Hot 100

The E Street Band’s Nils Lofgren debuts on The Hot 100 with his protest song, “No Kings No Hate No Fear.” It is the fourth protest in the Top 10 this month. Protest has always been part of pop culture. Just listen to Bob Dylan’s 1963 “Masters Of War.” He pulls no punches. Or the 1965 Phil Ochs anthem “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore.” Or Neil Young’s 1970 “Ohio.” Such respected New Jersey artists as Bruce (#1), Nils (#7), Janis Ian (#2) and Tammy Faye Starlite (#3) share their anger. It is amazing that Starlite’s song is a cover of the late Jill Sobule’s “America Back” from 2015. Of course, protest music did not start in the 1960s. Woody Guthrie was protesting war and the living conditions of the poor as early as the late 1930s.

When Elvis finally got out of the Army, it was Sinatra who welcomed him back to the entertainment world by having him on his television show. The clip of Elvis singing a Sinatra song and Sinatra singing an Elvis song side by side is one of the great cultural touchstones of American show business. That moment debuts at #8. And now that the Kennedy Center has been closed down for two years, we revisit one of its greatest moments: the night Bettye LaVette paid tribute to inductees The Who by singing “Love Reign O’er Me” better than Roger Daltrey ever did. That magic moment is #6.