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The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music
Beloved music critic Tom Breihan's fascinating narrative of the history of popular music through the lens of game-changing #1 singles from the Billboard Hot 100. When Tom Breihan launched his Stereogum column in early 2018, “The Number Ones”—a space in which he has been writing about every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, in chronological order—he figured he’d post capsule-size reviews for each song. But there was so much more to uncover. The column has taken on a life of its own, sparking online debate and occasional death threats.
The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958, and after four years of posting the column, Breihan is still in the early aughts. But readers no longer have to wait for his brilliant synthesis of what the history of #1s has meant to music and our culture. In The Number Ones , Breihan writes about twenty pivotal #1s throughout chart history, revealing a remarkably fluid and connected story of music that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.
The Numbers Ones features the greatest pop artists of all time, from the Brill Building songwriters to the Beatles and the Beach Boys; from Motown to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Mariah Carey; and from the digital revolution to the K-pop system. Breihan also ponders great artists who have never hit the top spot, like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and James Brown. Breihan illuminates what makes indelible ear candy across the decades—including dance crazes, recording innovations, television phenomena, disco, AOR, MTV, rap, compact discs, mp3s, social media, memes, and much more—leaving readers to wonder what could possibly happen next.
The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958, and after four years of posting the column, Breihan is still in the early aughts. But readers no longer have to wait for his brilliant synthesis of what the history of #1s has meant to music and our culture. In The Number Ones , Breihan writes about twenty pivotal #1s throughout chart history, revealing a remarkably fluid and connected story of music that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.
The Numbers Ones features the greatest pop artists of all time, from the Brill Building songwriters to the Beatles and the Beach Boys; from Motown to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Mariah Carey; and from the digital revolution to the K-pop system. Breihan also ponders great artists who have never hit the top spot, like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and James Brown. Breihan illuminates what makes indelible ear candy across the decades—including dance crazes, recording innovations, television phenomena, disco, AOR, MTV, rap, compact discs, mp3s, social media, memes, and much more—leaving readers to wonder what could possibly happen next.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2022
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December 4, 2023
Tom Breihan is a great writer about pop music, garrulous, fact-filled, excitable and never dull. I never heard of him until he started writing a column in Stereogum about every USA number one record since the Hot 100 was initiated in by Billboard magazine in August 1958. At that point they decided to compile the three different charts into one and call it THE hot 100. I don’t know why it took them so long to think of such an obvious idea.
So Tom Breihan’s blog covers ever single number one and this book selects 20 out of the 1160 (as of December 2023) to put in the spotlight. Why these ones?
These aren’t the best Hot 100 hits in history…instead, these are the songs that marked new movements in pop music evolution – the ones that immediately made the previous weeks’ hits sound like relics.
So we’re talking about major significance here.
Here’s a quick summary.
1.The Twist by Chubby Checker (1960) . Because the Billboard Hot 100 didn’t begin in 1955 with Rock Around the Clock – obviously it should have – and instead the first Number One was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson, a song which does not ring down through the ages, this book begins rather lamely with Chubby Checker and his dance craze. Well, it was a GIANT dance craze, that can’t be disputed. But to say the truth, I was not convinced of the importance of twisting twisting till you tear the house down.
2. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow by the Shirelles (1960). How the awesome Brill Building songwriters forged a musical language involving mostly girl groups and black singers, which lasted until
3. I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles (1963). Tom misses the pop explosion that was Elvis (I really think he should have chucked out Chubby and drafted in Elvis) so this is the first undeniable youthquake he writes about. Pity the poor music writer who has to find some small shred of originality in his contemplation of this phenomenon. It’s not easy.
4. Where Did Our Love Go by the Supremes (1964): how Motown, after a stuttering start, turned into a hit machine and The Sound of Young America ™
5. Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds (1965): how something called “folk music” was grafted on to pop music and vastly expanded the lyrical and musical palette. Well Tom Dooley was folk but Mr Tambourine Man wasn’t, even though the f word was endlessly used, but it was something utterly different to what went before. Its influence could be baleful – without Dylan there wouldn’t have been one of the worst songs ever to get to number one : Eve of Destruction (“My blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’/And I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’). You got to take the rough with the smooth.
6. Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys (1966): a bit of a dodgy chapter I think – this record was so extreme it didn’t change the world of pop music, people just gaped and moved on. Also, Tom says that after GV Brian Wilson “went into seclusion and was eventually institutionalized” which I think is not accurate at all.
7. Rock Your Baby by George McCrae (1974): the rise and sudden fall of disco.
8. Dreams by Fleetwood Mac (1977) : how the album as outsize event began, the album being Rumours.
9. Don’t You Want Me by the Human League (1981) : the rise of MTV. Okay, I never bothered with MTV but I see how significant it was.
10. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson (1983): obviously Beatles and Jacko must be in this book. Whilst celebrating the brilliance of the music, writers now have to deal with the unhappy legacy, it can’t be avoided.
11. When Doves Cry by Prince (1984): how Prince explained to the industry what synergy was – for a while in 1984 he had the number one single, the number one album and the number one movie at the same time. Nobody else ever did this before or since.
12.You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi (1986): how hard rock became pop and how many genres of rock never sold singles at all, such as grunge.
13. Vision of Love by Mariah Carey (1990) : how Mariah rewrote the way pop divas could and should sing, and introduced the wonderful world of melisma to our eardrums, for good or for evil. And how Mariah sold and sold and sold to the extent where she is the only artist remotely capable of overtaking the Beatles’ total of 20 American Number Ones – she has 19. Baby, one more time and you’ll be equal. Mind you, it took the Beatles 6 years to do it, and it took Mariah 29 years to get hers, but let’s not be churlish.
14. Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (1990) : the rise of rap music and how it was seen as a novelty at first, like this record, which was, of course, recorded by a white guy, reminding me that the first jazz band to be recorded, in 1917, was white – The Original Dixieland Jass Band;
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. (Very pedantic note : when they were recorded the spelling of the name of the music was jass, later they changed their band name. )
15. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down by Puff Daddy (1997): how rap moved into the centre of popular music, after being on the fringes or being paraded as a novelty for ten years.
16. Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (1998) : the rise and rise and rise of Max Martin, the Swedish songwriter & producer who’s written nearly as many number ones as Lennon & McCartney and how many citizens have ever heard of the guy. This is a strange and almost sinister story. Are we being secretly controlled by the Illuminati?
17.Buy U a Drank by T-Pain (2007) : Autotune
18. Crank That by Soulja Boy Tell’em (2007): How the internet changed everything and now you can get hits made by some kid in his bedroom.
19. Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd (2016) : this was the soundtrack of the mannequin Challenge which was a social media thing. Way over my head.
20 Dynamite by BTS (2020) : the rise of K-Pop
*
I see at least one other reviewer has said that Tom’s blog is way more interesting, amusing and friendly than this book and I think it’s true, these essays are so crammed with facts and trajectories and subcultures and technologies and whatall. But it’s still good! On the blog Tom has just started writing up the number ones of 2012 so by my calculations it will be… er… wait…. Hmmm… a real long time before he catches up with the present, because when he gets to the present it will be way in the past and there will be more future that’s then past. Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time past. This goes without saying.
So Tom Breihan’s blog covers ever single number one and this book selects 20 out of the 1160 (as of December 2023) to put in the spotlight. Why these ones?
These aren’t the best Hot 100 hits in history…instead, these are the songs that marked new movements in pop music evolution – the ones that immediately made the previous weeks’ hits sound like relics.
So we’re talking about major significance here.
Here’s a quick summary.
1.The Twist by Chubby Checker (1960) . Because the Billboard Hot 100 didn’t begin in 1955 with Rock Around the Clock – obviously it should have – and instead the first Number One was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson, a song which does not ring down through the ages, this book begins rather lamely with Chubby Checker and his dance craze. Well, it was a GIANT dance craze, that can’t be disputed. But to say the truth, I was not convinced of the importance of twisting twisting till you tear the house down.
2. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow by the Shirelles (1960). How the awesome Brill Building songwriters forged a musical language involving mostly girl groups and black singers, which lasted until
3. I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles (1963). Tom misses the pop explosion that was Elvis (I really think he should have chucked out Chubby and drafted in Elvis) so this is the first undeniable youthquake he writes about. Pity the poor music writer who has to find some small shred of originality in his contemplation of this phenomenon. It’s not easy.
4. Where Did Our Love Go by the Supremes (1964): how Motown, after a stuttering start, turned into a hit machine and The Sound of Young America ™
5. Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds (1965): how something called “folk music” was grafted on to pop music and vastly expanded the lyrical and musical palette. Well Tom Dooley was folk but Mr Tambourine Man wasn’t, even though the f word was endlessly used, but it was something utterly different to what went before. Its influence could be baleful – without Dylan there wouldn’t have been one of the worst songs ever to get to number one : Eve of Destruction (“My blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’/And I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’). You got to take the rough with the smooth.
6. Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys (1966): a bit of a dodgy chapter I think – this record was so extreme it didn’t change the world of pop music, people just gaped and moved on. Also, Tom says that after GV Brian Wilson “went into seclusion and was eventually institutionalized” which I think is not accurate at all.
7. Rock Your Baby by George McCrae (1974): the rise and sudden fall of disco.
8. Dreams by Fleetwood Mac (1977) : how the album as outsize event began, the album being Rumours.
9. Don’t You Want Me by the Human League (1981) : the rise of MTV. Okay, I never bothered with MTV but I see how significant it was.
10. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson (1983): obviously Beatles and Jacko must be in this book. Whilst celebrating the brilliance of the music, writers now have to deal with the unhappy legacy, it can’t be avoided.
11. When Doves Cry by Prince (1984): how Prince explained to the industry what synergy was – for a while in 1984 he had the number one single, the number one album and the number one movie at the same time. Nobody else ever did this before or since.
12.You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi (1986): how hard rock became pop and how many genres of rock never sold singles at all, such as grunge.
13. Vision of Love by Mariah Carey (1990) : how Mariah rewrote the way pop divas could and should sing, and introduced the wonderful world of melisma to our eardrums, for good or for evil. And how Mariah sold and sold and sold to the extent where she is the only artist remotely capable of overtaking the Beatles’ total of 20 American Number Ones – she has 19. Baby, one more time and you’ll be equal. Mind you, it took the Beatles 6 years to do it, and it took Mariah 29 years to get hers, but let’s not be churlish.
14. Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (1990) : the rise of rap music and how it was seen as a novelty at first, like this record, which was, of course, recorded by a white guy, reminding me that the first jazz band to be recorded, in 1917, was white – The Original Dixieland Jass Band;
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. (Very pedantic note : when they were recorded the spelling of the name of the music was jass, later they changed their band name. )
15. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down by Puff Daddy (1997): how rap moved into the centre of popular music, after being on the fringes or being paraded as a novelty for ten years.
16. Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (1998) : the rise and rise and rise of Max Martin, the Swedish songwriter & producer who’s written nearly as many number ones as Lennon & McCartney and how many citizens have ever heard of the guy. This is a strange and almost sinister story. Are we being secretly controlled by the Illuminati?
17.Buy U a Drank by T-Pain (2007) : Autotune
18. Crank That by Soulja Boy Tell’em (2007): How the internet changed everything and now you can get hits made by some kid in his bedroom.
19. Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd (2016) : this was the soundtrack of the mannequin Challenge which was a social media thing. Way over my head.
20 Dynamite by BTS (2020) : the rise of K-Pop
*
I see at least one other reviewer has said that Tom’s blog is way more interesting, amusing and friendly than this book and I think it’s true, these essays are so crammed with facts and trajectories and subcultures and technologies and whatall. But it’s still good! On the blog Tom has just started writing up the number ones of 2012 so by my calculations it will be… er… wait…. Hmmm… a real long time before he catches up with the present, because when he gets to the present it will be way in the past and there will be more future that’s then past. Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time past. This goes without saying.
December 8, 2022
Tom Breihan is one of the best pop culture writers out right now - forget music (where I consider him second only to the great Ann Powers right now), he's unmatched anywhere. His sentences are short, his prose conversational. They will have you read the next sentence, and the next, and the next. He brings his personality front and center, but not in a way that completely distracts from the information. It's downright addictive, hilarious when Breihan dislikes a record, and enrapturing when he really likes something. Take, for instance, this bit when Breihan reviews the 2000 chart topper "With Arms Wide Open" by post-grunge outfit Creed:
In 2018, inspired by Tom Ewing's popular column "Popular" on the blog Freakytrigger (where Ewing reviews UK chart toppers), Breihan started the column "The Number Ones" on the publication he works at, Stereogum. The aim was simple - every day (then every other day), Breihan would review a #1 of the Billboard Hot 100, starting all the way from 1958 and working his way up to the present. Close to five years later, he's arrived at the year 2004. Between those years, something else happened - these short reviews brought in tons of comments, building an entire community separate from the Stereogum commenter community, and the reviews themselves grew larger, denser, wider. Breihan would take detours - talk about this producer, say, or this cultural moment, or the sample - and do it with such an effortless ease that you often don't realize that he hasn't talked about the song in question in paragraphs. He'd drop future artists and mention that we will see them in this column "soon" or "very soon". Every review ends with a numeric score, and this is reflected in the songs he mentions in a review, too, like, (Collins’ take on “You Can’t Hurry Love” eventually peaked at #10, becoming his first US top-10 hit. Collins’ version is a 5. Collins will be in this column a bunch of times.). And at the end of each review, there's the bonus beats of artists covering this song, or referencing this song. (When it's especially popular, there's bonus bonus bonus bonus beats, too.) This dedication, this wealth of information, and the personality writing it all, is nothing short of magnetizing.
The Number Ones the novel that Breihan wrote while writing the column puts Breihan's personality at the backburner. It doesn't reference who will hit the next chapter. It does retain the wealth of information and the wide research at hand, however, and Breihan's intent to capture twenty fulcrum moments of music history is intervowen from chapter to chapter. Sometimes this is to a great benefit, like when Breihan talks about The Human League's Don't You Want Me to discuss the rise of MTV, or Soulja Boy's Crank That (Soulja Boy) to highlight the wide-reaching impact Soulja has to this day (my favorite part is when Breihan trashes Ice-T trashing Soulja Boy by saying (I paraphrase) "fifty year old Ice-T who was more in Law & Order SVU than in the rap game has something to say about the rap game"). Other times, the detours that charm in the blog become the novel's detriment - pages and pages of trap precede Rae Sremmurd's Black Beatles, making it barely understandable why this song was picked (Diddy's hit, the 1997 Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, suffers from the same problem), and the Beatles chapter I Want To Hold Your Hand is mostly a convenient vehicle to talk about Beatlesmania at large. I am also unsure about the last song picked, 2020's Dynamite - Breihan talks about K-Pop and BTS without the Orientalist bias that befalls a lot of American writers (even referencing a moment that brought him a lot of flak by BTS's fans aka ARMY - a post about BTS' Butter that started with "I write a book about charts" and essentially asked ARMY to stop buying digital singles over and over (lol), making it hilariously meta on both sides), but ending the whole book on the sentiment that "the charts are just fanwars now" feels... a bit somber, at least for my taste. But maybe that's where we are at anyway: music charts dystopia.
Despite all this, the book still provides a charming overview of the Billboard charts and American (and some British!) music history. The outro genuinely brought me to tears. I had the best time reading the book, as a long-time fan of the column, and I will be visiting the column for many more days to come. It's a little like how Breihan describes the album Saturday Night Live: the blog sells the novel, and the novel sells the blog. For those that read the blog wondering if the novel is worth it - it's a bit different, but charming all the same. For those who walk away from the book blown away by the scope of it all, the Stereogum posts are right here - all of it for free. Pick a year and dive in. We will see Breihan in this column again.
9/10
To take any kind of critical stance on Creed, you almost have to take a side in a culture war. I can’t find the quote online — it might’ve been in Creed’s episode of Behind The Music — but I remember a moment when lead growl-moaner Scott Stapp pointed out that Led Zeppelin, just like Creed, had once been a massively popular band and a critical punching bag. Stapp’s point was that the millions and millions of people who bought Creed’s records couldn’t be wrong and that the critics would catch up eventually. Never happened. You need to go pretty deep down the contrarian-takes wormhole to find anyone repping for Creed. When the subject comes up today, it’s mostly because people are trying to figure out what the fuck that was — why so many millions decided that Human Clay was worth their money. I’d love to answer that question, but I can’t. Creed was just some shit that happened.
In 2018, inspired by Tom Ewing's popular column "Popular" on the blog Freakytrigger (where Ewing reviews UK chart toppers), Breihan started the column "The Number Ones" on the publication he works at, Stereogum. The aim was simple - every day (then every other day), Breihan would review a #1 of the Billboard Hot 100, starting all the way from 1958 and working his way up to the present. Close to five years later, he's arrived at the year 2004. Between those years, something else happened - these short reviews brought in tons of comments, building an entire community separate from the Stereogum commenter community, and the reviews themselves grew larger, denser, wider. Breihan would take detours - talk about this producer, say, or this cultural moment, or the sample - and do it with such an effortless ease that you often don't realize that he hasn't talked about the song in question in paragraphs. He'd drop future artists and mention that we will see them in this column "soon" or "very soon". Every review ends with a numeric score, and this is reflected in the songs he mentions in a review, too, like, (Collins’ take on “You Can’t Hurry Love” eventually peaked at #10, becoming his first US top-10 hit. Collins’ version is a 5. Collins will be in this column a bunch of times.). And at the end of each review, there's the bonus beats of artists covering this song, or referencing this song. (When it's especially popular, there's bonus bonus bonus bonus beats, too.) This dedication, this wealth of information, and the personality writing it all, is nothing short of magnetizing.
The Number Ones the novel that Breihan wrote while writing the column puts Breihan's personality at the backburner. It doesn't reference who will hit the next chapter. It does retain the wealth of information and the wide research at hand, however, and Breihan's intent to capture twenty fulcrum moments of music history is intervowen from chapter to chapter. Sometimes this is to a great benefit, like when Breihan talks about The Human League's Don't You Want Me to discuss the rise of MTV, or Soulja Boy's Crank That (Soulja Boy) to highlight the wide-reaching impact Soulja has to this day (my favorite part is when Breihan trashes Ice-T trashing Soulja Boy by saying (I paraphrase) "fifty year old Ice-T who was more in Law & Order SVU than in the rap game has something to say about the rap game"). Other times, the detours that charm in the blog become the novel's detriment - pages and pages of trap precede Rae Sremmurd's Black Beatles, making it barely understandable why this song was picked (Diddy's hit, the 1997 Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, suffers from the same problem), and the Beatles chapter I Want To Hold Your Hand is mostly a convenient vehicle to talk about Beatlesmania at large. I am also unsure about the last song picked, 2020's Dynamite - Breihan talks about K-Pop and BTS without the Orientalist bias that befalls a lot of American writers (even referencing a moment that brought him a lot of flak by BTS's fans aka ARMY - a post about BTS' Butter that started with "I write a book about charts" and essentially asked ARMY to stop buying digital singles over and over (lol), making it hilariously meta on both sides), but ending the whole book on the sentiment that "the charts are just fanwars now" feels... a bit somber, at least for my taste. But maybe that's where we are at anyway: music charts dystopia.
Despite all this, the book still provides a charming overview of the Billboard charts and American (and some British!) music history. The outro genuinely brought me to tears. I had the best time reading the book, as a long-time fan of the column, and I will be visiting the column for many more days to come. It's a little like how Breihan describes the album Saturday Night Live: the blog sells the novel, and the novel sells the blog. For those that read the blog wondering if the novel is worth it - it's a bit different, but charming all the same. For those who walk away from the book blown away by the scope of it all, the Stereogum posts are right here - all of it for free. Pick a year and dive in. We will see Breihan in this column again.
9/10
January 23, 2024
I first encountered the assignment of numbers to and ranking of popular songs during the summer of 1962 as a 12-year-old living in suburban Atlanta. Each weekday evening I would ignore whatever my family was watching on TV and retreat to the room I shared with my brother to listen to the Top Ten Countdown on WQXI (Quicksy in Dixie). From 8:30 to 8:50 you could call the station and vote for your favorite song. I was never able to get through, so the Trumpian portion of my adolescent brain suspected the voting was rigged. At 9:00 they would play the top ten vote-getters in inverse order and I was totally caught up in the competition. My memory is that the top spot often went to either Bobby Vinton's sappy ballad, "Roses Are Red", or Ray Stevens' comedy novelty record, "Ahab the Arab". (I fear the latter record influenced American foreign policy in subsequent decades.) In retrospect, I suspect that these two songs contending for the top spot meant that the voters were other 12-year-olds.
A quarter century later Tom Breihan had an experience similar to mine while watching Tops of the Pops in the UK. But while my fascination with music countdowns has remained but a quirky obsession (I spent last New Year's Eve listening to the top 99 songs of the 90s on Sirius Radio), Breihan has turned his own fascination into a lucrative occupation. In this book he has selected 20 songs from the hundreds that have reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958, and explained why he thinks that each has had an outsized impact on the direction of popular music in the US. You can disagree with his choices (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Satisfaction, and Disco Inferno didn't make the cut), but he lays out his reasons, bolstered by research and anecdotes that will challenge your own preferences.
If you are among the large segment of the population (which includes almost everyone I know) who wonders why any of this matters, you may want to skip this book.
A quarter century later Tom Breihan had an experience similar to mine while watching Tops of the Pops in the UK. But while my fascination with music countdowns has remained but a quirky obsession (I spent last New Year's Eve listening to the top 99 songs of the 90s on Sirius Radio), Breihan has turned his own fascination into a lucrative occupation. In this book he has selected 20 songs from the hundreds that have reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958, and explained why he thinks that each has had an outsized impact on the direction of popular music in the US. You can disagree with his choices (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Satisfaction, and Disco Inferno didn't make the cut), but he lays out his reasons, bolstered by research and anecdotes that will challenge your own preferences.
If you are among the large segment of the population (which includes almost everyone I know) who wonders why any of this matters, you may want to skip this book.
January 18, 2023
Very entertaining history of pop music through twenty pivotal Billboard #1 hits. What made some songs reach #1 and other miss is absolutely part of the appeal, as are all the tidbits about other songs and acts that Breihan threads through his narrative. I did get a bit irritated by some of the redundancies between the chapters, where Breihan would present facts he'd already introduced anew -- as if this were a collection of essays and not a book where we'd just read that in the last chapter -- but that was a small issue, and maybe somewhat alleviated if I'd pause between songs in a more civilized manner. Instead I mostly only paused to look up various tunes.
Totally obsessed with this 1961 hit by the Shirelles from the first chapter of the book now, btw.
Totally obsessed with this 1961 hit by the Shirelles from the first chapter of the book now, btw.
November 2, 2022
The Number Ones covers a variety of musicians including The Beatles, Prince, Mariah Carey, Puff Daddy, Britney Spears, T-Pain & even BTS to create a harmonizing book with a section for pretty much any music lover. I enjoyed that it started with the creation of the Hot 100 & the days of The Dick Clark Show & ventured all the way to now & the power of streaming & canvases like the BTS Army!
I liked that each song, & in turn each artist, was given one solid chapter to cover a history of the artist along with the creation & inevitable success of the hit. Thanks to how it is written, I found it very easy to pick up & read a couple chapters & songs at a time when I was free, which I enjoyed.
The music industry, along with the entertainment business in general, is full of unbelievable artists, people with wicked determination & grit & a plethora of personalities, which is the perfect recipe for art, chaos & unimaginable drama.
This book does an excellent job of condensing so much history for each artist & song into digestible chapters. It highlights facts regarding the musician, the song & their personal journey in an entertaining way. Even artists that I already was a fan of, I learned things when reading their chapters, which I feel like is an excellent showcase to a book about music.
I would recommend The Number Ones to any music lover &/or anyone wanting to learn more about music, chart-topping hits or the music business in general!
Massive thanks goes to Hachette Books for sending me a physical arc along with a finished copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
I liked that each song, & in turn each artist, was given one solid chapter to cover a history of the artist along with the creation & inevitable success of the hit. Thanks to how it is written, I found it very easy to pick up & read a couple chapters & songs at a time when I was free, which I enjoyed.
The music industry, along with the entertainment business in general, is full of unbelievable artists, people with wicked determination & grit & a plethora of personalities, which is the perfect recipe for art, chaos & unimaginable drama.
This book does an excellent job of condensing so much history for each artist & song into digestible chapters. It highlights facts regarding the musician, the song & their personal journey in an entertaining way. Even artists that I already was a fan of, I learned things when reading their chapters, which I feel like is an excellent showcase to a book about music.
I would recommend The Number Ones to any music lover &/or anyone wanting to learn more about music, chart-topping hits or the music business in general!
Massive thanks goes to Hachette Books for sending me a physical arc along with a finished copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
November 17, 2022
Tom Breihan is my favorite music writer currently with his very informative and entertaining Number Ones column on Stereogum that I’ve been following since almost the beginning. In his column, Breihan reviews every US #1 song in chronological order starting with the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s beginning in 1958. His column serves as the basis for his Number Ones book which profiles 20 #1 songs and how they each have impacted pop music in a variety of ways from introducing new styles to new crazes or new means of promotion and hitmaking. Breihan brings his online writing style to his book which makes the Number Ones a very fun yet accessible read through modern pop music history. He gives you lots of cool background and insight on every song that makes you understand how these 20 songs connect in the large scheme of music history from Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” to BTS’ “Dynamite.” This book is everything I expected from Breihan and I can’t recommend this and his Number Ones column enough!
January 6, 2025
I was initially a wee bit disappointed that this was a much more sensible read than Tom Breihan's funny, snarky Stereogum column, but it really hit its stride once it left behind well-worn topics like the Beatles and early MTV and got into more modern music history. I learned a great deal about hair metal, trap and Autotune! I enjoyed the chapters on Puff Daddy (boo!) and T-Pain (hooray, apparently!). And I appreciated the shout-out to Tom Ewing in the acknowledgements with full admission that he'd completely ripped off his Freaktytrigger column.
January 14, 2024
This book is OK. The problem is, the Sterogum column that inspired it is so, so much better.
Tom Breihan is a very distinctive music writer. Both in the Number Ones column and in whatever news story he writes on Stereogum, you can tell almost immediately that it's him. But the writing in this book lacks this style. It's a lot drier. Very information-heavy. It seems extremely well-researched, but at times I felt like I was reading a textbook or someone's dissertation.
The selection of the songs may have been another issue. I understand that he chose songs that made a particular impact, but honestly I don't know at this point how the Good Vibrations story can be told in a way we've not read three million times before. Perhaps if Tom had chosen less 'totemic' songs, it might have made for more interesting (and original) reading.
Finally, and this is by no means a real criticism (as I said, the book seems intensely researched, possibly even to its detriment) but I just wanted to point out that in the book the band The Animals (who took The House of the Rising Sun to the US no.1 in 1964) are referred to as "Manchester's Animals", while they're actually from Newcastle.
Tom Breihan is a very distinctive music writer. Both in the Number Ones column and in whatever news story he writes on Stereogum, you can tell almost immediately that it's him. But the writing in this book lacks this style. It's a lot drier. Very information-heavy. It seems extremely well-researched, but at times I felt like I was reading a textbook or someone's dissertation.
The selection of the songs may have been another issue. I understand that he chose songs that made a particular impact, but honestly I don't know at this point how the Good Vibrations story can be told in a way we've not read three million times before. Perhaps if Tom had chosen less 'totemic' songs, it might have made for more interesting (and original) reading.
Finally, and this is by no means a real criticism (as I said, the book seems intensely researched, possibly even to its detriment) but I just wanted to point out that in the book the band The Animals (who took The House of the Rising Sun to the US no.1 in 1964) are referred to as "Manchester's Animals", while they're actually from Newcastle.
June 30, 2023
A fun bit of journalism about the rise and fall of the Billboard Hot 100, and its relationship to American popular culture during that time.
The author focuses on 20 #1 songs in particular to divide the events into manageable sections of events and topics. It is admittedly an imperfect system, but if you want the fine detailed information he has a web series that goes through each of the songs by the same name as the book.
I’ve been familiar with this author’s online work for several years, from his brilliant “A History of Violence” and “Box Office Champs” series which do a year by year take on popular culture through films. This is an interesting method of looking at culture, understanding the recent past through specific cultural artifacts.
This book is well written and an enjoyable read, but it becomes apparent throughout the book at the Top 100 is a flawed instrument for understanding American culture because of so many attempts to manipulate it, although this does reflect an impact on culture, just not as directly as if it were the genuine interest of Americans driving the rankings.
The author focuses on 20 #1 songs in particular to divide the events into manageable sections of events and topics. It is admittedly an imperfect system, but if you want the fine detailed information he has a web series that goes through each of the songs by the same name as the book.
I’ve been familiar with this author’s online work for several years, from his brilliant “A History of Violence” and “Box Office Champs” series which do a year by year take on popular culture through films. This is an interesting method of looking at culture, understanding the recent past through specific cultural artifacts.
This book is well written and an enjoyable read, but it becomes apparent throughout the book at the Top 100 is a flawed instrument for understanding American culture because of so many attempts to manipulate it, although this does reflect an impact on culture, just not as directly as if it were the genuine interest of Americans driving the rankings.
October 19, 2025
4.5 ⭐️!!
This was such a fascinating topic! The Billboard Hot 100 has been measuring the success of music for years and this book discusses 20 #1 hits over the past half a century.
I thought it was really fun to listen to a chapter then go listen to the song after. I also am likely the most targeted audience for this because I used to LOVE the MTV/VH1 “documentary” style specials on particular artists as a kid. This felt just like that.
The author did an excellent job painting the picture of the climate of the country at the time a particular song came out likely contributing to its success! It was so interesting to hear about how the Hot 100 has adapted its measuring techniques for success as the music industry as a whole has evolved over time. At times the author would highlight certain songs that while wildly popular in their day, never broke the top ten.
I listened to this which may have been the reason for it being 4.5 vs. 5 stars. My only complaint was that at times I felt like the author would really chase a rabbit hole and lose me in what we were actually talking about. Would 100% still recommend this to anyone who’s interested.
This was such a fascinating topic! The Billboard Hot 100 has been measuring the success of music for years and this book discusses 20 #1 hits over the past half a century.
I thought it was really fun to listen to a chapter then go listen to the song after. I also am likely the most targeted audience for this because I used to LOVE the MTV/VH1 “documentary” style specials on particular artists as a kid. This felt just like that.
The author did an excellent job painting the picture of the climate of the country at the time a particular song came out likely contributing to its success! It was so interesting to hear about how the Hot 100 has adapted its measuring techniques for success as the music industry as a whole has evolved over time. At times the author would highlight certain songs that while wildly popular in their day, never broke the top ten.
I listened to this which may have been the reason for it being 4.5 vs. 5 stars. My only complaint was that at times I felt like the author would really chase a rabbit hole and lose me in what we were actually talking about. Would 100% still recommend this to anyone who’s interested.
October 3, 2024
I really appreciate that this book exists, and I got to learn a lot about something I really really love. I learned a lot about Carole King. I learned a lot about BTS. I learned that the inventor of autotune is like also super responsible for a lot of oil drilling. I love The Number Ones column and think Tom Breihan is a critic that so reflects my tastes and values in what’s important about music. But I think the 20 songs format limits it a little. Only getting one song for the 2010s felt like a miss (I’d elect We Found Love as a potential entry), and sometimes the chapters have a sort of repetitive quality, as if they are less a book and more 20 entries in a column. So not 5 stars. But I love it dearly
March 27, 2023
The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music
I Picked Up This Book Because: Interest in music.
Media Type: Audiobook
Source: LV-CC Public Library
Dates Read: 3/23/23 - 3/26/23
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Ray Stoney
The Story:
Books like this always remind me of my music appreciation classes in college. Music is an enjoyable subject that has endless perspectives and I always learn something new.
The Random Thoughts:
This book should come with a Spotify playlist.
I Picked Up This Book Because: Interest in music.
Media Type: Audiobook
Source: LV-CC Public Library
Dates Read: 3/23/23 - 3/26/23
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Ray Stoney
The Story:
Books like this always remind me of my music appreciation classes in college. Music is an enjoyable subject that has endless perspectives and I always learn something new.
The Random Thoughts:
This book should come with a Spotify playlist.
April 16, 2025
I am not a big music nerd, but I thought this was great! I found myself going to YouTube to watch all the videos and spouting off facts to my friends and family. (Sorry, everyone!) I even went down a Mannequin Challenge rabbit hole by the end. The writing was engaging and approachable. I would definitely recommend this.
November 25, 2023
Perfect plane book
September 29, 2024
Tom Breihan is one of the best music writers working today so it's no surprise that this book is well-researched and thoughtfully sewn together. But this book is pretty much missing all of the sauce that Breihan brings to his Stereogum column of the same name, which is a great shame. The closest we get to seeing the beast escape is a late stretch that anchors Gucci Mane at the epicentre of rap's last commercial explosion and it's phenomenal. Otherwise, it's a little dry.
January 1, 2024
Was concerned that this would just be ten of Tom's columns in book form, but it's even more detailed than the long-form pieces posted every week on Stereogum! A must for anyone with any curiosity about chart history.
June 16, 2023
I really loved this book, it is exactly the kind of history that I really enjoy studying, 20th century, pop culture, and music. I really liked the wide range of songs the author focused on, some that everyone would know and some that you might not but still connected to the big picture of music and popular culture history. I really loved the back stories behind popular songs as well, learning about the making of the songs and the influence different styles, studios, people, and songs had on the chart-topping hits. I am not sure whether it was the author or the person reading the audiobook that did this but another favourite moment of mine was when the author talked about Justin Beiber's hometown of "Statford" ON, I hear they have a big Shakespeare festival as well.
May 23, 2024
As someone who loves pop culture and music, I absolutely adored this book! It delineated the history of pop music through songs that went #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in turn was such a unique and fun read. I played some of the songs that were mentioned in the book in the background while I was reading and it created such a fun ambience that shifted to more familiarity the further I got into the book. Books like this remind me 1) why I love pop music so much as it so often reflects people's evolving interests over time while also serving as a response to historical events (this concept is touched on in the book as well) and 2) that nonfiction can be interesting! The author has a column on Stereogum that I will now be adding to my weekly reading list. I love music, both listening to it and reading about it, and this book reminded me of that.
January 6, 2023
I enjoy Tom Breihan's "The Number Ones" column on Stereogum, in which he reviews every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. I haven't read all of these, of course, but the ones I have are generally fun and insightful. His scathing review of Billy Joel's 1989 hit "We Didn't Start the Fire" is particularly memorable. I guess I'd sort of assumed that Breihan's book, also called The Number Ones would be a collection of some of his best writing for his column. It isn't. Instead, Breihan uses 20 specific songs to trace the development of rock and pop music over the past 65 years from the birth of rock-n-roll to the sidelining of that genre in favor of hip-hop and electronic pop.
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but although I enjoyed each of the chapters well enough, I went from really liking each of the songs right up until 1990 and then thinking each song was increasingly worse than the other. In fact, I didn't know the last three songs at all but assume they were every bit as abysmal as the three or four that preceded them. It's not uncommon for people in their mid-40s to think the music of today sucks, but I don't necessarily think that. I just think that virtually anything that makes it to #1 in the days of minimal actual sales of singles, streaming via Spotify, and (shudder) TikTok trends runs toward the vacuous. I could be wrong. I'm sure if I wrote this on Twitter, twenty-year-olds would appear to tell me how wrong and, of course, old I am, the ad hominem being the only acceptable way to discuss popular music in this day and age.
Anyway, I liked The Number Ones well enough. It was a fun reminder of some great songs from the 1960s through the 1980s and some interesting discussion of a whole lot of garbage music of the modern era. For pure enjoyment, however, I prefer Breihan's work for Stereogum, which is much funnier and more savage.
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but although I enjoyed each of the chapters well enough, I went from really liking each of the songs right up until 1990 and then thinking each song was increasingly worse than the other. In fact, I didn't know the last three songs at all but assume they were every bit as abysmal as the three or four that preceded them. It's not uncommon for people in their mid-40s to think the music of today sucks, but I don't necessarily think that. I just think that virtually anything that makes it to #1 in the days of minimal actual sales of singles, streaming via Spotify, and (shudder) TikTok trends runs toward the vacuous. I could be wrong. I'm sure if I wrote this on Twitter, twenty-year-olds would appear to tell me how wrong and, of course, old I am, the ad hominem being the only acceptable way to discuss popular music in this day and age.
Anyway, I liked The Number Ones well enough. It was a fun reminder of some great songs from the 1960s through the 1980s and some interesting discussion of a whole lot of garbage music of the modern era. For pure enjoyment, however, I prefer Breihan's work for Stereogum, which is much funnier and more savage.
July 22, 2022
As someone who loves music, especially the 60s- early 2000s, I couldn’t wait to read this one! I only had two of the songs featured I wasn’t overly familiar one - one a disco tune and the other a more recent one because I’m old and tragically unhip. 😂 What I really liked about this book though is that while it definitely does some background on the songs themself, it really is more of a deep dive into the impact this song had on the music industry and charts which I thought was fascinating. Spanning from the 1960s when the Billboard 100 first began to the 2020s, I thought the songs and stories were well chosen and so interesting. Some of the writing was stiff and a pretentious at times (example: … the combination of bucolic reverie and erudite viciousness held sway… ) but for the most part its an easy to read, well researched deep dive into pop music. I of course had to listen to each song as I read about it, along with several of the other songs that came up as well which made for a fun reading experience. Absolutely recommend for any music lovers or anyone interested in the history and behind the scenes of pop music.
Thanks @hachettebooks for the gifted copy. The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music will be out on November 15. It would make an excellent Christmas gift for the music lover in your life!
Thanks @hachettebooks for the gifted copy. The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music will be out on November 15. It would make an excellent Christmas gift for the music lover in your life!
May 9, 2023
Maybe I'm missing my parents. Maybe I'm missing music. Maybe I'm missing my passion for singing. I don't know. But I feel like this is a book that I didn't know that I needed right now.
Breihan's publication was such an enjoyable deep-dive into number 1 musical hits! I loved how I knew almost every song that was mentioned in this book and was reminded of certain events that shaped and were intrinsically connected to the songs and artists that released the #1s. I loved how I learned new things about some artists, producers, and the other people/circumstances that influenced the music included in this text. And I especially loved that I could envision the artist, feel the tempo, and remember hearing someone I know singing each song. When the songs in the 90s, 00s, and 10s came up, memories flooded back, and the nostalgia was comforting and pleasant.
I know that some people may not be music people, but for me a life without music isn't worth living. Music is food for my soul, and based on his writing, I can say confidently that it's the same for Breihan.
If you're interested in music; music history; nonfiction about billboard chart-toppers, and pop culture; western ideologies; socioeconomics; race issues; and/or politics, then this could be for you! I loved this, and if my parents were alive, I'd have bought it for them :)
[Audiobook, borrowed from library]
Breihan's publication was such an enjoyable deep-dive into number 1 musical hits! I loved how I knew almost every song that was mentioned in this book and was reminded of certain events that shaped and were intrinsically connected to the songs and artists that released the #1s. I loved how I learned new things about some artists, producers, and the other people/circumstances that influenced the music included in this text. And I especially loved that I could envision the artist, feel the tempo, and remember hearing someone I know singing each song. When the songs in the 90s, 00s, and 10s came up, memories flooded back, and the nostalgia was comforting and pleasant.
I know that some people may not be music people, but for me a life without music isn't worth living. Music is food for my soul, and based on his writing, I can say confidently that it's the same for Breihan.
If you're interested in music; music history; nonfiction about billboard chart-toppers, and pop culture; western ideologies; socioeconomics; race issues; and/or politics, then this could be for you! I loved this, and if my parents were alive, I'd have bought it for them :)
[Audiobook, borrowed from library]
March 19, 2025
There's is a time when a large swathe of humanity had a shared playlist and even if you didn't like the song at least you knew of it, that time is long gone. In its stead we have a granular system where an artist could be big in a subset of fans but be virtually unknown elsewhere. I prefer the streaming era with all it's pitfalls it is kinder to artists compared to the old era of the record companies with their predatory loans to artists disguised as "record deals"...
The old era had discovered the sales driving power of charts and endevored to create them and even hype them to unwarranted importance, every radio station had a top 40, a top of the hour, an urban playlist, you name it. I picked up this book ostensibly to learn of the evolution of pop music (heavily american centered) over time. I learnt some things but I had a problem with the fact that the chapters were purpotedly about some top song but as soon as you turned the next page, the story was about everything else tangetial to the song but not the song itself. I would have loved more info on the song itself, how the beat was created, the decisions to feature which artist or leave out some of them but more about the song itself. The book will still interest anyone especially if you are looking for music trivia but I felt it could have been better.
The old era had discovered the sales driving power of charts and endevored to create them and even hype them to unwarranted importance, every radio station had a top 40, a top of the hour, an urban playlist, you name it. I picked up this book ostensibly to learn of the evolution of pop music (heavily american centered) over time. I learnt some things but I had a problem with the fact that the chapters were purpotedly about some top song but as soon as you turned the next page, the story was about everything else tangetial to the song but not the song itself. I would have loved more info on the song itself, how the beat was created, the decisions to feature which artist or leave out some of them but more about the song itself. The book will still interest anyone especially if you are looking for music trivia but I felt it could have been better.
January 30, 2024
"There’s something romantic about the idea of a #1 song— about the idea that, at any given moment, there’s one song that’s playing more than any other on our car radios, dancing through our brains, and shaping our memories."
I like Tom Breihan and I really enjoyed this book, it was very interesting to see which 20 Number Ones he chose for this book and the reasoning behind it. I couldn't help but listen to some of the songs while reading the book☺ The last few chapters of the book were also a bit of an education, since I know very little about Rap music, except maybe for some of the more famous ones. Over all reading this book was fun, if you like pop music or music history in general, this is a good one.
"It’s easy to dismiss pop music as baby food, as mindless empty audio calories for the masses. But it’s a lot more interesting to figure out where a big pop hit fits into a bigger context and to learn the stories of the people who made that big pop hit."
I like Tom Breihan and I really enjoyed this book, it was very interesting to see which 20 Number Ones he chose for this book and the reasoning behind it. I couldn't help but listen to some of the songs while reading the book☺ The last few chapters of the book were also a bit of an education, since I know very little about Rap music, except maybe for some of the more famous ones. Over all reading this book was fun, if you like pop music or music history in general, this is a good one.
"It’s easy to dismiss pop music as baby food, as mindless empty audio calories for the masses. But it’s a lot more interesting to figure out where a big pop hit fits into a bigger context and to learn the stories of the people who made that big pop hit."
March 19, 2023
I absolutely devoured this book, just like the pepperoni/goat cheese pizza I ate last night. For those who don't know Tom Breihan, he's a writer for Stereogum (aka the best music blog/website there is) and has boldly taken on a task five years ago at writing about every single song that went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts since its inception in 1958 to the current day. He and his column are still killing it (he's currently at 2007 right now as I'm writing this) and I've been enjoying his column ever since around 2019 or so. He just published his debut book titled "The Number Ones," where he documents 20 different #1 hits, each at a specific landmark in time starting from Chubby Checker's "The Twist" in 1962 all the way to BTS' "Dynamite" in 2020. How Tom documents each #1 hit in a strong storytelling fashion while connecting the many different songs, trends, and genres throughout pop history is fascinating, brilliant, and super entertaining to read. I could not put this one down. I learned so much about these hits within this book and as I continue to read his internet column, I continue to learn. Tom Breihan is the man and "The Number Ones" is one of my favorite reads, period.
April 24, 2023
I love the column…but this was a bit of a slog. There’s a deeply charming fan-boy subjectivity and looseness to his Stereogum writing, which I find so winning. But his writing for the book (maybe because it’s “a book”) feels so much tighter and strained, like the necessity of saying SOMETHING IMPORTANT about each of these songs for posterity and inclusion in the Library of Congress, has sapped his writing of the verve and vigor that characterizes the blog entries. Each of the chapters certainly share interesting details on the 20 songs he’s identified and how they reflect or embody bigger cultural trends. But I was hard pressed to remember most of those details the next day, which is a sign. I got to meet him at a book signing this winter (very cool guy) and he said he writes each SGum column quickly and usually right on deadline. I think that urgency and deeply personal perspective make the column so great, whereas the book feels less passionate and, somehow, despite all the research he’s done, underbaked. In the blog, he’s found the right medium for his writing—but in book form, it’s an odd mismatch.
November 2, 2022
I thought this was an excellent read. Well researched and stretching into music engineering, history, international trends and more. The book does focus on the history of pop music, but that is told through of the story of how it was influenced by all genres, long before the Billboard was established. I definitely think this is worth reading if you are interested in music, celebrities, or history.
It is obviously set by 20 specific songs, but each chapter connects those songs to other parts of musical history, societal context, and other artists. You get to jump around to a lot of different time periods, bands, producers and events as each song is connected to other things in multiple ways.
Disclaimer: I received a gifted ARC and finished copy of this book from the publisher.
It is obviously set by 20 specific songs, but each chapter connects those songs to other parts of musical history, societal context, and other artists. You get to jump around to a lot of different time periods, bands, producers and events as each song is connected to other things in multiple ways.
Disclaimer: I received a gifted ARC and finished copy of this book from the publisher.
August 15, 2024
Breihan’s passion for the topic of music and what goes into making a Billboard #One single is contagious as he layers his own knowledge and understanding of trends and creativity with research and context—cultural and historical. Because each entry is based on a discreet column, sometimes there is repetition so that a reader can cherry-pick the artist/song, etc. and still get a thorough dive into its magical properties and a lot more popular culture surrounding the hit. Sometimes slyly witty, his style is quite straight-forward and accessible to almost everyone. From dance crazes to Autotune, he covers quite an array of styles and musical artists. He includes a Selected Bibliography and an Index, as well as a short but cogent Outre chapter that explains why and how he came to be a music critic and write this entertaining and enlightening book. For fans of contemporary music and its history like Flam & Sieu’s But Will You Love Me Tomorrow on 60s girl groups, Sanneh’s Major Labels, and Marc Myers' Anatomy series.
August 2, 2024
Shout out to my bff, Tash, for knowing the exact type of book I would geek out over. After Where Are Your Boys Tonight, it only feels right that I would read a book about my other music love, pop music. I definitely enjoyed the latter half of the book more, but as a whole, I just really loved reading about how pop has evolved and how interconnected the genre is.
(Kev was ready to kill me by the end with all my fun facts. Here’s one: BTS comes from the Korean phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan,” which roughly translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”)
(Kev was ready to kill me by the end with all my fun facts. Here’s one: BTS comes from the Korean phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan,” which roughly translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”)
August 24, 2022
The Number Ones was a fascinating read! This book looks at 20 #1 Billboard hits between 1960 and 2020 that tell the story of pop music and the songs that changed trends in music. These are not the best songs of all time. They're not even always great songs, but they are important songs for what they did to influence pop music. The back stories in each chapter were really interesting to me (except some of the rap sections because I have no real interest or knowledge in that genre). Luckily I was familiar and a fan of lots of these great artists and their music. I was inspired to listen to these songs as I traveled chapter to chapter, but now with a new understanding and listening for certain things that Tom Breihan had pointed out. I definitely will be passing this book on to some other music lovers. Thanks to Hachette Books for an ARC of this book won through a Goodreads giveaway.
December 23, 2022
If you can argue sports statistics all night long, this is sort of the musical equivalent. The author takes 20 songs that he believes are pivotal and makes his case, and he is both persuasive and totally wrong.
That is the fun of this book. You could take 20 different songs and do the same thing, and you would also be wrong. Music is too subjective for this to ever make sense, but it is a well written blast to read, and it can be the beginning of dozens of fun arguments. If you love music, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t enjoy this book.
That is the fun of this book. You could take 20 different songs and do the same thing, and you would also be wrong. Music is too subjective for this to ever make sense, but it is a well written blast to read, and it can be the beginning of dozens of fun arguments. If you love music, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t enjoy this book.
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