When Did We Stop Using Saxophones in Pop Songs? Mailbag

This month we dive into questions about songs named after people, rappers working in odd time signatures, and so much more.

As I was completing my book over the last few months, I didn’t have time to answer reader questions. That made me sad. I love answering your questions. Luckily, I submitted my manuscript a week ago! In other words, I’m back to investigating your queries, so that you don’t have to.

Should you have a question for the next edition, you can submit it using the button below. If your question is selected, you get a free premium subscription to this newsletter for a month. Premium subscribers get access to our entire archive of posts, biweekly interviews, music industry link roundups, and priority when submitting questions.

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When I was a kid there was a period where a lot of pop songs used saxophones. What years were they most common in songs? - Adam

Over the last few years, I listened to every Billboard Hot 100 number one hit from 1958 to present. Lucky for you, I flagged if a song had a saxophone. The sax was popular in the early-1960s before being bludgeoned to death during the British Invasion. It was then resurrected in the 1970s and 1980s with the help of disco and cheesy ballads. Since 2000, the sax has been pretty much nonexistent at the top of the charts.

Which name has been featured in the highest chart-topping hit? - Marc

Fun question. There are tons of number one hits with people’s names in the title. “Help Me, Rhonda” by The Beach Boys. “Mickey” by Toni Basil. “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson. Interestingly, number ones of this type have become quite rare. In the 1960s, 20 number ones had a person’s name in the title. Since 2010, there have been two: “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5 and “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X.

But let’s get back to your question. We’ll focus on number one hits whose title is only a name, like “Amanda” by Boston. The number one hit that spent the most weeks at number one whose title is only a name is Santana’s “Maria Maria.” It reached number one on April 8, 2000 and stayed there for 10 weeks. If you want more information about songs and names, check out this piece I wrote last year about how hit songs influence the names parents give to their children.

An increasing number of artists are using AI tools to make music. With AI baked in to popular software it's getting hard to avoid. At what point does music become "AI music," and is it just part of the evolution of music tech that's been happening for decades, from synths to virtual instruments to Autotune? - Paul