This week, something a little different: an interview with journalist Tom Breihan, author of one of my favourite pop cultural columns, Stereogum’s The Number Ones.
Back in 2018, Tom landed on the ambitious/foolhardy idea of reviewing every single Billboard No 1 single in chronological order, and assigning each one a score out of 10. Tom’s early columns, taking in late 50s hits like Mack the Knife (grade: 9/10) and, err, The Chipmunk Song (grade 2/10: “As a parlor trick and a feat of engineering, it’s just staggering. As a piece of music, it sucks shit”) are pithy and direct, focusing more on delivering a verdict than anything else.
