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Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia Podcast Transcripts

Slate Podcasts · 258 episodes with transcripts

What makes a song a smash? Talent? Luck? Timing? All that—and more. Chris Molanphy, pop-chart analyst and author of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series, tells tales from a half-century of chart history.

Spoken has transcripts of 258 Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia episodes, with the speakers named. The newest listed here is from October 7, 2026.

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Latest Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia transcripts

Near-Miss Hits: ‘80s Edition

October 7, 2026

Chris Molanphy (0:10)

Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine. About the hits from coast to coast, I'm Chris Molanphy, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song No. 1? series on today's show. With Halloween about a month away, let's set the mood with this song, Somebody's Watching…

And it is famous, or you might say infamous, for writing the coattails of Michael Jackson, who was then at the peak of his thriller popularity. That's Michael on the chorus of Somebody's Watching Me, doing a favor for Rockwell, who was the son of Barry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown.

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