Good Girl Gone Bad

Today in Music History: January 27

Many of our top recording artists in the 21st century place as much focus on their appearance and performance as their singing. Apparently there is no limit. The one featured in today's spotlight is no exception.
Welcome into the Spotlight...

Rihanna: the youngest artist to score 12 number one singles in the US

As a teenager, Rihanna turned to singing as a release from her troubles at home. She left home in Barbados and signed with Def Jam records at age 16 and released her first album, which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, in 2005.

"When I left Barbados, I didn't look back," Rihanna recalled. "I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America."

In 2007, Rihanna effected a transformation from cute teen pop princess to fully fledged superstar and sex symbol with her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, fueled by its smash hit lead single "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z. "It shows such growth for her as an artist," Jay-Z said about the track. "If you listen to the lyrics to that song, you know the depth and how far she's come." [Source: Biography.com]

2012 Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris - We Found Love
"We Found Love" was met with mixed reviews from music critics, who praised the song's composition and Rihanna's vocal performance; however, some critics felt that the lyrical content was sparse and came second to Harris' production. Commercially, the song was a major success.

No.1 singles on this day...
[Click on the year for the songs that hit number one on the charts in the US during that year.]

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  1962 Joey and the Starlighters started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Peppermint Twist, part 1'. The single reached No.33 on the UK chart.

• 1973 'Superstition' the lead single from Stevie Wonder's Talking Book album gave him his second No.1 single in the US, 10 years after his first No.1. Jeff Beck created the original drum beat while in the studio with Wonder. After writing the song, Wonder offered it to Beck to record, but at the insistence of Berry Gordy, Wonder himself recorded it first. Beck was instead offered 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers', which he recorded on Blow by Blow in 1975.

• 1981 Blondie - The Tide Is High
  "The Tide Is High" is a 1967 song written by John Holt, originally performed by the Jamaican group The Paragons, with John Holt as lead singer. The song went mainly unnoticed in the rest of the world, until it was rediscovered in 1980, when it became a US/UK No.1 hit for the American band Blondie.

• 1990 Michael Bolton - How Am I Supposed To Live Without You "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" is a song written in 1983 by Doug James and Michael Bolton. The ballad has been recorded by dozens of artists around the world, in English and Spanish, becoming something of a modern pop standard. Instrumental versions of the song have been recorded featuring variously the piano, guitar, saxophone, pan flute, steel drum, and music box. Bolton's own rendition of the song became a worldwide hit in early 1990.

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The longest running No.1 hits on this day from 1940-2015...

1993 Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
In 1992, singer Whitney Houston recorded the song for the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, her film debut. Houston was originally to record Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as the lead single from The Bodyguard.
Houston's version was a massive worldwide success.

1996 Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men - One Sweet Day
Both Carey and Boyz II Men wrote the song about specific people in their lives to include sufferers of the AIDS epidemic so globally prevalent at the time.
"One Sweet Day" has been lauded with a universal acclaim by contemporary music critics and won many prestigious awards throughout 1996.

Songs released on this day...

1956 Elvis Presley's single, 'Heartbreak Hotel' was released by RCA Records, who had just purchased Presley's contract from Sun Records for $35,000. The song sold 300,000 copies in its first week and would eventually sell over a million, becoming Elvis' first Gold record.

1968 Otis Redding's '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' was released. The release came six weeks after he was killed in a plane crash.

And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...