You’ve never heard the hit single that’s spent almost have a year at number one? You’re not alone.
[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
From the moment I sit down at my desk at 7:30 a.m. until the dogs tell me its tools down at around 5, I listen to, analyze, evaluate, research, and write about music. My job requires me to listen to music professionally. So when I encountered a story about Ella Langley, a singer I’d never heard of, setting a new record for having longest-running hit single in this history of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, I was confused.
What was this Choosin’ Texas song? Did my music journalism have a giant blind spot? Was I failing at my job? Had I been in a coma? How was it possible that a song that had been number one on Billboard for almost half a year not graced my ears?
At first, I chalked it up to being a country song, and country is just not my jam. But that shouldn’t matter. To be number one on Billboard is to have the hittiest of hit songs, regardless of genre. I should have heard Choosin’ Texas floating through the air on some radio station. Or on TV. Or at the supermarket. Yet when I clicked on the YouTube video, I heard it for the very first time.
