The Number Ones: Harry Styles’ “As It Was”

April 16, 2022STAYED AT #1:15 WeeksIn The Number Ones, I'm reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart's beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. The column is now biweekly, alternating with The Alternative Number Ones on Mondays. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music."This doesn't happen to people like me very often." That's the line that really pissed people off. It was February 2023, and the bedazzled young pop prince Harry Styles had just won the Album Of The Year Grammy for Harry's House. In his acceptance speech, he tried so hard to stay humble. He shouted out all the other nominees in the category, though not by name. He made a big point to say that "there is no such thing as 'best' in music," to underplay the sense of competition that necessarily surrounds awards season. But just before he passed the mic off to his collaborators, he blurted out that "people like me" line and sent the internet into a searing rage. On Twitter, it was torches and pitchforks.You know why. Don't act like you don't know why. I'll tell you anyway. To earn that Album O...