Hey there, hit parade listeners. I have a special announcement. This year marks the 25th

anniversary of Slate. And for a limited time, we're offering our annual Slate Plus membership

at $25 off. As a member, you get so many benefits, including right here at Hit Parade.

You're about to hear part one of this Hit Parade episode, and part two will arrive in your

podcast feed at the end of the month. But if you'd like to hear this episode all at once,

the day it drops, you can sign up right now for Slate Plus. As a Slate Plus member,

you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, Hit Parade,

the bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics,

and pop chart trivia. Plus, you'll get no ads on any Slate podcast, unlimited reading on

the Slate site, and member exclusive episodes and segments, such as my favorite part of every

week's Slate Culture Gap Fest, their conversational Slot Plus segments. So sign up at Slate.com slash

Hit Parade Plus to keep Slate going for another 25 years. But hurry, this offer of $25

off only lasts through October 31st. So sign up now at Slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus.

Thanks, and now please enjoy part one of this Hit Parade episode.

Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from

Coast to Coast. I'm Chris Melanthe, Chart Analyst Popcredit, and writer of Slates Why is this

song number one series? On today's show, 16 years ago this week, a song cracked the top 10 on

Billboard's Hot 100 that had been climbing the chart for nearly four months. It had also been

rising on the modern rock chart for almost five months, and the song's verbose chorus

seemed to talk about the charts themselves. Its most memorable line, to me anyway, was I'll be your

number one with a bullet. Though it wouldn't quite reach number one with

or without a bullet, the song, sugar we're going down, would reach number three on the

...