Weekly Chart Notes: 'Glee,' Zac Brown Band, Kelly Clarkson
'SURVIVE' SURVIVES: Happy birthday, "I Will Survive."
And, so you're back.
The song first arrived on the Billboard Hot 100 on this date (Dec. 16) in 1978 when Gloria Gaynor's classic original debuted at No. 87. Twelve weeks later, it reached No. 1, where it remained for a total of three nonconsecutive weeks.
Upon the 33rd anniversary of the anthem's chart arrival, the song is back on the Hot 100 courtesy of the "Glee" cast, whose mash-up of it with Destiny's Child like-themed "Survivor" debuts at No. 51.
Living up to its name, "I Will Survive" has become a frequent visitor to the Hot 100, having now appeared on the chart in each decade dating to the '70s.
Following Gaynor's recording, Safire sent her version to No. 53 in January 1990. Coincidentally, her remake also debuted on Dec. 16 (1989). (Safire, nee Wilma Cosme, had peaked at No. 12 in May 1989 with her signature ballad "Thinking of You").
In 1996, R&B singer Chantay Savage returned "Survive" to the top 40 when her cover rose to No. 24. Distinctively, Savage's interpretation put a slower, jazzier spin on the composition, which also reached No. 5 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
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In 2009, the Pussycat Dolls gave the song anothe! r life w hen their "Hush Hush" climbed to No. 73. The single (the group's most recent to reach the Hot 100) samples "Survive," thus bringing writers Freddie Peren and Dino Fekaris back to the Hot 100 during the '00s.
With this week's "Glee" remake, "Survive" has grown strong and carried on by charting on the survey in a fifth consecutive decade. It'll receive an additional esteemed honor in 2012, too: the song is among 25 iconic recordings being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The wing honors recordings of "lasting qualitative or historical significance" that are at least 25 years old.
The bow of "Survive" is one of five by the "Glee" singers this week, upping their record total to 178 entries, ahead of runner-up Elvis Presley's 108. (The King of Rock and Roll's career predated the Hot 100's 1958 launch; he had scaled numerous Hot 100 predecessor song charts beginning in 1956).
On the Billboard 200, the "Glee" franchise collects its 13th top 10 in 14 tries, as "Glee: the Music: Season 3: Volume 7" debuts at No. 9.
TIME FOR ANOTHER TOP 10: T-Pain notches his 15th Hot 100 top 10, as "5 O'Clock," featuring Wiz Khalifa and Lily Allen, climbs 11-10. The song introduces T-Pain's album "rEVOLVEr," which begins on the Billboard 200 at No. 28.
The track marks Khalifa's fourth top 10 and Allen's first.
It's also the first Hot 100 top 10 ode to the hour (counting a.m. and p.m.) s! ince Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" worked its way to No. 1 for two weeks in 1981. Before that, the Vogues' "Five O'Clock World" hit No. 4 in 1966.
Since, Nonchalant reached No. 24 in 1996 with "5 O'Clock." In 2003, Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" reached No. 17 (and spent eight weeks atop Country Songs, tying Lonestar's "Amazed" (1999) for the chart's longest command since 1966).