The Daily Dose/Friday, February 5, 2021

The Daily Dose/February 5, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience. 

THIS WHOLE COLUMN IS GOING TO BE DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER, ISN’T IT?: Regular, even casual, readers of this crap know our fondness for, and even maniacal devotion to, Billboard chart history. We’ve been doing this long enough so that few, thankfully, have the sheer volume of useless facts we do. 

Dry, Technical Matter: This includes one-hit-wonders, acts whose only chart single goes to #1. Recently, we presented some research we did into the matter and we came up with 14 one-hit-wonders. 

Dry, Technical Matter: The list only includes acts who’ve appeared on the Hot 100, which debuted in August 1958. Before that, Billboard issued multiple pop charts and for many years these had fewer than 100 positions and a one-hit-wonder on those charts doesn’t really have the statistical significance as being a Hot 100 one-hit-wonder does. 

Dry, Technical Matter: Now, we don’t keep every-hour-on-the-hour tabs on the matter, but every now and then we’ll check-in and it turns out there’s been an addition to the one-hit-wonder list: Iann Dior. 

Dry Technical Matter: Dior’s first chart single, Mood, with 24kGoldin, has spent eight non-consecutive weeks at #1 and this week is hanging tough at #2 behind Drivers License by Oliva Rodrigo, who herself was on the list until her follow-up single debuted in the Hot 100 a couple of weeks ago. 

The Bottom Line: This list, of course, is fluid, as Ms Rodrigo showed, and while it is unlikely the Singing Nun will hit the charts again – she’d long dead, after all – some of the more recent ones may fall off and there will be new entrants, too. You can bet Leading Off will be there to chronicle every one of them for you. You’re welcome. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody –  Sparrow enjoys a Snow Day. Today’s Diary. 

Around 1530 or so, perhaps groggy from the big dinner, yours truly decided that sitting in the chair reading was entirely too much work and retired, for the first time in ages, to the couch…I am not making that up: the Snow Day had been so successful ol’ Sparrow was now too lazy to even read…The couch, strategically, does not have a reading lamp, so all I could do was lay there and listen to some stuff.

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On This Date
The long march to today. 

Editor’s Note: due to a technical issue, the first and third items are from previous years. 

In 1971 – Apollo 14 lands on the moon, the sixth manned lunar mission and the third to land. Commander Alan Shepard and astronaut Edgar Mitchell spent a total of 9 hours and 22 minutes walking on the moon, then a record. Their launch had been delayed four months after modifications to their spacecraft were made following the in-flight explosion on Apollo 13. The mission would return to Earth on Feb 9 and is widely remembered for Shephard hitting two golf balls with a makeshift club he brought with him.

In 2006 – The Pittsburgh Steelers win their fifth Super Bowl, defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in Detroit. The Steelers became the third team to win five Super Bowls and in 2009 would become the first team to win six. Hines Ward of Pittsburgh was named the MVP, the national anthem was sung by Aretha Franklin, Aaron Neville and Dr John and the Rolling Stones performed at halftime. 

In 1977 – Mary MacGregor is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Torn Between Two Lovers. It was MacGregor’s first chart single and only a #39 hit in 1979 kept her from being a one-hit-wonder: an act whose only chart single goes to #1. The song also went to #1 in Canada, peaked at #3 on Billboard’s country chart and was Billboard’s 10th biggest song of 1977.

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever. 

Michelangelo insisted the purpose of art, at least when practiced at the highest levels, was to channel the most profound aspirations of the human spirit.
Miles Unger
Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

Loretta Lynn’s biggest hit on the Hot 100 was After the Fire is Gone, a duet with Conway Twitty, which peaked at #56 in 1971. 

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard. 

Who was the command module pilot for Apollo 14? – Answer next time!

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