Ask 411 Music 1.12.12: The Hot 100

Posted by Ron Martin on 01.12.2012

What was the fall out from the Milli Vanill scandal? What led to the creation of Billboard's Hot 100 list? What was the first ever #1 single? All this and more in this week's Ask 411 Music!

Even though it wasn't planned that way, this is your first Ask 411Music of the year. Yeah, there was supposed to be one last week, but unfortunately, my computer didn't like the idea too much and decided against it. It's still getting worked on. I'm typing this on some ancient version of Microsoft Word on a laptop that is over eight years old, which virtually makes it a stone tablet and a chisel. With that in mind, there won't be any videos in today's column because my internet browser is too old to use youtube. Do you see what happens in eight years, people! Anarchy! Hopefully this little problem will be fixed by next week. Then again, I thought that last week. On with the show.


Speaking of show, I'm a little disappointed with one of my favorite bands, HERE COME THE MUMMIES. I still love them and plan to go see them at least three times this year, but I've been following reports of their new setlists at shows since their October release of Bed, Bath and Behind. I was hoping they would add my three favorite tracks ("Platinum," "Glamazon," along with the title track). It was not to be. They only added the title track of those three songs with a couple of other tracks that are still good, just not my favorites More heinous to me is the replacement of the opening sequence of "Carnal Carnival" and "Everlasting Party." They've reverted back to their old opening of "Believe" and "Ra Ra Ra." I don't understand this. Not only are "Carnal Carnival" and "Everlasting Party" two great songs, but their title tracks off of two of their five albums. I've seen both openings live and while they both work, the "Carnal Carnival" opening is much more energetic and gives a vibe of ‘here's our show, you bought a ticket and now you're part of it.' I guess these are growing pains for a band that seems ready to burst onto the national scene. It's not like it's going to affect ticket sales.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

ROB ZOMBIE turns 46 today…



ZACK DE LA ROCHA, frontman for RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE turns 41 today….



MELANIE CHISHOLM, better known as SPORTY SPICE from THE SPICE GIRLS turns 38 today….










IT CAME FROM MY IPOD

What else did you think this segment was going to be about this week? As a single guy, I look at way too much pornography and it finally caught up with me. I knew I shouldn't have ignored the fact that my Kaspersky stopped working a couple of month ago. Oh, but it's the holiday season, I don't want to fight the crowds and take it in to get it looked at. Oy! Five songs from my iPod about this situation.


1. "Virus Alert" by ‘Weird Al' Yankovic
2. "Blind Man" by Aerosmith
3. "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed
4. "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot
5. "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer






And now, for the firs time in 2012…

THE QUESTIONS

Only, for the second article in a row there are no questions. Come on, people – do you know everything there is to know about music? If there are no questions, I have to fill this space up with my own questions and filler and trust me – nobody likes that!



What are the origins of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart?

Billboard has existed as an entity since 1894. It began printing "popularity charts" as early as 1940. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Billboard ranked songs on three different charts, "Most Sold in Stores," "Most Played on the Radio" and "Most Played in Jukeboxes." These three charts supposedly carried equal weight, which makes no sense because who cares what the radio plays, right?

Eventually, Billboard figured this out as well and combined the three into one list that put more weight on records sold than records played. November 12, 1955 Billboard listed the first ever Hot 100, but the other three lists were still published along with the Hot 100. This lasted until August 4, 1958 when Billboard completely rebooted the list into the singularly Hott 100 we know and love today. Every song was given a "1" in the weeks on the charts category and "Poor Little Fool" by RICKY NELSON was declared the first official #1 hit song.





What song stayed at #1 the longest

In 1995, "One Sweet Day" by BOYZ II MEN and MARIAH CAREY stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. This is two weeks longer than a handful of other songs, with the most recent being "I Gotta Feeling" by THE BLACK EYED PEAS in 2009.





What was the fallout from the Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal?

MILLI VANILLI was formed in the late 80s by producer FRANK FARIAN in Germany. Frank chose to use the vocals of CHARLES SHAW, JOHN DAVIS and BRAD HOWELL but felt their image wasn't marketable so he recruited ROBERT PILATUS and FABRICE MORVAN, dancers from a local club to front the band.

The debut album All or Nothing caught the attention of ARISTA RECORDS who sgined the group to a contract. The album was renamed Girl You Know It's True and released in American in 1989. The album was a bonafide hit going 6x platinum and producing three #1 hit singles.

Then the proverbial "stuff" started hitting the fan. During a live performance of "Girl You Know Its True" on MTV, the record ROB and FAB were singing to began to skip causing the duo to run off stage. They may have gotten away with everything if that had been the only incident. However, unlike the European release of All or Nothing, Girl You Know Its True directly attributed the vocals to Rob and Fab. This prompted Charles Shaw to write a later to a writer of New York Newsday declaring Rob and Fab imposters and lip synchers. Shaw later retracted his statement (reportedly after being paid off by Rob and Fab), but at that point it didn't matter. The secret was out.




Because of the accusations, Rob and Fab demanded to actually sing on the next album, which caused Farian to confess the whole ordeal. Milli Vanilli's Grammy for Best New Artist was withdrawn as well as their record deal. Arista completely erased them from their catalogue.

Various lawsuits were filed and at one point people who bought the album thought they could get refunds, but that never came to fruition.

Two separate musical acts came from the fallou tof Milli Vanilli. The first was THE REAL MILLI VANILLI, which was the actual vocalists and Farian trying to capitilize on the Milli Vanilli success. Tracks for the second album had already been recorded, so Farian simply changed the cover to the real singers and released the second album Keep On Running under the name The Real Milli Vanilli. Maybe that wasn't so smart as the name Milli Vanilli was toxic and no version, new or not was going to sell well. Later the group was repackaged and had a litte more success under the name TRY ‘N' B, bot nothing extremely notable.


Rob & Fab regrouped, signed with JOSS ENTERTAINMENT GROUP in Los Angeles and recorded a follow up album under the group name ROB AND FAB. The album had poor distribution and that, mixed with the already scandalous reputations of the two made for poor sales.

Fast forward to 1997. Rob and Fab want to make a comeback and they even talk Farian into producing the album for them with their own vocals. Enough time has passed that perhaps the American public would forgive and forget and Rob and Fab could be the comeback story of the year. The resulting album was Back and In Attack. Rob Pilatus during production of the album had delved into drugs and crime, forcing Farian to send him to rehab and back to Germany. On the eve before the band was to start a promotional tour, Rob Pilatus was found dead in his hotel room of an overdose of alchol and prescription drugs.

Fabian would go on to try several things including session musician, motivational speaker and DJ.

Technically, the fallout from the Milli Vanilli scandal would include one returned Grammy, a ton of lawsuits, three bad albums, two attempted comebacks and a drug overdose.




That's all for this week, kids. Don't like the questions? Then send some to me. As always, questions can be posted in the COMMENTS section right here on the page or sent to me via e-mail. Either way they will get answered right here next week! Big thanks to my friend, ADAM BUTTS for providing his MAC for me to work on the last minute enabling me to give you videos!