Rude Boy Becomes Rihanna's Best-Charting Single Since "Umbrella"

For the third straight week, Rihanna's "Rude Boy" has the Number One spot on the Billboard Hot 100 on lockdown. The "Rude Boy" run atop the chart has been Rihanna's most successful since "Umbrella" spent seven consecutive weeks at Number One in early 2007. Coming in at Number Two, as it did last week, was "Nothin' On You" by B.o.B., who Rolling Stone called the Best Stoner MC in our recent Best New Bands 2010 feature. Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" ascended from Number Seven to a new high, Number Three, in its 26th week on the charts.

Justin Bieber, who topped the Billboard 200 album chart this week with My World 2.0, was also a big story on the Hot 100, landing three singles on the chart: "Baby" with Ludacris at Number Eight, the week's highest debut "Eenie Meenie" at Number 30 and "That Should Be Me" at Number 92. The teenage hit machine has now placed five singles from his new My World 2.0 on the Hot 100, putting him well on his way of eclipsing the seven Hot 100 singles My World produced.

T-Pain's "Reverse Cowgirl" was the Hot 100's second-highest debut at Number 75, followed by Young Money's "Roger That" at 86 and, further down, Timbaland and Katy Perry's "If We Ever Meet Again" at 96.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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