Pop Top 40: Hot 100 week ending 11/20/04

My dear Alfred, from whom I’ve probably learned more about writing than anyone — thanks to his own prose, myriad conversations about process, and the fact that he’s edited me on and off for much of the past two decades — has been wishin’ and hopin’ that I’d do a Pop Top 40 on a week outside of my usual 1970s-1990s corridor, so in honor of his birthday I offer this chart from 20 years ago. It was, shall we say, an unfocused time on the pop charts. Also: not good.

[this week, last week, title, artist, weeks on chart, (peak to date)]
1 1 MY BOO –•– Usher & Alicia Keys - 11 (1) (4 weeks at #1) — Usher’s appearance on the remix of Keys’s “If I Ain’t Got You” earlier in the year is magnificent to my ears, with each of them matching the other’s ache in their voices. This midtempo-er track from Jermaine Dupri feels like a bit of try-hard; it’s not bad, it’s just that the song doesn’t do much nor give its two singers enough to do. Fun fact: one of these artists will make an appearance in my top 20 singles of 2024.
2 2 DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT –•– Snoop Dogg Featuring Pharrell - 8 (2) — One of The Neptunes’ best productions — minimalism suited them — combined with one of Snoop’s best vocals, about to give Snoop his first ever pop #1, and the song I named my #1 of 2004. And parent album R&B (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece has plenty more where that came from; follow-ups “Let’s Get Blown” and “Signs” were both in my top 3 singles of 2005.
3 4 LOSE MY BREATH –•– Destiny’s Child - 9 (3) — That sample of the University of Michigan Marching Band, good god that sets this off, helping make this urgent and insistent. One of DC’s best singles.
4 5 OVER AND OVER –•– Nelly Featuring Tim McGraw - 6 (4) — I generally don’t believe in the idea of guilty pleasures; why should you feel guilt for something you like? But if such a thing is a thing, this is the essence of guilty pleasure for me. This mashing up of Nelly’s meh rapping with McGraw’s vocals on a soft-country-pop track shouldn’t remotely work, but yet it absolutely does. “Over” topped the charts in Australia, Canada and the UK, and got to #3 here, also representing Nelly’s eventual turn to country-adjacent music.
5 3 GOODIES –•– Ciara Featuring Petey Pablo - 22 (1) — <yawn> She could, and would eventually, do much better.
6 8 BREAKAWAY –•– Kelly Clarkson - 13 (6) — Strummy pop that fans love and I think is barely there. Clarkson isn’t given enough to sink her powerful chops into; this reminds me of P!nk after she took her pop-rock turn.
7 7 SHE WILL BE LOVED –•– Maroon5 - 18 (5) — Even with its low-key soft-rock vibes, the phrase “she will be loved” from Adam Levine’s lips now sounds like a threat.
8 10 LET’S GO –•– Trick Daddy Featuring Lil Jon & Twista - 10 (8) — Trick Daddy was fucking great; I actually put parent album Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets, his peak, in my 2004 top 10. This track brilliantly samples Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” to set shit off, and if you really wanted to set it off in 2004, no one was better to have on your record than Lil Jon. (Twista is fine, a net neutral value prop.) Trick Daddy’s a smart rapper and this is a kind of genius single.
9 13 WONDERFUL –•– Ja Rule Featuring R. Kelly & Ashanti - 6 (9) — The final top 10 pop single for all three artists here, so that’s good at least. Ja was a defiantly mid rapper who got very lucky, Ashanti a defiantly mid singer who got lucky, and as for the other one — well. This single is a perfect assemblage of the trio in that it’s nothing at all.
10 6 JUST LOSE IT –•– Eminem - 7 (6) — You can’t lose what you never had, Marshall. How many fucking times could he recycle his “guess who’s back” hook? I guess when you have as few ideas as he did, it never gets old. I will never fully understand his commercial superstardom, because apart from his ability to spit tongue-twisting triple-time rhymes, there’s nothing there but shock jock-ness and a gleefulness to offend. Fuck him and his homophobia and transphobia.

11 11 BREATHE –•– Fabolous - 10 (11) — Remember when NYC was still producing great rappers? I’ll argue Fab falls just short of greatness, even as I generally love his flow, but this single is one of his best and proves that he was meant to ride Just Blaze beats; this truly weird one is constructed largely out of a Supertramp song! Fab was never the king of New York but there were a couple years where he was at least one of the princes, and this was in the midst of that run. With consistently better material he might’ve been a king. And he still sounds great: check him out on this recent Mary J. Blige single.
12 12 OYE MI CANTO –•– N.O.R.E. Featuring Daddy Yankee, Nina Sky, Gem Star & Big Mato - 13 (12) — fka as Noreaga, N.O.R.E. had his biggest solo hit with this reggaeton record which is: fine.
13 9 LEAN BACK –•– Terror Squad - 22 (1) — Remember when hip hop — not crossover, but real hip hop — was not only kinda pop in and of itself, but also hooky? The fact that this topped the Hot 100 will forever shock me. Bless Fat Joe, a great NYC rapper who’s never received his propers; I wish Big Pun had been around to see and take part in it.
14 15 GO D.J. –•– Lil Wayne - 8 (14) — Wayne’s first pop hit at its chart peak, this is a pretty simple Mannie Fresh beat with a pretty simple, sing-songy rap atop it; you can hear Juvenile’s influence on this, as Wayne hadn’t yet found his own identity as a rapper.
15 21 LET ME LOVE YOU –•– Mario - 5 (15) — Heading to the top, this hit #1 the first week of 2005 and stayed there for nine weeks, striking when you consider how unassuming this smart, well-constructed R&B single is. Credit Ne-Yo, the primary songwriter (as of then unknown); his fingerprints are all over this. Mario gives a nicely MJ-esque vocal performance to complement the song and Scott Storch’s understated track.
16 24 1, 2 STEP –•– Ciara Featuring Missy Elliott - 4 (16) — True confessions time: I never much carried for crunk&b, mainly because I’m not much of a fan of crunk. Jazze Pha is a good producer whose work rarely connected with me; “1, 2 Step” sounds like the soundtrack to routine from a Bring It On sequel. The throwbacks to electro should grab me, but they never take off, except on the bridge, and Missy just recycles Teena Marie lyrics for most of her brief rap.
17 14 MY HAPPY ENDING –•– Avril Lavigne - 17 (9) — Never, ever liked her, except for the gleeful cheerleading-chant stupidity of “Girlfriend.” She sounds off-key, and the song is awful.
18 16 LOCKED UP –•– Akon Featuring Styles P. - 24 (8) — I wish “they” hadn’t let Akon out; what a worthless singer. At least the first minute of this remix features Styles P, a rapper I can listen to almost endlessly, even when he’s spitting the garbage he does here.
19 18 DIARY –•– Alicia Keys Featuring Tony! Toni! Tone! - 23 (8) — Sorry, Alf: this is gorgeous, slow-burn R&B, on which Keys gets a vocal assist from Jermaine Paul, and they both sound lovely. T!T!T! assist on instrumentation, giving this a warm, rich tone; 30 years prior, this could’ve been a Gladys Knight & the Pips single.
20 20 BALLA BABY –•– Chingy - 7 (20) — Blame Nelly for the brief vogue for mediocre St. Louis rappers in the early/mid ‘00s.

I could only bring myself to write on the top 20, but the top 40 is included in the accompanying playlist. If your thing is awful constipation rock, milquetoast singer-songwriter boys, b- and c-list rap, or meh country, you’ll likely love it.