Billboard Top 100 Songs of All Time Continued…
80. “Abracadabra” – The Steve Miller Band
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for two weeks (1982): Steve Miller was inspired by Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” to write “Abracadabra.” This became a huge hit for the band.
79. “Gangsta’s Paradise” – Coolio featuring L.V.
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1995): The title song from the film “Dangerous Minds,” Coolio based this on Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise.” Wonder rejected the song at first because their were too many obscenities, so Coolio reworked it and it became the biggest hit of his career.
78. “Hot Stuff” – Donna Summer
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1979): Known as the “queen of disco,” Summer wanted to record a rock song and she definitely did, as this became a huge crossover hit for her.
77. “You’re Still the One” – Shania Twain
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1998): Shania Twain had massive crossover success with her album “Come on Over.” While this song never reached number one it did hold steady for a while at number 2 and spent a massive 42 weeks on the Hot 100 chart.
76. “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” – Marvin Gaye
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (1968): Several Mwtown artists have recorded this song, including Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and the Isley Brothers. Gaye’s version went all the way to number 1.
75. “Dilemma” – Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for 10 weeks (2002): Nelly was only the fifth artist in history to have a number 1 song at the time another one of his songs replaced it at the same position. “Dilemma” replaced Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” as the number one song on the charts and stayed there for 10 weeks. The Beatles, Boyz II Men, Puff Daddy and Ja Rule are the other artists to accomplish this.
74. “Just the Way You Are” – Bruno Mars
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (2010): This was Bruno’s first solo number 1. He had originally charted as part of B.o.B’s No. 1 hit, “Nothin’ on You.”
73. “Sugar, Sugar” – The Archies
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1969): Don Kirshner, music supervisor of Filmation’s Saturday morning animated “The Archies,” asked Jeff Barry to produce songs for the show by a group of studio musicians fronted by vocalist Ron Dante with an assist from Toni Wine. Canadian singer Andy Kim was asked to co-write with Barry and the result was the third Archies single, “Sugar, Sugar,” Billboard’s No. 1 Hot 100 song of 1969.
72. “Upside Down” – Diana Ross
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1980): There were several versions of this song mixed and Ross was not happy with any of them. Finally her label allowed her to mix it the way she wanted and the end product is the huge hit you have heard for years.
71. “That’s What Friends Are For” – Dionne and Friends
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1986): This song was a huge hit and also did a lot of good by raising over $3 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
See #’s 70 – 61 on Next Page
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