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Hit Parade: The Charity Megasingle Edition

Hit Parade: The Charity Megasingle Edition

FromHit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia


Hit Parade: The Charity Megasingle Edition

FromHit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

ratings:
Length:
67 minutes
Released:
Jul 28, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

In the mid-1980s, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and “We Are the World” gathered dozens of the biggest stars in music to put on a show for a good cause. The two songs spawned imitators, but today, the charity megasingle is a relic of pop music’s past, except around the holidays. This month, we examine how good intentions, pique, excess, and vanity led to the rise and fall of the do-gooder celebrity pop song.  Email: hitparade@slate.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Released:
Jul 28, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

What makes a song a smash? Talent? Luck? Timing? All that—and more. Chris Molanphy, pop-chart analyst and author of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series, tells tales from a half-century of chart history. Through storytelling, trivia and song snippets, Chris dissects how that song you love—or hate—dominated the airwaves, made its way to the top of the charts and shaped your memories forever.