


This instantly placed Cook second on the all-time list of most simultaneous chart entries in a single week-behind only the Beatles, who, one week in 1964, at the peak of Beatlemania, managed 14 simultaneous charting songs.

In the spring of 2008, a former bartender from Missouri named David Cook, who had never appeared on the Hot 100 before, suddenly crash-landed with 11 chart debuts all at once. Before I dissect how this happened, gather ’round the campfire, kids, while I tell you a story from long, long ago, a time when this singer-songwriter had yet to score her first Top 10 pop hit. You may have heard that, this week, one artist-a notorious cat-lover with an increasingly foul mouth-has locked down the entire Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
