For music history buffs like me, 2011 was one for the record books. It seemed like almost every week something historic was happening on a Billboard chart.
Cher began the history-making year in January when her single "You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me" from "Burlesque" topped the Billboard Dance/Club chart. The song made Cher the only artist ever to top a Billboard chart in six decades.
Katy Perry climbed to the top of the Hot 100 in March with "E.T.," the fourth single from her multi-Grammy-nominated "Teenage Dream" album. Perry had already hit No. 1 with "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream" and "Firework." In August, she did the unthinkable: She tied Michael Jackson's record of five No. 1 singles from the same album. Jackson did it with 1987's "Bad."
Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," sold more than a million albums its first week, a feat that hadn't been achieved since Usher's "Confessions" in 2004.
Adele, 2009's Best New Artist Grammy-winner, took the country by storm with a massively successful album, "21,"?which became the year's No. 1 album and featured 2011's No. 1 song, "Rolling In The Deep." She was also named Billboard's Artist of the Year.?She was the first female to have Top Album, Top Song and Artist of the Year distinctions in the same year.
Tony Bennett got his first No. 1 album with "Duets II" in September. At 85, he became the oldest artist to top the Billboard chart. His single "Body & Soul" with the late Amy Winehouse also made him the oldest artist to hit the Hot 100.
Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera capitalized on their stint as judges on "The Voice," by topping the Hot 100 with "Moves Like Jagger." It marked the first time two former Best New Artist Grammy winners collaborated for a No. 1 hit.
Country singer Miranda Lambert's fourth album, "Four The Record," is aptly named: it topped the Billboard Country Album's chart, making her the first female artist to reach No. 1 with her first four albums.
The charts seem trivial to most, but to us chart buffs, they're everything.
As chart milestones go, what can 2012 do for an encore??It's off to a promising start. Katy Perry's sixth release from?"Teenage Dream, "The One That Got Away" is currently at No. 3. If it reaches No. 1, Perry will hold the record for most chart-topping singles from one album. If she doesn't, the song may be the "one that got away."
David T. Farr is a Sturgis (Mich.) Journal correspondent. Email him at farrboy@hotmail.com. You can also find The Farr Side on Facebook.
