Songs about bottoms.

September 9, 2014 10:31 AM

What is the highest number of songs appearing in the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time having butts (or a single butt) as a primary lyrical subject? When was it?
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

I happen to have a spreadsheet with every billboard record ever, going back to 1890. So, I compiled a list of songs about butts:

Bubble Butt - Major Lazer (2013)
Dance (A$$) - Big Sean (2012)
Shake That - Eminem (2006)
Ms. New Booty - Bubba Sparxxx (2006)
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk - Trace Adkins (2006)
My Humps - Black Eyed Peas, The (2005)
Culo - Pitbull (2004)
Light Your A** On Fire - Busta Rhymes (2003)
From Her Mama (Mama Got A**) - Juvenile (2002)
Bootylicious - Destiny's Child (2001)
Thong Song - Sisqo (2000)
Shake Ya Ass - Mystikal (2000)
Back That Thang Up - Juvenile (1999)
Shake A Lil' Somethin' - 2 Live Crew (1996)
Pumps And A Bump - M.C. Hammer (1994)
Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-A-Lot (1992)
Rump Shaker - Wreckx-N-Effect (1992)
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen (1979)
(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - K.C and the Sunshine Band (1976)

If anyone has a more comprehensive list of butt songs I can re run the script, but here are my findings:

Year Number of charting songs about butts
1976 1
1978 1
1979 1
1992 2
1993 1
1994 1
1996 1
1999 1
2000 3
2001 2
2002 1
2003 1
2004 1
2005 3
2006 4
2011 1
2012 1
2013 1

So from this list it looks like 2006 is the winner, with "Shake That", "Ms. New Booty", "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", and "My Humps".
posted by dilaudid at 12:56 PM on September 9, 2014 [29 favorites]

And if anyone would like to listen to this as a playlist on Spotify: Butts (via AskMe) (I hope that works).
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:10 PM on September 9, 2014 [9 favorites]

Well, there are at least three songs about butts on the Hot 100 literally right now (which I assume is the catalyst for this question) -- Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass, Nicki Minaj - Anaconda, Jason Derulo - Wiggle -- so I think the analysis above might need a more liberal categorization of "songs about butts."
posted by telegraph at 1:37 PM on September 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

dilaudid, you've listed My Humps as 2005, which Wikipedia seems to back up. Your table shows 2005 as having three butt songs. So that would make it a three-way tie with 2000 and 2014.
posted by darksasami at 1:39 PM on September 9, 2014

Per Wikipedia, My Humps was released in September 2005 and spent more than 9 months on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, so that would make it still on the charts in 2006 when, ostensibly, the three songs in the table listed as 2006 (I'm assuming initial release date) were there also.
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:45 PM on September 9, 2014

Yeah I should have mentioned- my source only goes until the beginning of this year. So factor in whatever state the charts are in right now.

pastebin with all weeks shown
posted by dilaudid at 1:50 PM on September 9, 2014

Response by poster: (good instincts, telegraph!)
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 1:56 PM on September 9, 2014

Yes, I was going to say end of 2005/beginning 2006 as well. There's also Ying Yang Twins - Shake, Twista - Hit the Floor... and there's also D4L - Laffy Taffy, which is.. close enough, geographically speaking?

Culo was out at the same time as Christina Milian - Dip it Low, Juvenile - Slow Motion, and Kanye - New Workout Plan, which kind of fits.
posted by acidic at 2:44 PM on September 9, 2014

This is a silly question, but that spotify playlist doesn't line up with the songs listed above. I was just wondering why? It seems like they are all still about butts.
posted by bbqturtle at 8:12 AM on September 10, 2014

Nevermind, I see that you just added the songs from telegraph
posted by bbqturtle at 8:13 AM on September 10, 2014