[ad_1]
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 method up into the current.
By rights, Gwen Stefani ought to’ve had a #1 hit lengthy earlier than she lastly did. In 1996, Stefani’s band No Doubt launched “Don’t Speak,” a heart-crushed ballad about Stefani’s breakup with No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal, because the third single from the band’s album Tragic Kingdom. No Doubt had been already getting massive earlier than “Don’t Speak,” however that tune turned them right into a runaway boulder.
“Don’t Speak” topped the Billboard airplay chart for an astonishing 16 weeks, and it’s the principle motive that Tragic Kingdom finally went diamond. But Interscope, No Doubt’s label, by no means launched “Don’t Speak” as a industrial single. Because of Billboard‘s rules about what counted as a single, “Don’t Speak” by no means charted on the Hot 100, the place it virtually actually would’ve reached #1. Today, “Don’t Speak” stands as Exhibit A for anybody who needs to elucidate how the Billboard Hot 100 was simply totally fucked within the ’90s, earlier than the journal modified its guidelines. (The tune would’ve been a 7.)
But Gwen Stefani didn’t fade away after “Don’t Speak.” Nine years later, Stefani lastly scored her solely #1 hit on the Hot 100. This time, she used altering Billboard guidelines to her benefit. In February of 2005, Billboard instituted a brand new rule: Legal digital downloads would depend as gross sales. The iTunes Music Store had develop into an actual drive within the music enterprise. People had been much less and fewer prone to exit and purchase CDs, however they may pay 99 cents to get a catchy new tune on their iPods. At the time, the radio was totally dominated by rap and R&B, however because of these 99-cent downloads, Gwen Stefani managed to slip into #1 with a berserk cheerleader-chant earworm about eager to combat Courtney Love. The shit actually was bananas.
By the time she landed her one chart-topper, Gwen Stefani was 35 years previous, and she or he’d been performing for half her life. Stefani was born in Fullerton, California, and she or he grew up middle-class in suburban Anaheim. (The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” was the #1 tune in America when Stefani was born, which feels by some means applicable.) In 1986, when Stefani was nonetheless in highschool, her older brother Eric began a vibrant, frantic, extraordinarily Californian ska band known as No Doubt, and he recruited his little sister as a backup singer. Eric Stefani performed keyboards, and a man named John Spence was the lead singer.
For just a few years, No Doubt performed backyards and, finally, golf equipment. Gwen began courting bassist Tony Kanal, they usually stayed collectively for years. A 12 months after the band began, John Spence died by suicide. Another man got here in as lead singer, however when he left, Gwen turned No Doubt’s frontwoman. No Doubt signed with Interscope in 1990, shortly after the label got here into existence, they usually launched their self-titled debut two years later. It flopped.
After No Doubt’s album tanked, Eric Stefani left the band to deal with his full-time job as an animator on The Simpsons. Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal broke up. No Doubt may’ve simply ended then, however Interscope paired the band up with producer Matthew Wilder, who helped them discover a brighter and cleaner sound. (Wilder’s highest-charting single, 1983’s “Break My Stride,” peaked at #5. It’s a 4.) By the time No Doubt launched the Wilder-produced Tragic Kingdom in 1995, just a few traces of the previous wacky ska band remained. The band had develop into an enormous, shimmery pop machine, and their timing was good.
Tragic Kingdom arrived on the exact second that dour, depressive alt-rock wore out its welcome. No Doubt had been in rotation on the identical radio stations because the grunge bands — I noticed them play a supremely enjoyable set at an alt-rock radio station fest in 1996 — however they stood out. The album’s lead single, the pop-feminist anthem “Just A Girl,” crossed over to pop radio and peaked at #23. I favored that tune, and I beloved the follow-up “Spiderwebs,” which didn’t make the Hot 100 as a result of it by no means acquired a correct single launch. Then got here “Don’t Speak,” and it was over. No Doubt turned insanely big.
After Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt spent just a few years touring closely and dropping stray songs on soundtracks and compilations. Gwen Stefani began courting Gavin Rossdale, the Bush frontman with the cheekbones like knives, they usually acquired married in 2002. (Bush’s highest-charting Hot 100 single, 1995’s “Glycerine,” peaked at #28.) In 2000, No Doubt lastly got here out with the follow-up album Return Of Saturn, which tried to go extra explicitly new wave and which totally tanked. The album went platinum, a distinction that most likely would’ve thrilled the band in the event that they hadn’t simply offered ten occasions as many copies of Tragic Kingdom. “Simple Kind Of Life,” the album’s greatest hit, peaked at #38.
No Doubt may’ve been in hassle if not for Gwen Stefani’s work exterior the band. In 2000, the identical 12 months as Return Of Saturn, Stefani sang on a the only model of the techno producer Moby’s muttery, dramatic dance-rock jam “South Side,” which turned an surprising hit. (“South Side” peaked at #14 on the Hot 100, and it’s nonetheless Moby’s highest-charting single.) A 12 months later, Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine pulled some strings, and Stefani sang on Eve’s large Dr. Dre-produced hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” Stefani won’t have been the obvious hook-singer for an enormous rap single, however the mixture by some means labored, and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” made all of it the best way to #2. (It’s a 6.)
“Let Me Blow Ya Mind” gave No Doubt some much-needed industrial momentum. It may’ve given them some confidence, too. On their 2001 album Rock Steady, No Doubt left alt-rock behind utterly, embracing dancehall reggae and electro-pop as an alternative. Rock Steady went double platinum, and the band made it into the highest 10 with two singles, each of which had been co-produced by reggae greats Sly & Robbie and each of which paired No Doubt with dancehall heroes. The cartoonish bop “Hey Baby,” with Bounty Killer, peaked at #5, whereas the slow-winding love-ballad “Underneath It All,” with Lady Saw, made it to #3. (“Hey Baby” is a 7, and “Underneath It All” is an 8.) Rock Steady additionally had the pulsing, panting membership jam “Hella Good,” a #13 hit. No Doubt co-produced that tune with Nellee Hooper, however Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal co-wrote it with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, the wildly inventive rap producers often called the Neptunes.
In 2003, No Doubt launched a greatest-hits album, which labored as a pleasant little punctuation on their comeback. That assortment additionally included what now stands as No Doubt’s closing top-10 hit: a canopy of Talk Talk’s 1984 new wave jam “It’s My Life.” (No Doubt’s cowl peaked at #10. It’s a 6. Talk Talk’s far-superior unique solely made it to #31, and it’s that band’s highest-charting Hot 100 single.) No Doubt didn’t break up after that greatest-hits album got here out, however Gwen Stefani did go solo.
In 2004, Gwen Stefani performed Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, a reasonably auspicious movie debut that hasn’t led to a lot of an appearing profession. (Other than assorted cameos, Stefani’s solely different actual appearing efficiency is a voice position in Trolls.) That similar 12 months, Stefani additionally made a solo album. Despite her success singing on different individuals’s hits, Stefani was nervous in regards to the thought of going solo. She had massive concepts about centrist pop music, about bringing again the intense and dizzy ’80s sounds that she’d beloved in highschool, however she nonetheless considered herself as a part of a band. Stefani thought of recording just a few songs on her personal, or perhaps placing out a dance document beneath a pseudonym, however Jimmy Iovine satisfied her that she ought to make an actual run at solo stardom.
Interscope actually strapped the rocket to Gwen Stefani. She recorded her 2004 solo debut Love Angel Music Baby with an all-star group of collaborators: Dallas Austin, Linda Perry, New Order, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, André 3000, her bandmate Tony Kanal. At a time when half of the critically adored indie buzz bands had been biting Joy Division, Gwen Stefani acquired the precise Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook to play on her document. Stefani’s first actual solo single was not an enormous hit. The hammering dance observe “What Are You Waiting For?” is particularly all in regards to the nervousness of beginning a solo profession, and it peaked at #47. Stefani made a a lot greater affect along with her second single. On “Rich Girl,” Stefani reunited with Eve and Dr. Dre to flip a Fiddler On The Roof quantity into gleaming dancehall-pop, and the tune peaked at #7. (It’s an 8.) But the third single from Love Angel Music Baby was the one which turned inescapable.
“Hollaback Girl” was a late addition to Love Angel Music Baby, and Gwen Stefani recorded it with the Neptunes, her previous “Hella Good” collaborators. Stefani all the time acquired together with Pharrell Williams; years later, she informed Billboard, “We were so similar: we love Japanese culture and both have clothing lines.” (Stefani’s complete Harajuku fixation has aged about in addition to the bindi that she used to put on in the course of the Tragic Kingdom days.) An early songwriting session with the Neptunes hadn’t yielded something, however when Stefani heard the “Hollaback Girl” beat, she was virtually upset that Pharrell hadn’t performed her the observe earlier.
“Hollaback Girl” is a tune with plenty of backstory. Last 12 months, Pharrell went on supermodel Naomi Campbell’s YouTube discuss present and informed Campbell that she’d impressed the tune’s title: “That chorus came from a conversation where you were telling somebody you ain’t no hollaback girl because of a song we had at the time with Fabolous called ‘Holla Back.’ Somebody was trying to speak to you or whatever, and you were like, ‘I’m sorry, I have a name. I ain’t no hollaback girl.’ I thought that was so amazing, and it ended up becoming the chorus to the song.” Fabolous’ Neptunes-produced single “Young’n (Holla Back)” peaked at #33 in 2002, and it’s such a fucking banger.
But Gwen Stefani wasn’t occupied with Naomi Campbell when she was engaged on “Hollaback Girl.” She had another person in thoughts. In 2004, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love had introduced up Stefani’s identify in a Seventeen interview. (Hole’s highest charting single, the 1994 basic “Doll Parts,” peaked at #58.) Courtney Love interviews are nice as a result of she talks shit and names names. In that Seventeen interview, Love didn’t even say something that dangerous about Stefani. Here’s the quote:
Being well-known is rather like being in highschool. But I’m not occupied with being the cheerleader. I’m not occupied with being Gwen Stefani. She’s the cheerleader, and I’m out within the smoker shed…. So in case you’re in highschool and the favored women are saying you slept with so-and-so — and you probably did, or perhaps you simply made out with that man, and perhaps it was a mistake. Either method, don’t allow them to dictate to you that you simply’re a slut. You’re 17; it’s your sexuality.
That doesn’t appear too damning, does it? From the place I’m sitting, it doesn’t come off as Gwen Stefani “being bullied” by Courtney Love, which was how Stefani described it as not too long ago as 2019. But there’s extra context there. Courtney Love later informed Howard Stern that she was sleeping with Gavin Rossdale when he and Stefani had been collectively. Suddenly, Gwen Stefani being pissed at Courtney Love makes a complete lot extra sense. In any case, Stefani, who had by no means been a literal cheerleader, determined to flip that cheerleader line, proudly owning it and capturing proper again at Love.
Gwen Stefani was a totally grown grownup when she made “Hollaback Girl,” however she tailored the persona of a high-school child confronting one other high-school child: “I heard that you were talking shit and you didn’t think that I would hear it.” On the second verse, Stefani straight-up challenges Courtney Love (or whoever) to a fistfight: “That’s right, dude, meet me at the bleachers/ No principals, no student-teachers/ Both of us wanna be the winner, but there can only be one.” Stefani imagines the tip of the combat, too, singing a little bit of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.”
Stefani additionally says that oooh, that is her shit, and she or he spells the phrase “bananas” a number of occasions, which doesn’t actually have something to do with that fictional rock-star bleacher combat. Maybe that’s why “Hollaback Girl” finally comes off as much less of a tune and extra of a group of catchphrases. I’ve to say: I do not like “Hollaback Girl.” I really feel like I ought to like “Hollaback Girl.” I like Gwen Stefani. I just like the Neptunes. I like massive, brash, loud pop songs. I’m not even mad at cheerleader chants in tune type; Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” a #1 hit constructed from most of the similar substances as “Hollaback Girl,” slaps arduous. But “Hollaback Girl” felt like an lively irritant — like Stefani was attempting to bother me. It was so grating and but so omnipresent.
At least in concept, the Neptunes’ “Hollaback Girl” beat imitates the sound of funky Southern HBCU marching bands, and that sound animated plenty of the most effective rap and R&B hits of the mid-’00s. But the “Hollaback Girl” beat is simply too skinny and anemic to evoke that model. The drums punch with actual drive, however Gwen Stefani does extra shouting than singing, and she or he does that singing in an exaggerated valley-girl Betty Boop accent. There’s not a lot sweetener in there to stability out the banging and the yelling. We get just a few horn honks, a shred of acoustic guitar, a pillowy synth-tone on the hook. At one level, there’s a whistle, which feels virtually assaultive. This shit is calamitous.
“Hollaback Girl” is catchy, but it surely’s the incorrect form of catchy — the ruin-your-day form. It’s not the form of factor that I need caught in my head. If I’m in a nasty temper and I hear even three seconds of “Hollaback Girl,” the dangerous temper will instantly worsen. I suppose it’s spectacular {that a} tune as bizarre and messy and disruptive as “Hollaback Girl” may attain #1, but it surely principally simply makes me want that Jimmy Iovine had hooked Gwen Stefani up with Max Martin as an alternative of all the large names who labored on her solo album. She may’ve hit that massive, vibrant ’80s pop sound a lot extra cleanly.
Say this for “Hollaback Girl”: People wished to listen to it. The tune didn’t attain #1 due to airplay. Instead, it topped the Hot 100 as a result of a complete lot of individuals had been shelling out their hard-earned 99 cents for the digital single. The week that “Hollaback Girl” topped the Hot 100, Billboard spelled it out: “Discounting American Idol sales-driven #1s by finalists Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, and Fantasia, “Hollaback” is the primary tune to prime the Hot 100 with out a big base of R&B/hip-hop airplay since Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” in December 2001.”
You know what that means, proper? Gwen Stefani was the primary white singer with a #1 hit in nicely over a 12 months — the primary pop artist to achieve a very long time with out explicitly courting a Black viewers. To be truthful, Gwen Stefani did make “Hollaback Girl” with the Neptunes, who had been contemporary off of “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and who owned rap radio on the time. And “Hollaback Girl” finally did attain #8 on the R&B chart. Still, the golden age of R&B singers dominating the charts was beginning to attain its finish.
The “Hollaback Girl” video undoubtedly helped the tune join. A 12 months after directing Chow Yun-Fat in Bulletproof Monk, Paul Hunter constructed a complete high-school dreamworld for Gwen Stefani and her complete Harajuku Girls dance crew. In that video, Gwen Stefani is a 35-year-old girl enjoying a high-school woman, and she or he’s acquired Japanese mascots along with her. That’s lots. Stefani seems superb — virtually like she may plausibly be a high-school child — however the clip radiates an intense attention-hunger that I discover fairly off-putting. On the opposite hand, it’s cheerful and colourful, and I just like the bit the place Stefani leads a marching band via a grocery store and throws cereal in every single place. That’s enjoyable.
Gwen Stefani adopted “Hollaback Girl” with a a lot much less obnoxious tune: “Cool,” a brand new wave ballad that she co-wrote with Dallas Austin. That one peaked at #13, and Love Angel Music Baby finally went quintuple platinum. In 2006, Stefani had her first baby and launched her second solo album. She by some means managed to select a single that was much more irritating than “Hollaback Girl.” Stefani co-write “Wind It Up” with Akon, an artist who will seem on this column a shocking variety of occasions. The tune is constructed round fucking yodeling. I’m listening to “Wind It Up” as I sort this, and I really feel like I’m citing some long-buried trauma. This tune mustn’t exist. (“Wind It Up” peaked at #6. It’s a 1.)
Stefani adopted “Wind It Up” with one other Akon collab. “The Sweetest Escape,” the album’s title observe, undoubtedly has some grating bits — “Wooo-ooo! Eeeee-yooo!” — but it surely’s at the least a purposeful pop tune, and it peaked at #2. (It’s a 5.) As of proper now, “The Sweetest Escape” is Gwen Stefani’s most up-to-date top-10 hit. Stefani didn’t make one other solo album for a decade. Instead, she had extra children and finally returned to No Doubt for 2012’s Push And Shove. “Settle Down,” that album’s greatest hit, peaked at #34, and No Doubt have been inactive ever since.
In 2014, Gwen Stefani turned one of many coaches on the singing-competition present The Voice, which helped preserve her related. Two years later, she divorced Gavin Rossdale and launched the breakup album This Is What The Truth Feels Like. By that point, Stefani was courting the nation star Blake Shelton, one other mentor on The Voice. (Shelton’s highest-charting Hot 100 single, the 2013 Pistol Annies collab “Boys ‘Round Here,” peaked at #12.) Stefani and Shelton acquired married final 12 months, they usually additionally acquired to #18 with the 2020 duet “Nobody But You.” Pretty good tune!
Gwen Stefani was nonetheless in a position to do some critical chart numbers 25 years after No Doubt first landed on the Hot 100 with “Just A Girl” — a deeply spectacular span. And who is aware of? Maybe she’s not performed making hits. Stefani stays galactically well-known — large enough to do Vegas residencies and keep her singing-show presence. She’s undoubtedly the most important star that got here out of ’90s third-wave ska. She’s all the time come off like a cool particular person, and I’m blissful for her success, even when her sole #1 hit is a horrible fucking tune.
GRADE: 2/10
BONUS BEATS: Here’s Sebastian Bach protecting “Hollaback Girl” on a 2006 episode of Gilmore Girls:
(Skid Row’s highest-charting single, 1989’s “18 And Life,” peaked at #4. It’s an 8.)
BONUS BONUS BEATS: Here’s the scene from the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film the place the child Turtles dance to “Hollaback Girl”:
BONUS BONUS BONUS BEATS: Avril Lavigne’s 2019 Nicki Minaj collab “Dumb Blonde” doesn’t formally pattern or interpolate “Hollaback Girl,” however you might be forgiven for pondering in any other case. If “Dumb Blonde” had been a much bigger hit, I really feel like Gwen Stefani and the Neptunes would most likely get retroactive songwriting credit. Listen for your self:
(“Dumb Blonde” peaked at #92. Avril Lavigne and Nicki Minaj will each seem on this column finally.)
BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS BEATS: On Dua Lipa’s 2020 remix album Club Future Nostalgia, the Blessed Madonna reworked the observe “Hallucinate” and used a “Hollaback Girl” pattern. After Dua Lipa’s individuals approached Stefani to clear that pattern, Stefani ended up showing on the album, contributing vocals to Mark Ronson’s remix of “Physical.” Here’s the Blessed Madonna’s “Hallucinate” remix:
(“Physical” peaked at #60. Dua Lipa’s two highest-charting singles, 2019’s “Don’t Start Now” and 2020’s “Levitating,” each peaked at #2. “Don’t Start Now” is a 9, and “Levitating” is an 8. Mark Ronson will finally seem on this column.)
BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS BEATS: Here’s former SOB x RBE member DaBoii’s video for his 2022 observe “Bananas,” which is constructed on a “Hollaback Girl” pattern:
THE NUMBER TWOS: Ciara and Ludacris’ slow-motion Atlanta-pride anthem “Oh” peaked at #2 behind “Hollaback Girl.” It’s a 9.
The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal The History Of Pop Music is out now by way of Hachette Books. This e book is bananas. Buy it right here.