's trashy snatch, and we're all just traveling through it.

Perry's previous #1s over yonder were "I Kissed A Girl" and "California Gurls".

Meanwhile, JLS' sell-by date must have finally arrived. Their new single "Proud", off their upcoming fourth album, squeaks in at #6.

The UK Top 10:

1. "Part Of Me" - Katy Perry *new* *1 week*
2. "She Doesn't Mind" - Sean Paul *new*
3. "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye feat. Kimbra
4. "Last Time" - Labrinth *new*
5. "Starships" - Nicki Minaj
6. "Proud" - JLS *new*
7. "Titanium" - David Guetta feat. Sia
8. "Wild Ones" - Flo Rida feat. Sia
9. "Next To Me" - Emeli Sande
10. "Turn Me On" - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj

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Steps Promote Hit Factory Live Concert At PWL Studios With Pete Waterman

Steps update #1: That Hit Factory Live concert featuring all the PWL acts you can shake a stick is going full-steam ahead. Here's a video of Steps and Pete Waterman doing a press conference and various promo about it:



Steps update #2: To tie in with the band's tour next month, Sky Living will air a whole new series of Steps Reunion titled, aptly enough Steps Reunion: The Ultimate Tour. This will later be followed by Steps Reunion: The Next Step.

Steps update #3: Still no word on new music from the band. And I'll no longer be going to their gig in London on April 19, due to a scheduling conflict. Sigh. But I will be going to Paris in June, so there is that.

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