And now we're in February of 2005. A few days before this countdown aired, Iraqis voted in their first post-Saddam elections. And on this weekend, the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win their third Super Bowl in four years. Surprisingly to many, they haven't won one since. Meanwhile, on the radio...
40 - "Karma," Alicia Keys
39 - "Just Lose It," Eminem
38 - "Only U," Ashanti
37 - "My Happy Ending," Avril Lavigne
36 - "Disco Inferno," 50 Cent
35 - "Get Right," Jennifer Lopez
34 - "Caught Up," Usher
33 - "Welcome to My Life," Simple Plan
32 - "On the Way Down," Ryan Cabrera
31 - "Lady," Lenny Kravitz
Four female singers in this first bunch. Alicia Keys picked up the fourth hit from her second album with this string-laden funk-popper about an ex she once pined for who now wants her back. Some of the violin parts on this intrigue me, but otherwise, she's done better. Ashanti Douglas, perhaps best known for her work with Ja Rule and her solo #1 "Foolish," had her most recent Top 20 with this guitar-riff-powered dance track about a lover. Not much to it. Avril Lavigne kept up her run of hits with this tough-minded midtempo ballad about a once-kind lover who has turned cruel. One of her strongest hits. And Jennifer Lopez, one of my favorites (he says sarcastically), is here with another song about clubbing and such. The sax sample is pretty sweet, and Fabolous' guest rap is okay, but then J. Lo opens her mouth, and for me, it's done.
A couple rappers are here. Eminem's first single from his fourth album, Encore, is typically silly and provocative, with lyrics about farting, streaking, Michael Jackson, and Beavis and Butt-head to go along with frequent employment of Pee-Wee Herman's signature laugh. If you usually like what he does, you'll like this; if you don't, you won't. And Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, a successful signee to Em's Shady Records label, is here with a song that has nothing to do with The Trammps' dancefloor perrennial. This is just mumbly rap about ogling women over a by-numbers beat. Doesn't stand out at all to me.
This section closes with four songs sung by men. After four #1s from his monster Confessions CD, Usher could only crack the Top Ten with the fifth single with this track about a confirmed player who finds himself falling in love. Contrarian that I am, it's probably my favorite song of his. And Fabolous raps on this one too. Good for him. Canadian punk brats Simple Plan had another hit with another cry of typical teen angst. Just open up any 14-year-old's journal while strumming power chords and you'll get the same effect as this song. Dallas pop-rocker Ryan Cabrera had the first hit of his brief run of success with this sensitive-guy number that sounds like warmed over Goo Goo Dolls. But I guess they didn't mind, because Goos singer Johnny Rzeznick contributes backup vocals. Support your imitators. Well, that's one strategy. And Lenny Kravitz had his most recent pop hit to date with this classic-rock grinder about a sophisticated female. It's not much more than okay, but the fact that it was one of the last gasps of that style of music on pop radio makes it sort of refreshing. And it also makes it this week's Uneasy Rider.
30 - "La La," Ashlee Simpson
29 - "Baby It's You," JoJo featuring Bow Wow
28 - "Goodies," Ciara featuring Petey Pablo
27 - "Broken,"Seether featuring Amy Lee
26 - "Sunday Morning," Maroon 5
25 - "Let's Go," Trick Daddy featuring Twista and Lil' Jon
24 - "Dare You to Move," Switchfoot
23 - "I Just Wanna Live," Good Charlotte
22 - "Wonderful," Ja Rule featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti
21 - "Daughters," John Mayer
Only three ladies this time. Ashlee Simpson followed in sister Jessica's footsteps with a music career and an MTV reality show. But where Jess went for the bubblegum, Ashlee went in a more serious, Avril Lavigne-y direction, as on this aggressive lust-rocker that posits its title as a euphemism for sex. That didn't really take off. And Simpson's career didn't reach the heights some thought it might as well, possibly due to that infamous Saturday Night Live appearance. That acid reflux can do a number on you, I suppose. Vermont pop singer JoJo Levesque had her second pop hit with this stuttery-beated tune about how possessions matter less to her than the person inside. Not bad, but the rap from the artist formerly known as "Li'l" Bow Wow is unremarkable. And Texan Ciara Princess Harris had her first hit with this sultry, seductive track that turns out to be a tease because, she says, her "goodies" are going to "stay in the jar" for the time being. Sucks to be you, Petey Pablo.
Four groups in this section. Seether, probably the biggest rock band to ever come out of South Africa, had their biggest pop hit to date with this grungy ballad featurning vocals from both singer Shaun Morgan and one of their labelmates, Evanescence's Amy Lee. Lee makes it a little more interesting, but all in all, just another whiny drone-rock slow song. Maroon 5 continued to defy my wishes by putting out singles after "Harder to Breathe." To be honest, I don't mind this one too much as a song. It's cool little jazz-pop about a lazy a.m. spent indoors. It would just be so much better if Adam Levine wasn't the one singing it. He's too loud and showy to be smooth, and smooth is what this requires. Switchfoot had their second and most recent pop hit with this song about moving on from mistakes and living "like today never happened." As motivational post-grunge goes, it's above average. And Good Charlotte are here with a dance-rocker about how hard it is to be famous with people judging you and stuff. They do reference "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," and seem to recognize the irony that now they are the whiny celebrities, but I just don't think they own that enough. They were serious now. And it didn't become them.
We finish the first half with two rap songs and a solo male singer. Trick Daddy had his biggest pop hit rhyming about guns and booze with help from Twista rapping, Lil' Jon doing his yelling thing, and a sample of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train. Just a bunch of popular stuff smushed together, and it was good enough for radio at the time. Oh well. Ja Rule had another hit by teaming up with frequent collaborator Ashanti and serial hook man R. Kelly on this song on which he wonders if girls would like him as much if he wasn't rich and successful. My educated guess: not to nearly the same degree as they did at the time. And John Mayer had one of his most famous hits with this acoustic ballad that encourages parents, especially fathers, to be kind and supportive to their female offspring. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I find this kind of creepy. Or maybe I just find John Mayer creepy in general. Hard to say.
Tomorrow: a song I would have like to have seen performed at halftime of the Super Bowl but wasn't, mashups go mainstream, and a song that will probably be played years from now in many movies and TV shows set in the mid-2000s
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