Who’s back with an article? Wasn’t me.
About the songs in February? Wasn’t me.
That topped the Billboard Charts? Wasn’t me.
Back in the year two thousand and one? Wasn’t me.
Picture this: I’m back to talk about what I’ve found sorting through the charts from February 2001. There were a good amount of tunes making their first impressions as well as some songs bowing out of the top 50.
This month we say goodbye to over a dozen songs that were on the list in January. The ones I think I’m gonna miss the most are most likely Fyre Festival’s own Ja Rule with “Between Me And You” featuring Christina Milian and strangely enough the song “So In Love With Two” by Mikalia. There’s something about the combination of that extremely early 2000’s teen-pop bounce with the vocal delivery of a discount Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears that I not only find endearing but actually it worn on me enough on me to really enjoy it.
Mikalia made a little splash a couple years earlier when at twelve years of age she appeared on the children’s television show Wishbone. She would sign on with Island Records in 2000 and later record “So In Love With Two” at 13. Great. Later in 2000, Mikalia found themselves not only the opening act for Britney Spears’ Oops!… I Did It Again tour, but also performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on a float with gigantic snowmen. Mikalia quickly walked away from the spotlight and has lived a private life since. According to Wikipedia, her Myspace page remains as the last known public breadcrumb of her pop past.
As a reminder, I’ll include where the track has charted in brackets. That same number should correspond to the playlist posted at the top of the page.
Topping the charts this month is one of the most unavoidable songs of my lifetime. Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”[1] dominated the charts, eventually topping them for two weeks. An awful song that bores into your subconscious and eats at you, Shaggy and his pal Ricardo ‘Rik Rok’ Ducent, are playfully discussing about getting caught sleeping around with the next door neighbor that even Ducent openly admits to ‘creepin’ on’. To avoid taking responsibility of infidelity the duo opted for gaslighting the woman instead. Terrific!
There were a fair amount of songs that I just didn’t care for this month, but the ones I happened to like were ones that I really enjoyed. Fuel’s “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”[32] felt like the culmination of the band’s rise to rock stardom first starting with 1998’s Sunburn led by the singles “Bittersweet” and “Shimmer”. Their balance of post-grunge angst with a polished sound could be played at a heavy rotation on Top 40 radio stations across the country as well as on a jukebox in a dive. The band took that same formula and made “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” a smash hit. Billboard Magazine listed the song as the fifth biggest rock song of the decade. Fuel had a moderate hit in 2003 with “Falls On Me”, but were ultimately unable to reach those same heights in the years following the massive success of “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”.
At first listen in my teens, I did not understand the love that Ludacris was receiving. I was just not a fan of his first single “What’s Your Fantasy” when it first hit and I was skeptical of anything else he may release in the future. I ended up having a soft spot for “Southern Hospitality”[33] when it was released, but I had to stick to my guns and not waver on my public opinion of Ludacris, lest I be found as someone who likes a thing they swore they hated . It took a few years to feel comfortable enough to admit I was pretty wrong about Luda. It was so freeing since now I can enjoy something like “Southern Hospitality” as I should have in the first place.
Even though the charts I’ve been compiling in 2001 and have been listening to have been a far less enjoyable experience than the ones in 1991, I have been able to take note some of the things I missed while I living these years. While I was cognizant of The Neptunes and their involvement of the turn of the century, I did not appreciate their impact nor their talent. Their unmistakable production can be heard on the aforementioned “Southern Hospitality”, but also on February’s charting singles such as Mystical’s “Danger (Been So Long)”[16] and Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)”[21]. Holy song titles in parentheses this month!
Once again, almost all the songs that made the Billboard chart this month are made available on most streaming services. The lone exception was the song “Wild Horses” by Garth Brooks. This came as a shock to me since Garth Brooks has been one of the biggest artists in my lifetime and I would have figured I could easily stream his music. After signing an exclusive deal with Amazon Music in 2016, that particular service as well as Brooks’ own “Garth Channel” through TuneIn are the only places you can legally stream the artist’s discography. I’m sure you’d have known that if you are a Garth Brooks fan, but as a well-noted Chris Gaines-head, it still took me by surprise.
With the success of “It Wasn’t Me”, Shaggy’s Hotshot overtook’s The Beatles’ greatest hits collection 1 for the number one album for the month and thus began it’s reign on the top floor. Jennifer Lopez’s J.Lo debuted at number one and also hung around the top of the charts for the weeks moving forward. J.Lo has been re-issued with a 25th anniversary edition. Including all the tracks that were on various versions of J.Lo worldwide, you’ll get Spanish versions of “Ain’t It Funny” (“Que Ironia”) and “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” (“Amor Se Paga Con Amor”) plus the ‘Murder’ remixes of “I’m Real” and “Ain’t It Funny” featuring Ja Rule. My favorite track off of J.Lo, “Play” which also features Christina Milian providing background vocals, gets the remix treatment as well courtesy of Trixie Mattel.
Notable Albums That Did Not Chart
BS2000 – Simply Mortified
Beat Science 2000 (stylized as BS2000) was the creative project of Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz from the Beastie Boys and Suicidal Tendencies’ drummer Amery “AWOL” Smith. A chaotic fusion of hip hop and glitchy electronic effects, Simply Mortified is a fuzzy experience that’s a load of fun to listen to and makes your body move like a lava lamp. If you enjoy when the Beasties would go off the rails and get experimental, like in Hello Nasty’s “Song For The Man”, then this album is made for you. Sadly, Simply Mortified is only available on YouTube with no news if a re-release or album re-press is in the works.
The Knife – The Knife
While this album has been released at different dates in the early 2000’s, the earliest release date was this month in 2001 in the band’s home country, Sweden. The Knife’s self-titled debut shows the sibling duo in their first form. Springy, whimsical, and raw, it could have been possible in another universe to watch the Knife traverse more safer, more radio-friendly material. Instead they honed their skills and evolved. 2006’s Secret Shout showcases the band at the peak of their powers with an unmistakable enigmatic sound that engulfs the listener in a bleak wintry darkness that draws you in and grips you for life.
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