Hey there, hip parade listeners, before we start the show, I want to let you know about

a story coming up a little later. It's from one of our partners, SAP. Is your business

reaching an exciting turning point? Are you ready to seize the moment for growth? Well,

when you're facing tough decisions, SAP can help you be ready for anything that happens

next. To learn more, head to SAP dot com slash be ready and stick around to hear how the

president of an eSports league seized the moment. Hey everybody, it's Tim Heidecker. You know

me, Tim and Eric Bridesmaids and fantastic four. I'd like to personally invite you to

listen to office hours live with me and my co-hosts DJ Doug Pound. Hello. And Vic Berger.

Howdy. Every week we bring you last fun games and lots of other surprises. It's live. We

take your Zoom calls. We love having fun. Excuse me. Vic said something. It's a long

music. I like having fun. I like to laugh. I like to meet people who can make me laugh. Please

subscribe. No. Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine

about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer

of Slates. Why is this song number one series on our last episode? We started to compare

the hit making careers of Lenny Kravitz and Bruno Mars, two showbiz kids, fellow admirers

and genre chameleons with more than 20 years separating them, but a remarkable amount

in common. We walked through Kravitz's career in the 90s and aughts, the rock heroes of

yesteryear he emulated and the criticism he received for his stylistic borrowings. We're

now into the late aughts when Lenny's career is on the wane, but Bruno's is primed to explode.

Lost was a song Bruno Mars originally intended to record for himself. He had already been in L.A.

for more than four years with little to show for it. Like Lenny Kravitz in his Romeo blue face,

he had played in cover bands. One of Bruno's regular troops was called Sex Panther and he held

...