(April 25, 2023). “Hello, 9-1-1? I’d like to report another Number One musical double-murder.
“Yes, I know it’s happened before, but that was a long time ago. This one is fresh, and it reaches No. 1 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 singles chart dated April 29.”
And so might go the fictional call to authorities to report the latest song featuring a domestic homicide in its lyrics, one that joins the exclusive ranks of a handful of other such hits to turn the trick. The latest case: “Kill Bill” by SZA.
This article explores the long history of No. 1 songs with romantically tragic outcomes—both nefarious and otherwise—beginning with a set of early-70s “story songs” with premises similar to that of SZA’s current hit.
To begin the recap, in 1973 singer (and actress) Vicky Lawrence—of “The Carol Burnett Show” fame—hid evidence of a murder she’d committed in “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia,” where a cheating sister-in-law and her outside man met their doom at the hands of a vengeful “little sister” with damn good aim. Sadly, the sister allows her heartbroken brother to take the charge for the crime.
Then the following year, Cher’s fortune-telling “Dark Lady” died at the hands of a suspicious protagonist (Cher) who found the card-flipping gypsy “laughing and kissing” with her man (oh, he met his doom also). It’s unclear in the song what judicial fate awaited Cher’s character.
And later in 1974, the late Helen Reddy’s “Angie Baby” described a “touched” young girl with unusual powers who is linked to the mysterious (and permanent) disappearance of a boy with evil intentions who pays her an unlucky visit. It all had something to do with her obsession with that “rock and roll radio.”
What all three of those story songs had in common was that they each topped the Billboard Hot 100–in the span of less than two years—beginning in April 1973.
Now, 50 years later, SZA’s song about a protagonist whose ex-boyfriend has a new girlfriend—and both become victims of the singer’s homicidal wrath—tops the Hot 100.
Except, in this case, it’s a non-story song (but still very fictional) and it’s by an R&B singer.
And, in this instance, the singer’s character fully explores her emotions, making it clear that she has no reservations about the bludgeoning of both her ex and his new girlfriend for their indiscretions, quoting from the song’s chorus: I’d “rather be in jail (or hell) than alone.”
The newer song in question, SZA’s “Kill Bill”—inspired by the Quentin Tarantino movies bearing the same name—ascends to No. 1 on the latest chart after 19 weeks of release—all but one of those weeks spent in the top ten.
Here’s its Hot 100 position history: 3-7-11-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-3-4-2-4-1.
I’m not aware of another tune that spent 18 weeks in the top ten before finally reaching No. 1. For perspective, the lone week “Kill” spent outside the top ten at No. 11 was because nine Christmas tunes had pushed the wildly popular hit song out during the peak of the holiday season four months ago.
But now we now have the fourth No. 1 song in pop music history where a man in the story is executed (or, in Angie’s case forever disappears) at the hands of a woman who makes him pay for his nefarious decisions. And in the three known cases of musical homicide—in the songs by Lawrence, Cher and now, SZA—a different woman also meets her doom.
In my search for other songs where the script is flipped (that is, where a man does the killing), I found zero No. 1 instances (at least there were none in Billboard; there is one in rival magazine Cashbox…more on that below).
Yes, Eric Clapton famously reached No. 1 in Billboard–also in 1974–while admitting that he “Shot the Sheriff,” which he claims was in self defense. But there’s no indication that his crime was one of passion (clearly, anyone still questioning that possibility hasn’t heard the story of the cop who recently shot a fellow officer after fearing the other office had ill intent). Incidentally, “Sheriff” was written and originally recorded by reggae legend Bob Marley.
While SZA’s “Kill Bill” joins a very small group of homicidal No. 1 hits, romantically tragic outcomes in No. 1 songs where someone winds up dead aren’t limited to the above instances, and they don’t always involve murder.
In fact, a search through Billboard’s archives finds several other cases where someone forlornly loses his or her life as a result of a romantic connection—or an implied one.
In 1967’s “Ode To Billie Joe,” singer Bobbie Gentry performs a narrative about a Mississippi family’s nonchalant reaction to the news that the titular Billie Joe McAllister had committed suicide by jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge. The song doesn’t link the narrator (Gentry) and Billie Joe romantically, but there clearly is a connection as the two were earlier seen throwing something off the bridge before Billie Joe jumped to his death.
Gentry’s protagonist is also noted in the song as being distraught about the news of McAllister’s death, while the rest of her family conducts dinner table conversation like it’s just another normal day in the neighborhood.
Related reading: The story behind Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe”
In the years prior to that song’s massive chart-topping success, it wasn’t uncommon for romantic tragedy songs to populate the charts. But only four that I found made it all the way to No. 1. And, in the most bizarre set of coincidences, the first three did it in succession.
The year was 1960.
The first new No. 1 song that January was Marty Robbins’ “El Paso,” in which the singer’s character falls in love with a young Mexican dancer named Feleena and meets his doom after returning to the bar where he’d met her, only to be killed by a mob of vigilantes for crimes he’d earlier committed. He, of course, dies in Feleena’s arms after one last kiss.
That tune was replaced at the top of the charts by Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear,” a story song in which two teenage Native Americans from rival tribes drown in the very river that separates their home turfs. Their demise seals their fate that the two will now always be together.
“Running Bear” was, in turn, knocked out of No. 1 by the song “Teen Angel” by Mark Denning. In this teenage tragedy, the story is that the protagonist and his girlfriend are out for a leisurely ride when his car gets stuck on railroad tracks as a train fast approaches. He initially pulls his love to safety before she (idiotically) runs back to the car to grab his high school class ring and is killed in the collision.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of that story (besides her running back in the path of an oncoming train to retrieve a ring) is that the singer finds the ring in his girlfriend’s hand after the train smashes into her and the car.
The fourth example occurred in 1964 when the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack” topped the Hot 100. That song was about the protagonist’s love for a guy from the wrong side of town who perishes in a motorcycle accident after tearfully speeding away when his girlfriend breaks up with him (at her parents’ behest).
Those were all romantic tragedies indeed. And that kind of blind romance is what got those songs to the top of the charts, at least back in the day.
Nowadays, SZA’s toxic approach to love is more the norm. The only surprise about her current ascension is that it’s been nearly 50 years since the last song involving a murderous crime of passion topped the chart.
But there have been other murders played out in prominent pop songs that didn’t hit No. 1.
The most recent notable example involved superstar Taylor Swift’s “no body, no crime” (yes, intentionally stylized in lowercase) from her 2020 evermore album. It was Swift’s rehash of that 1970s cheating/murder-mystery story song à la Vicki Lawrence and Cher.
Just like in those songs, and now SZA’s, the protagonist wields the murder weapon as Taylor’s character avenges her friend Este’s demise at the hands of a cheating husband.
That song, featuring the rock sister trio Haim (including one member actually named Este), reached No. 34 on the Hot 100 as an album cut.
A much older example is the 1975 teenage tragedy record “Run, Joey, Run,” by two-hit wonder David Geddes.
In that one, “Joey” (sung in a first-person narrative by Geddes), foolishly rushes to his girlfriend’s home to be by her side after her father threatens Joey’s safety. When the father aims his gun at Joey to shoot, girlfriend Julie pushes her boyfriend to safety before being fatally wounded by her daddy’s bullet. Her last words: “we’re gonna get married.”
“Run, Joey Run” got as high as No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 (although it did top rival trade magazine Cashbox’s Top 100 chart) that October.
Otherwise, “Dark Lady,” “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia,” and now “Kill Bill” stand alone as songs where double-murders are committed at the hands of the women singing the tunes.
And speaking of “Kill Bill,” SZA’s hit and Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe” aren’t the only No. 1 songs in which a titular character with a variation of the name “Bill” meets his demise.
In the 1974 No. 1 song “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” by Bo Donaldson & the Haywoods, the title character is recruited by the army and goes off to fight in a war against the wishes of his girlfriend who implores him not to be a hero.
Billy is later killed in action and the girlfriend is left with the letter announcing his death, which she sadly throws away.
But Billy’s passion (and only crime?) was his apparent love for his country, for which he paid the ultimate price.
SZA’s “Bill” was guilty of the far more common situation of him finding a new girlfriend (although one could assume he had the decency to break up with the song’s protagonist before doing so, since she refers to him as her “ex” and she clearly wants him back).
Was his murder an extreme outcome? Of course. And the song has accordingly been edited for pop radio consumption to eliminate the more explicit parts.
But it’s SZA’s raw emotion and reckless abandon on the uncensored version that have resonated with so many people as “Kill Bill” joins the ranks of those musical murder cases that came before it. And the consensus appears to be that there’s no harm in re-telling a tried and true fictional tale where only the names and circumstances (and decades) have changed, as long as it is just that: fictional.
The only question that remains is will we have to wait another 50 years to see this storyline play out again in a No. 1 hit?
Stay tuned.
Oh, and if readers can think of any other examples that fit this unique genre of romantic tragedy songs, No. 1 or not, please feel free to provide them in the comment section below or in any of the social media feeds where the article is posted.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him/his), who revels in chart trivia, is a freelance music blogger from somewhere on the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Twitter at @djrobblog.
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