• James Taylor, Tony Bennett and Tom Petty: Longest Streaks Before A No. 1 Album

    James Taylor is a legend. The dude's been around for nearly 50 years. He's seen fire and he's seen rain. But there was one thing that the songwriter never saw during his lengthy career in music: A no. 1 record. That finally changed this week when 'Before This World,' his first album of original material in more than 13 years, peaked at the top of the Billboard 200. That got us at Music Times wondering...what performer took the longest to get their first no. 1 album? We ranked the Top 5, from "least" years to most..including Tom Petty, Tony Bennett and more.

  • Miley Cyrus Inspiration for Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' According to Pharrell Williams in Lawsuit Testimony

    Things have gotten exciting in the "Blurred Lines" trial as Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have entered the picture to offer testimony defending their hit song against claims from the Marvin Gaye estate that the no. 1 single is dangerously similar to the soul icon's "Got to Give It Up." Williams, the producer and occasional crooner, took to the stand this week and declared that the first performer he had on his mind when he drafted "Lines" wasn't Gaye at all, but Miley Cyrus.

  • Bob Dylan's 5 No. 1 Albums: You Won't Guess Which of His Classics Didn't Top the Billboard 200...And Which Did

    Sometimes musical history makes sense, such as when The Beatles—by all means the greatest act in the history of modern music—also has the record for most no. 1 albums of all time, with 19. Sometimes musical history makes less sense in terms of sales, as is the case with Bob Dylan. The folk legend is one of the most influential performers of all time-no. 2 to only The Beatles if you take Rolling Stone's word for it—but that didn't necessarily translate to sales for ol' Zimmy. "The Voice of A Generation" only got to the top of the charts five times in his more than five decade career. That's more than your average performer for sure, but given his longevity and acclaim, we might have expected more. You may be surprised which five were his best-selling upon debut.

  • 10 Super Bowl Halftime Show Stages: Ranking the Platforms of Madonna, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and More

    The Super Bowl Halftime Show often benefits from a great performance onstage. Sometimes. But knowing the much of the audio is prerecorded kind of takes some of the fun out of it. That's why more often than not our final verdict on the big game's big entertainment (especially in recent years) had revolved more around the stage-show than the music itself. Nothing is more important to a stage-show than a stage. Music Times went back and checked out the last ten Super Bowl performers and more importantly, what they were playing on, and ranked them accordingly (including Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Madonna and more). This isn't a ranking of the performances, but of the platform that held it.

  • 7 Songs You Didn't Know Jeff Lynne Helped Write: Sam Smith, George Harrison and...The Pussycat Dolls?

    Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" was one of the biggest songs of 2014 and this week's big news was that Tom Petty would receive a songwriting credit for the song due to its similarities to his own "I Won't Back Down," a coincidence that Petty referred to as a "musical accident no more no less." Although Petty has appeared in all of the headlines, an equal amount of the songwriting credit was also awarded to Jeff Lynne, the frontman for the Electric Light Orchestra, who has been behind the scenes on many a track. Check out a list of Lynne's other surprise songwriting credits, not counting work with band's he's a part of, including the Traveling Wilburys.

  • Sam Smith "Stay With Me": Vocalist Pays Tom Petty Royalties on Hit Single for "I Won't Back Down" Similarity

    Sam Smith's "2014" was one one of the bestselling songs of 2014, and perhaps its had a little too much in common with "I Won't Back Down," another classic by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. It was revealed earlier this week that the soul vocalist has been paying royalties to Petty as a songwriter for the song, although not with all of the legal drama we often associate with similar tunes, such as the ongoing lawsuit between the Marvin Gaye estate and Robin Thicke comparing the 2013 hit "Blurred Lines" with that soul singer's "Got To Give It Up."

  • 'Guardians of The Galaxy,' 'Now 51' and 'Frozen' Make Billboard 200 a Compilation Affair...Gaslight Anthem Top Debuts

    Last week it seemed that compilations had reached a high point, taking both the now. 1 and 2 spots on the Billboard 200, but this week the music collections stepped it up a notch, adding spot no. 3 to the list. The last time the first three spots on the list were held by compilations was during 2009 when Now 30, Hannah Montana: The Movie and the original Twilight soundtrack held the positions.
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