Justin Bieber (“Love Yourself,” “Sorry”) and Selena Gomez (“Hands to Myself, “Same Old Love”) are both in the Billboard Top 10 this week, prompting the following question: “Have any other former couples previously shared space in the top 10 with separate hits?”
On the Dec. 26, 1981 Hot 100, Stevie Nicks ranked at No. 8 with “Leather and Lace,” which had reached the top 10 the week before. On the Dec. 26, chart, Lindsey Buckingham rose to No. 10 with “Trouble,” joining her in the bracket. The latter would spend three total weeks at No. 10 before climbing to its No. 9 peak for two weeks, all while “Leather and Lace” remained in the top 10, lifting to its No. 6 peak in the former’s final week in the region.
So, for five weeks in 1981-82, Nicks and Buckingham each placed in the Hot 100’s top 10 simultaneously with their own songs. (Like Bieber and Gomez this week, they avoided back-to-back chart contact throughout that stretch.) Making things potentially more awkward, Nicks had moved on to another … as her hit is a duet, of course, with Don Henley (whom she did date).
“Relations with Lindsey are exactly as they have been since we broke up,” according to Nicks, who dated Buckingham in the ’70s, helping lead to Fleetwood Mac’s iconic breakup-inspired album, 1977’s Rumours, as they remained bandmates (after first teaming as duo Buckingham Nicks). “He and I will always be antagonizing to each other, and we will always do things that will irritate each other, and we really know how to push each other’s buttons.
“We know exactly what to say when we really want to throw a dagger in. And, I think that that’s not different now than it was when we were 20. And, I don’t think it will be different when we’re 80.”
(Beyond continuing in Fleetwood Mac to this day, Nicks and Buckingham teamed 20 years ago this year for “Twisted,” a single worth revisiting from the movie Twister.)
As for Bieber and Gomez reuniting … not just in the Hot 100’s top 10? Gomez recently said, bluntly: “What I would love to be printed is that I am so beyond done with talking about that, and him.”
Bieber is more nostalgic, and hopeful. “We have a lot of history together, so it could possibly happen. I think we’re both just on our own journeys, figuring ourselves out. Once we’ve figured ourselves out, we could maybe come together and make an awesome duo.”
Read the full article at Billboard.
