If you’re anything like me, you’re not getting any sleep these days. To keep my mind off the election, I’m letting it churn over more appealing topics, like who’s making it rain at radio, what my favorite people are up to, what records are going to get mega-big and what I’ve been watching instead of doomscrolling on
538.com.
After multiple attempts, this week brings
Big Hit/Columbia’s K-Pop superheroes
BTS their first-ever Top 10 single at radio.
Peter Gray and his Big Red squad deserve props for an innovative bus tour that kicked this one into high gear. Will the group now become the automatics they deserve to be?
Last week
UMG’s
Celine Joshua invited me to join her for an afternoon drink at the
Polo Lounge. I smiled when I got her message—she’s one of the smartest people I know, and I always learn things when we hang out. One thing I learned: Spontaneity is still possible, even for me.
I think most people have always known he's one of the all-time great add-getters, but I’ve got to salute
Lee Leipsner, now teamed with
Lori Anderson, for the incredible job he’s done delivering the
AJR single “Bang” (
S-Curve/Hollywood), which enters the Top 15 at Pop and the Top 10 at Hot AC. Lee always wears an extra mask when we drop by, because he’s a very careful person.
While taking a neighborhood walk the other day, I passed a house that’s had a sign on it since forever reading “Psychic on Duty” and noticed that “Psychic” had been changed to “Intuitionist.” I had a vision that this would happen.
I highly, highly recommend the
Bruce Springsteen documentary “Letter to You” (now streamable on
Apple TV+) to anyone who’s ever been a fan of The Boss—or just enjoys a beautifully filmed, inside-baseball journey through the making of an album. Mazels and much appreciation to friends
Jon Landau and
Greg Linn.
I had a chance to chat with
Dan McCarroll last week. Dan is working closely with
Steve Boom at
Amazon Music these days. Just ask
Alexa to hook you up with him the next time you’re ordering enough paper towels to last until doomsday.
Alissa Pollack promised me an easier path to get the info I crave from
Realtime Mediabase Classic. Unfortunately, the new way is still a maze of click-throughs. Alissa is super-grateful for all my feedback.
Congrats to Spangmania king and
Republic promo overlord
Gary Spangler for putting away two
Ariana Grande songs over two consecutive weeks at radio. Is this a first? Quickly, someone ping my statistician! Gary's pictured here in his Halloween garb, singing a round of "If I Only Had an
iHeart."
Some thoughts on records/artists:
Machine Gun Kelly is much, MUCH bigger than you think. I’ve set the over/under on his
Bad Boy/Interscope album at 1.3m, and I’m taking the over.
Clairo (
FADER Label) is great, and her new single, “Sofia,” should be the breakthrough to a much larger audience.
Cannons’ “Fire for You” (Columbia), which broke from the
Netflix series
Never Have I Ever, is a callout/
Shazam superhit. Republic’s
Conan Gray and
RCA’s
Tate McRae are also bigger than you think.
The Kid LAROI (Columbia) is real.
Big Loud’s
Morgan Wallen will still get his shot at
Saturday Night Live so draw a smiley face on your COVID mask.
Saweetie’s new song with
Jhené Aiko (
Warner), "Back to the Streets," could be the breakout one for both artists.
And no, I don’t want to look at the latest battleground polls, thank you. At least not until these drugs kick in.
