As her “Where Have You Been” bounds 11-9 on the Billboard Hot 100, Rihanna returns to a place where she has been 21 times before: the chart’s top 10.
Where does her sum of 22 Hot 100 top 10s rank her historically?
In the chart’s almost 54-year archives, Rihanna and Paul McCartney trail only 10 acts that have tallied more top 10s. (One of those acts includes McCartney: the Beatles place second with 34.)
Rihanna, who first entered the Hot 100’s top 10 the week of July 16, 2005, with debut single “Pon De Replay,” boasts the most top 10s of the 2010s, with 10 since the week of Jan 2, 2010. Ke$ha, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars and Nicki Minaj share second place with eight each in that span.
Thanks to Rihanna, a piece of a classic country hit reaches the Hot 100’s top 10 50 years after it first appeared on the chart.
“Where Have You Been” sports the line, “I’ve been everywhere, man,” a nod, in its lyrics and melody, to Hank Snow’s 1962 recording, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” As Snow’s song peaked at No. 68 on the Hot 100 the week of Nov. 17, 1962, the refrain of the Geoff Mack composition reaches the top 10 at last, a half-century later.
While it logged a modest peak on the Hot 100, Snow’s version of “Everywhere” spent two weeks at No. 1 on Country Songs in 1962.
Kelly Clarkson collects her second Adult Contemporary No. 1, as “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” lifts 2-1. She first spent 21 weeks at the summit in 2005 with “Breakaway.”
Clarkson, the maiden “American Idol” champion in 2002, and Kimberley Locke, the series’ third-place finalist in 2003, are the show’s only graduates with multiple AC No. 1s. Locke scored three holiday No. 1s in 2005-07: “Up on the Housetop,” “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman.” David Cook (“The Time of My Life,” 2008-09) and Chris Daughtry, with his band Daughtry (“Home,” 2007), each have one.
“Stronger” previously logged eight weeks atop Adult Pop Songs, four at No. 1 on Pop Songs, three on top of the Hot 100, two atop Radio Songs and Digital Songs and one in charge of Dance/Club Play Songs.Clarkson’s new single, “Dark Side,” meanwhile, debuts on Adult Pop Songs at No. 36. She performed the song on May 20 at the Billboard Music Awards.
A fellow “Idol” champion makes chart-topping headlines, as the series’ 2005 victor, Carrie Underwood, collects her 12th No. 1 on Country Songs, where “Good Girl” charges 4-1.
