The Chart Show: David Bowie makes Hall of Fame debut
by Mark Wheat
March 24, 2016
For at least the last year or so writing this column I have often noticed that the number of songs on the chart with only one word in their title was increasing. This week, eight of the 20 songs have single word titles. It wasn't my imagination: Research supports the fact that one word song titles are on the rise. Oake and Riley in the Morning made a 9:30 Coffee Break out of it on Tuesday.
Submit your Chart Show ballot this week for a chance to win tickets to Mumford and Sons' sold out show at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, April 21!
Tame Impala return to the top this week. They lost their bassist a couple of years ago but he, Nicholas Allbrook, releases his first solo album on May 27, from which this strange video emerges.
"I think one of the biggest mysteries of America right now is this: How are we able to process the unending bad news on Page One and then go about our lives the way the style section portrays us?" so says M. Ward. Music helps, and his "Confession" is the biggest upward mover this week to No.6. Team Current have been long time supporters of his many and varied projects. I remember him and Zoey Deschanel performing at one of our first SXSW showcases before anyone knew who She and Him were. If you want to catch up with his progressions, check out the Merge Records site.
David Bowie is inducted into our Hall of Fame for the first time. In his birth place Brixton, an area of London, he'll be remembered in perpetuity with the preservation of a mural that has become a shrine.
Polica are the highest new entry this week with "Melting Block," the second single to chart off United Crushers. They're touring in Arizona right now but will hit Madison, WI on April 14 and Milwaukee the following day.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are back, new at No.16. Their forthcoming album PersonA is out April 15. Frontman Alex recently told Rolling Stone that although the vibe of the band had always been one of a commune of equals, in the past he had written most of the songs. This time around the band have written collaboratively.
Describing the new entry at No.18 as one of the "bangers" they opened their live set with, SPIN hailed CHVRCHES as the highlight of their SXSW showcase this year.
Ray LaMontagne had to cancel his shows in Austin due to illness. We hope he's on the mend with news that after two weeks away his "Hey, No Pressure" returns to the chart. He just posted a virtual reality video for it.
Despite their name, Alligator Records is based in Chicago, a town with a big blues tradition. They just released God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson, a ragtime blues scholar born in Texas in 1897. Tom Waits is one of the artists they enlisted, and he sure does "The Soul of a Man" justice, new at No.20.