Encanto smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” rewrote the record for the most artists credited on a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, as it’s billed to Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the Encanto Cast.
As the ensemble anthem tops the Hot 100 for a fourth week, Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” rises to No. 2, a new high for the song and the British quartet.
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For all those involved in the two hits, they were written by a single author each: Lin-Manuel Miranda penned “Bruno” and Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley wrote “Heat Waves.”
As previously reported, songs by a single writer have declined sharply on the Hot 100. Just over 5% of all top 10s over the past decade were written solo. Meanwhile, in the 1970s, 44% of all No. 1s were written by just one person. The share slipped slightly to 42% in the ’80s, before plunging to 24% in the ’90s, 6% in the 2000s and 4% in the ’10s. “Bruno” is the first solo-written No. 1 of the ’20s.
With “Bruno” and “Heat Waves” at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the latest, Feb. 26-dated Hot 100, when was the last time that the top two songs in a week were penned solo?
We have to travel back to before Glass Animals formed (in 2010) and several members of the family Madrigal were born (maybe).
The last such double-up occurred on the July 29, 2000, Hot 100. That week, Matchbox Twenty’s “Bent” surged from No. 6 to No. 1 and Vertical Horizon’s “Everything You Want” fell to No. 2, after a week on top. The songs were written by each band’s respective frontman: Rob Thomas and Matt Scannell.
(The more things change: The Hot 100 charts dated July 29, 2000, and Feb. 26, 2022, share a song — Dr. Dre’s “The Next Episode,” featuring Snoop Dogg. The track ranked at No. 26 on the former, on its way to a No. 23 peak the following week. It re-enters the latest list at No. 37, following the pair’s performance at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show Feb. 13.)
Of writing “Bruno,” Miranda recently told Billboard, “My job is to raise my hand and let this room of animators and incredibly creative people know what music can do. Like, ‘Here’s what I think these songs can cover’ … ‘I think here’s where I can run with the ball and get some real estate.’ Your job as the musical dramatist in this room is to sort of say, ‘Here’s where I think music can elevate and help tell our story.’ “
After “Heat Waves” debuted on the Hot 100 (over a year ago), Bayley reflected on its origin. “I’d been writing all day and not really getting anywhere. Then I was like, okay, one more …,” he mused. “Normally, writing a song takes a good day to get into shape, but this happened in an hour late at night. The guitar came first. I was like, ‘I’m going to write this long chord pattern.’ I was fumbling. After 10 minutes of looking into space and plucking the guitar, I hit those eight chords, and I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s it.’ As soon as I had [that], I started singing. Literally the first thing that came out was the hook.
“It’s so bonkers. It never happens like that. If you spend enough time … eventually all the notes will form some kind of catchy sequence.”