In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Hot 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my approach up into the current.
Kelly Clarkson beat the percentages. It wasn’t simply that Clarkson received the primary season of American Idol, defeating the tens of hundreds of different pop-star hopefuls who auditioned for the present. It was every thing that got here after. When Clarkson received the present, her coronation track “A Moment Like This” grew to become a #1 hit by design. That wasn’t actually a shock. But it was a shock that Kelly Clarkson continued to crank out hits, that she carved out a long-running profession as a no-shit A-list pop star. That accomplishment was arguably much more unlikely than successful her season within the first place.
Clay Aiken didn’t beat the percentages. For one factor, Aiken didn’t win his season of American Idol. For many of the present’s second season, the slight adult-contempo balladeer was reportedly forward within the voting tallies. In the ultimate week of the season, although, Aiken couldn’t shut the deal. The Alabama-raised soul singer Ruben Studdard squeaked previous Aiken within the finale and took the American Idol victory by a slender margin. Aiken did, nonetheless, win the chart battle; “This Is The Night,” the observe that may’ve been Aiken’s coronation track, made it to #1 over Studdard’s precise coronation track “Flying Without Wings.” But Clay Aiken didn’t actually make it as a pop star.
For a couple of years, Clay Aiken bought loads of information. A few follow-up singles did fairly properly on the Hot 100. Aiken toured a good quantity, and he put in loads of appearances on loads of TV exhibits. But that TV fame ultimately led to increasingly more stints on actuality exhibits after which to an entire different profession within the public eye. (In Aiken’s case, that profession would take him into politics, although he has but to win something there.) The Clay Aiken trajectory, far more than the Kelly Clarkson saga, would develop into the archetype for singers who got here from the vastly widespread competitors exhibits that also make up a big chunk of the shrinking network-TV panorama. But by advantage of timing, Clay Aiken did handle to attain a #1 hit, one thing that only some different singing-show contestants can declare. Aiken’s sole chart-topper may as properly not exist anymore, however he’s within the report books.
The second season of American Idol began in January 2003, only some months after the primary season ended. By then, Idol was already probably the most widespread exhibits on TV. Idol usually drew upwards of 20 million viewers, a quantity that’s frankly unthinkable at this time. In its conquest of the American monoculture that also existed, Idol confirmed itself to be simply as heartless as some other establishment on this nation. Frenchie Davis, extensively thought of one of many second season’s most gifted singers, was disqualified after previous topless photographs surfaced. Another contestant, Corey Clark, was additionally booted from the present, ostensibly for failing to inform the Idol producers a couple of previous arrest. Clark later claimed that he’d actually been kicked off for having an affair with Idol choose Paula Abdul, somebody who’s been on this column a bunch of instances. (Abdul and the present’s producers denied it.)
Like so many American Idol contestants, Clay Aiken had a readymade backstory about how he didn’t even intend to audition for the present within the first place. Clay Aiken was born Clay Grissom in Raleigh, North Carolina; he legally modified his final title at 19 due to his estrangement from his abusive beginning father. (Donna Summer’s model of “MacArthur Park” was the #1 track in America on the day of Aiken’s beginning.) Aiken was raised Southern Baptist, and he began singing in his church’s youth choir. Later on, he joined the Raleigh Boychoir, and he typically sang the nationwide anthem earlier than native sporting occasions. When Aiken was a youngster, his mom purchased him studio time as a gift, and he recorded a couple of demo CDs of Christian pop songs. But Aiken wasn’t making an attempt to be a singer; he had a special profession in thoughts.
After working at YMCA summer season camps as a youngster, Clay Aiken discovered what he thought can be his life’s path. Aiken studied particular schooling at UNC Charlotte, and he labored instead instructor for teenagers with autism. Aiken additionally obtained a job as an assistant for a child with autism, and that child’s household pushed Aiken to audition for American Idol. Aiken had really simply despatched in an audition tape for one more actuality present, The Amazing Race, however the child’s mom was adamant that Aiken ought to be on Idol as an alternative. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits, Aiken says, “She kept bugging me. I said, ‘Fine, I’ll do it if you stop nagging me.’” (Incidentally, the final version of Bronson’s guide ends with “This Is The Night,” so that is the final time I’ll get to make use of that essential useful resource once I’m writing these columns. If the column out of the blue will get an entire lot shittier, that’s why.)
The native Charlotte Fox affiliate held its personal sponsored American Idol contest, and Aiken didn’t win that one. But the child’s mom, the one who’d pushed Aiken to audition within the first place, mentioned that Aiken ought to attempt once more, so Aiken went right down to Atlanta for an open audition quickly afterwards. In Atlanta, Aiken sang Heatwave’s 1977 ballad “Always And Forever” for Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson. (“Always And Forever” peaked at #9. It’s a 4. Heatwave’s highest-charting single, 1977’s “Boogie Nights,” peaked at #2. It’s an 8.)
Clay Aiken seemed like a complete herb at his audition. He was pale and gawky and giggly, and Simon Cowell appeared fairly skeptical of the concept he had any type of future on the present. After listening to Aiken sing, Cowell mentioned, “You don’t look like a pop star, but you’ve got a great voice. So now what?” Aiken made it by to the subsequent spherical of the competitors, and he shortly let the individuals at Fox make him over into one thing that higher resembled their concept of a pop star. He obtained contact lenses. His hair grew to become progressively spikier. He stopped carrying a pooka-shell necklace. It virtually wasn’t sufficient. Aiken was minimize from the present within the early rounds, however he was invited again for one thing known as Wild Card week, the place he sang Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.” The judges all commented on how Aiken had labored on growing his common enchantment, and the present’s viewers voted him into the highest 12.
In his run on American Idol, Clay Aiken sang an entire lot of ballads: “Open Arms,” “Somewhere Out There,” “At This Moment.” This stuff couldn’t have presumably been additional faraway from what was taking place in precise American pop music on the time. There was a deep disconnect there. On the pop charts, 50 Cent was working issues. On Idol, Clay Aiken, principally the diametric reverse of fifty Cent in each conceivable approach, might emerge as a breakout star. That divide simply goes to indicate how audiences for pop music and audiences for community singing exhibits should not the identical factor. Even if Idol had needed to find a 50 Cent kind, no person concerned within the present would’ve had any concept the right way to do it. They knew the right way to promote a Clay Aiken, although.
When Clive Davis obtained concerned with Idol, a part of his rationale was that he needed to return middle-of-the-road ballads to the American pop mainstream. He didn’t actually succeed. Idol might give an artist like Clay Aiken successful or two, nevertheless it couldn’t change the prevailing course of issues. Instead, Idol grew to become an odd little island of sleepy pageant-singer balladry that sometimes bubbled its approach onto the charts. Clay Aiken may’ve been the best avatar for that entire phenomenon. For a minute there, Clay Aiken did handle to develop into some model of a pop star. Even at his peak, although, Aiken appeared fully shut off from completely every thing else taking place inside pop music.
The present’s season wasn’t even over when Aiken’s voice first appeared on a pop hit. Partway by the season, the contestants launched a model of “God Bless The USA,” the cornpone nationalist signifier that Lee Greenwood had first launched in 1984. Greenwood’s unique had peaked at #16 on the Hot 100, and it’s his highest-charting single by far. The ghastly American Idol singalong model by some means made all of it the way in which as much as #4. (It’s a 1.)
As season two of Idol rumbled towards its conclusion, the remaining 4 singers had been all assigned their potential coronation songs. In the primary season, all prime 4 contestants recorded variations of “A Moment Like This.” For the second season, producers switched issues up: They had two songs to divide among the many 4 contestants. Ruben Studdard and Kimberly Locke each obtained “Flying Without Wings.” “Flying Without Wings” had been a UK chart-topper for the Irish boy band Westlife, a Simon Cowell challenge, in 1999. (Westlife’s solely Hot 100 hit, 2000’s “Swear It Again,” peaked at #20.) Ruben Studdard recorded a gospel-inflected R&B model of “Flying Without Wings,” and his take, launched on the identical day as Clay Aiken’s “This Is The Night,” peaked at #2. (It’s a 4.) Studdard ended up as the one winner of the primary 5 American Idol winners who didn’t land a #1 hit of his personal. Ruben Studdard managed yet one more top-10 hit earlier than falling right into a strong profession as a really area of interest entertainer.
“This Is The Night,” then again, was written particularly for American Idol. During the present’s first season, Desmond Child, a man whose work has appeared on this column a couple of instances, ran a songwriting camp. Child didn’t have a hand in writing “This Is The Night,” however the track got here out of that camp. The melody for “This Is The Night” got here from the Montreal-born rocker Aldo Nova, who had a little bit of a run within the early ’80s earlier than turning into one among Céline Dion’s go-to collaborators. (Nova’s highest-charting single, 1982’s “Fantasy,” peaked at #23, and Nova additionally performed guitar on his buddy Jon Bon Jovi’s 1990 chart-topper “Blaze Of Glory.”)
One of Aldo Nova’s “This Is Is The Night” co-writers was Chris Braide, a British songwriter who’d had a quick and unsuccessful early-’90s solo-artist stint and who’d gone on to put in writing for S Club 7 and Will Young, the primary winner of the British present Pop Idol. Later on, Braide would write for Shakira and Sia, two artists who will ultimately seem on this column. Gary Burr, the opposite co-writer, got here from nation music. His greatest pre-Idol success was 1982’s “Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me,” a #7 Hot 100 hit for Juice Newton. (It’s a 5.)
It’s fairly clear that Aldo Nova, Chris Braide, and Gary Burr had been going for one thing similar to “A Moment Like This” once they wrote “This Is The Night.” It’s a track that would solely make sense in a reality-show context. The lyrics are all imprecise, swooping uplift, and so they positive appear to explain what it’s prefer to win a actuality present: “Lift me up in your eyes! If you told me that this is what heaven is, well, you’d be right!” The track is structurally sound, nevertheless it’s additionally an enormous, clean nothing, virtually by design. When Clay Aiken sang the track on the ultimate evening of American Idol competitors, each Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson, by means of praising Aiken’s efficiency, went out of their method to say that they didn’t just like the track. Simon: “It was like American Idol: The Musical.” Randy: “I hated that song, and I hope they don’t make that your first single.” They made it his first single.
There’s precisely one second on “This Is The Night” that I type of like. When the refrain first kicks in, as Clay Aiken sings the “lift me up” bit, an influence chord rings out behind him. That’s it. Aiken recorded “This Is the Night” with producer Steve Mac, who’d come from the Pop Idol system and who’d co-produced “A Moment Like This.” The association takes a generic track and makes it much more generic. Aiken’s vocal is completely easy and nice, however there’s not precisely loads of persona in it. I didn’t watch greater than a few minutes of Aiken’s Idol season, so I by no means actually realized what anybody noticed within the child. “This Is The Night” didn’t reply that query for me.
Clay Aiken’s followers apparently known as themselves Claymates? I hate that. That’s the worst fan-army title I’ve ever heard. Clay Aiken didn’t win American Idol. In asserting Ruben Studdard’s victory, Ryan Seacrest exaggerated how slender the margin had been, which led to an entire goofy little controversy over whether or not Studdard had actually received or whether or not the cellphone traces had simply been overwhelmed. (The entire “loser’s supporters refuse to accept result” storyline would proceed to reverberate by American life within the years forward.) The incensed Claymates ran out to purchase “This Is The Night” in huge portions. The single, packaged with Aiken’s model of Simon And Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” bought practically 400,000 copies in its first week — essentially the most gross sales of any single in a single week since Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind 1997.” After a couple of weeks, “This Is The Night” was platinum. The track didn’t really want radio play to beat the Hot 100.
A couple of months after the American Idol season finale, Clay Aiken launched his debut album Measure Of A Man. The lead single was “Invisible,” a deeply shitty uptempo joint that had been co-written by Desmond Child; the Irish boy band D-Side recorded it simply earlier than Aiken. D-Side’s model was an enormous UK hit, however Aiken’s take peaked at #37. Aiken did higher when he launched his model of Neil Sedaka’s 1973 track “Solitaire” as a single. (Sedaka’s unique “Solitaire” didn’t chart, however the Carpenters took it to #17 in 1975.) Aiken had sung “Solitaire” on Idol, and the studio model of his cowl grew to become successful, peaking at #4. (It’s a 4.) Eventually, “Solitaire” changed “This Is The Night” because the bonus observe on Aiken’s Measure Of A Man album. “This Is The Night” is on streaming providers as a single, nevertheless it’s not on the model of Measure Of A Man that you may stream. Maybe that’s why “This Is The Night” has virtually fully disappeared from the world. It’s virtually actually the Twenty first-century Hot 100 chart-topper that you simply’re least prone to encounter lately, in any context.
Clay Aiken hasn’t been on the Hot 100 since “Solitaire.” We received’t see Clay Aiken on this column once more, however we’ll see lots extra American Idol fallout. Measure Of A Man went double platinum. Aiken adopted it with a platinum 2005 Christmas album and with 2006’s A Thousand Different Ways, an LP largely comprised of covers that Clive Davis picked out for Aiken. Every new Clay Aiken report bought slightly bit lower than the one which got here earlier than. Aiken saved touring and popping up on actuality exhibits for a couple of years, and that entire interval of his profession in all probability culminated in one other second-place end on a actuality present that drew large score: Aiken was the primary runner-up to winner Arsenio Hall on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012. That’s additionally the yr that Aiken launched his final album. Aiken has additionally carried out some stage appearing. In 2008, he had a four-month run in Spamalot on Broadway, and he’s carried out some regional stuff since then.
In 2008, Clay Aiken got here out as homosexual. That similar yr, he additionally grew to become a father; he and his associate had a child by a surrogate. A short while later, Aiken grew to become a politician. In 2014, Aiken ran for Congress as a Democrat in a solidly Republican North Carolina district. He misplaced. Aiken defended his former Apprentice boss Donald Trump from accusations of racism whereas Trump was working for president, after which he apologized and known as himself “a fucking dumbass” after Trump refused to sentence the racist yahoos who went buckshit in Charlottesville. Aiken ran for Congress once more this yr, and he completed third in a Democratic major. I don’t know what Clay Aiken will do subsequent. He looks as if a pleasant individual, however frankly, I’m not that invested.
GRADE: 3/10