Singles Minded: 'five O'clock' Impressions Continue Upward Tick

Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" is the first country single in more than five years to garner more than 50 million listener impressions on Hot Country Singles & Tracks, clocking in with an audience total of 51.5 million.

No country title has made such a big splash since George Strait's "I Just Want to Dance With You" collected 50.3 million listener impressions in the June 13, 1998, issue. "Clock" nabs the most impressions since Tim McGraw's "Just to See You Smile" hit 52.8 million in the Feb. 7, 1998, issue.

"Five O'Clock" is one of two new tracks on Jackson's "Greatest Hits (And Some Other Stuff)," which bows a week early at No. 55 on Top Country Albums (see Over the Counter, page 55).



GET HIGH: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Featuring Ying Yang Twins take "Get Low" to a new high, as it hits No. 3 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks while also moving 11-8 on The Billboard Hot 100.

The breakout success of "Get Low" has propelled constantly increasing album sales for the act's "Kings of Crunk" on The Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums since the track hit radio in early April.

"Crunk" debuted at No. 56 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in November—a week early because of street-date violations—and rose to No. 2 the following week. The album has moved in and out of the top 10 a couple of times since then and has now spent a high of six consecutive weeks in the top 10, rising to No. 6 this issue. On The Billboard 200, "Crunk" climbs to No. 19, its highest rank since it bowed at No. 15 with the album's third gain in the past four weeks.

Lil Jon, who recently inked a deal for his BME label with Warner Bros., also appears as a featured artist on "Damn!" by Youngbloodz and "Shake That Monkey" by Too Short, at Nos. 21 and 86, respectively, on R&B/Hip-Hop Singles.



INDIE EXPOSURE: "Get Low" by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Featuring Ying Yang Twins is TVT's first top 10 single on The Billboard Hot 100, as the independent label's prior high was Default's "Wasting My Time," which peaked at No. 13 in the June 8, 2002, issue. The No. 3 rank on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks is also the best showing for the label on that chart.

The last title to be promoted and distributed solely by an indie that reached the top 10 on the Hot 100 was "Look Into My Eyes" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on Relativity, which occupied the No. 10 slot, down from its peak of No. 4, in the Aug. 2, 1997, issue.

Further down the chart, fellow indie label Tommy Boy returns to the Hot 100 for the first time since 2001, debuting at No. 98 with "Never (Past Tense)" by the Roc Project Featuring Tina Arena.

In 2002, the label severed its ties with Warner Bros.—which owned a 50% stake in the company—and restructured. That transitional year was the first since 1988 in which Tommy Boy failed to see a song chart on the Hot 100. From 1989 to 2001, the label placed more than 40 songs on the chart, including a pair that reached No. 3: House of Pain's "Jump Around" (1992) and Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage" (1994).

"Never" is one of 12 debuts on the Hot 100, the most since a dozen songs entered in the March 13, 1999, issue.

back in black: "Where Is the Love?" by Black Eyed Peas returns to No. 1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart after abdicating the top slot for a week to Beyoncé Featuring Jay-Z's "Crazy in Love." It is the first song to reclaim No. 1 on this list since Lenny Kravitz's "Again" gave way to "Love Don't Cost a Thing" from Jennifer Lopez for a week in February 2001, when the chart was printed exclusively in sister publication Airplay Monitor.