As is typical the summer season spreads me thinner than the rest of the year, so it is harder to keep up with Beyond Radio. This year is especially challenging as I started a new job that is taking up a good amount of my time, while I also am leading up to my 60th birthday at the end of July. With that and the coming out of COVID, there has been more travel, and that will continue through the summer. Also, my annual music party will be back after a detour last year. That will happen on July 31, a few days after my birthday.
The podcast and my writings have taken a temporary back seat in all of this. I’m hoping to have another episode out in the next few weeks.
“Good 4 U” unsurprisingly vaults into the #1 position on the BR250 and #1 Trending on the strength of 44 adds. Olivia Rodrigo places a second song in the Trending top 10 with “Brutal” at #5, while “Déjà Vu” sits at #11 and “Traitor” at #22. Galantis and Maneskin, in the Trending silver and bronze positions, follow “Good 4 U” into the BR250 top 15 on strong early June action. “Heartbreak Anthem” has a great summer song vibe, I’d be shocked if they don’t push this in the States. “Zitti E Bouni” will not see the same action though I love that it won Eurovision.
At #4 Trending, Chvrches collaboration with the Cure’s Robert Smith “How Not To Drown” has had strong out of the box success, landing at #43 on the BR250 this week. This is by far my favorite Chvrches track, none of their songs have cracked my top 25 and this could possibly go to #1 on my list.
Another ‘80s era band, Duran Duran, return at #8 Trending with “Invisible” while ‘70s artist Nile Rodgers of Chic, appears at #19 Trending on the Keith Urban track “Out The Cage”, possibly his least Country song ever. Not that that is unusual for him. He has been a stellar performer on my personal chart since 2002 when “Somebody Like You” went to #1 on my chart. At the time I felt that was a Pop hit waiting to happen. Since then, he has had 17 songs reach #1 on my personal chart and another 13 reach my top 10.