US Chart Roundup: Three Blondes Who Probably Get A Lot Of Sex

All is right in the world as Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie" climbs one rung to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. Unfortunately, his follow-up single, "Mirrors," takes a plunge from its debut position of #24 to #76. Of course, JT has only just begun to promote "Mirrors," mainly during overseas gigs like his appearance at the BRIT Awards and on Germany's Wetten, Das..?

Elsewhere, One Direction's charity cover of Blondie's "One Way Or Another" climbs to #13, making it the UK boy band's third highest-charting single in the US. Honestly, I can't keep track of how many singles 1D have clogging up the charts these days. There's this one. There's "Kiss You." There's "Little Things." By the time the songs to make a dent in the charts here, the quintet have already released two more singles and banged 58 more broads a piece.

Meanwhile, One Direction's 2012 US tour opener Olly Murs cracks the Top 40 with his first US hit, "Troublemaker." This week he's at #37.

That leaves us with Emeli Sande, who makes her debut on the Hot 100 with "Next To Me," at #89. Last year the song made it all the way to #2 in the UK. Can Emeli become the one hit sensation that Ellie Goulding is around these parts?

Dare to dream sexy, kids.

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "Harlem Shake" - Baauer *2 weeks*
2. "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz
3. "When I Was Your Man" - Bruno Mars
4. "I Knew You Were Trouble" - Taylor Swift
5. "Scream & Shout" - will.i.am & Britney Spears
6. "Started From The Bottom" - Drake
7. "Stay" - Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko
8. "Suit & Tie" - Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z
9. "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
10. "Love Me" - Lil Wayne feat. Drake & Future

Read More

Heidi Montag Recording With Mike Stock?

Dear God, how did I miss this? From the Daily Star earlier this month:

Heidi, 26, said last night that she had already met music svengali Mike Stock in a bid to make her dream come true.

And she is planning to cash in on her Celebrity Big Brother fame by releasing a single within weeks.

Heidi told the Daily Star Sunday: “I’ve been talking to Mike about the kind of track we’re going to do and he’s ­writing something for me at the moment.

“A lot of my UK fans say they love my music and are expecting more. So I’d love to be able to give that to them.”

Normally I would say this sounds like straight-up bullshit (remember when Paris Hilton was supposedly recording with Pete Waterman?), but I looked back through Mike Stock's tweets and he's re-tweeted a few of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt's ramblings.

Adele might as well hang up her giant wig and go sit in the corner. Music: officially saved.

Read More

Little Boots Returns With "Motorway" Single, 'Nocturnes' Album Due In May

It's been four long years since Little Boots arrived with her debut LP Hands. Now, after releasing one mediocre single ("Headphones") and one pretty fantastic '90s house throwback ("Every Night I Say A Prayer") in 2012, the singer, whose real name is Victoria Hesketh, has announced sophomore album Nocturnes (out May 6).

"Every Night I Say A Prayer" has rightfully made the cut for inclusion on the album's setlist of 10 tracks. Another new song, "Motorway," was unveiled yesterday. It's kind of like something you'd expect to hear from Sally Shapiro.



Tim Goldsworthy of DFA Records produced Little Boots' Nocturnes, and the album also features additional work by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco and Andy Butler of Hercules And Love Affair.

Here's the album's tracklist:

1. “Motorway”
2. “Confusion”
3. “Broken Record”
4. “Shake”
5. “Beat Beat”
6. “Every Night I Say A Prayer”
7. “Crescendo”
8. “Strangers”
9. “All For You”
10. “Satellite”

Read More

Adele Performs "Skyfall" & Wins Oscar, But Shirley Bassey Steals The Show

I truly love Adele's Platinum-selling "Skyfall," and think it deserved to win the Golden Globe, BRIT Award and, now, Academy Award that its racked up. And while her performance of the James Bond theme at the Oscars last night was truly grand...



...it was really Dame Shirley Bassey who stole the effing show with "Goldfinger."

Read More

UK Chart Roundup: One Direction, Justin Timberlake Soar After The BRITs

Following their performance at the BRITs this past week, the most popular young bucks in the world, One Direction, see their Red Nose Day charity cover of Blondie's "One Way Or Another" top the UK chart after selling 113,000 copies — the biggest debut, so far, for any single in the country this year.



This gives the boy band a third chart-topping single in England, following "What Makes You Beautiful" and "Little Things," and one does have to wonder: how did it all go so very wrong for The Wanted?

Elsewhere, Justin Timberlake's second The 20/20 Experience single "Mirrors" climbs to #4 after his first live performance of the song at the BRITs.



I feel like I love this song so much because it sounds just like *NSYNC. And, really — is that such a bad thing?

The UK Top 10:

1. "One Way Or Another" - One Direction *new* *1 week*
2. "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz
3. "Harlem Shake" - Baauer
4. "Mirrors" - Justin Timberlake
5. "I Could Be The One" - Avicii vs. Nicky Romero
6. "I Knew You Were Trouble" - Taylor Swift
7. "When I Was Your Man" - Bruno Mars
8. "Stay" - Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko
9. "Only Love" - Ben Howard
10. "Clown" - Emeli Sande

Read More

Duran Duran's 'The Wedding Album' Turns 20 (My Nick Rhodes Interview)

A week ago I interviewed Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes for both the 20th anniversary of the band's The Wedding Album and Rhodes' side project TV Mania. You can check out both below:

* Duran Duran's The Wedding Album Turns 20: Backtracking

* Nick Rhodes: 7 Questions About TV Mania's Bored With Prozac And The Internet?

The Wedding Album (technically a self-titled LP from the Durans) had a huge impact on me when it was released in 1993. I was still only a teenager then, yet old enough to have been a Duran Duran fan as a kid (thanks to MTV), during the band's '80s heyday.



My best friend at the time latched onto "Ordinary World" and the whole album from the get-go, and we played the cassette (!) in our cars wherever we went that year. I still consider "Come Undone"  to be one of the finest singles of the 1990s.



Eventually, I saw Duran Duran on tour twice that year: in Cleveland, with Terence Trent D'Arby as opening act, and in Pittsburgh with The Cranberries in tow, two months before they blew up big with "Linger."

Meanwhile, holy s***:

V interesting piece on our Wedding Album, which in case you hadn't noticed is 20 years old. tinyurl.com/agqkgmd
— Simon Le Bon (@SimonJCLeBON) February 23, 2013

It was a huge honor to speak with Nick Rhodes, and it'd definitely one of the interviews I'll never forget. 

Read More

US Chart Roundup: Baauer's "Harlem Shake" Debuts At #1 Thanks To New Rules

You've seen this Internet meme by now:



And after only two weeks online, it's received 22 million views. Cue up Billboard revising its Hot 100 chart rules once again, so that YouTube streams are now factored alongside other streaming services, digital sales, physical sales and radio airplay. That makes for Baauer's "Harlem Shake," the song featured in the clip above, debuting at #1 this week, thus becoming only the 21st single to enter the chart at the top.

Pity the YouTube-fueled "Gangnam Style," which was trapped at #2 for weeks last fall behind Maroon 5's "One More Night." If only time and history had been on your side, PSY. Alas, it's now Baauer who has the distinction of being the first artist to top the Hot 100 in the new YouTube rule era.

Elsewhere, with Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie" still riding high in the Top 10 (at #9 this week), his follow-up single (apparently it's official)  "Mirrors" debuts at #24 following the song being made available on iTunes the night of the Grammys.

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "Harlem Shake" - Baauer *new* *1 week*
2. "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz
3. "Stay" - Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko
4. "Scream & Shout" - will.i.am & Britney Spears
5. "I Knew You Were Trouble" - Taylor Swift
6. "Ho Hey" - The Lumineers
7. "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
8. "When I Was Your Man" - Bruno Mars
9. "Suit & Tie" - Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z
10. "Started From The Bottom" - Drake

Read More