Taylor Hicks Proudly Soars to Number One

Taylor Hicks, the silver-haired soulman who became the Season five "American Idol" winner, now has a number one selling single. His American Idol single CD released June 13, "Do I Make You Proud" with the flip-side "Taking It to the Streets" is soaring to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, flying to the tops of the charts, stopping pretty much every pop ranking single in sight as of the June 22, 2006 charts.

Simultaneously, his single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the Billboard Single Sales chart and the Billboard Pop 100 chart making it the best selling song in the country with over 190,000 copies sold in its first week of release.

Soul Patrollers everywhere will be glad to know that not only are they promoting Taylor with the purchase of his single, but sales of "Do I Make You Proud", benefit the American Red Cross. For every CD sold, $0.25 goes to the charity, as well as $0.15 for every digital download sold, and $0.20 for every ringtone and ringback. This marks the fourth "American Idol" single to provide financial support to the mission of the American Red Cross and the people it serves. Sales of the past three recordings generated more than a quarter million dollars in donations.

All I have to say is, Simon Cowell, how is that for commercial talent?

This single released June 13 by 19 Recordings and Arista Records, adds more gravy to ladel over the top of the list of accomplishments the Soulman has racked up since winning American Idol. Since his win, Taylor Hicks has signed the record deal with Arista Records, shot a smoking hot Ford commercial and then featured in People Magazine as this years current Hottest Bachelor. Taylor Hicks scored the cover, as well as a multi-page interview and a glorious eight page pictoral spread.

Regarding the Ford commercial, "Possibilities", the song that Taylor Hicks belts out in the new promotional commercials was written and produced by Harvest Music and Sound Design. Three folks from the Lansing, Michigan company created the tune. They are Julie Magsig, Mark Miller, and Steve Curran. Music houses from around the country were asked to pitch songs and Harvest drew the long straw, had the best tune and won. After Taylor Hicks won Idol, the song was then adapted musically to fit his style. This is not the first song that Harvest has had featured in other national commercials, but this first one in which they had a singer that could draw instant attention. An interesting combination, an Alabama singer, some Michigan songwriters - and with the drive of Ford, the song is heard everywhere; plus The Soulman does a dynamic job.

"It's been an exciting time for us," Curran said.

As added by Magsig, referring to Taylor Hicks and the fact their song was chosen, "That's what the song is about, anything is possible."

Returning to the intitial topic, Tay's standings in the charts. Reviewing true perspective in the real world of music, I must point out that Idol standards are downright stratosphereic when you compare the statistics with other musicians. One prime example I gleaned from the charts, Nelly Furtado, listed as selling just 6,000 copies of "Promiscuous."

Watching the SoulPatrollman ride his wave of destiny is proving to be the most interesting and fascinating endeavors I have undertaken. I'm proud to add my name to the list of Soul Patrollers and I'm notoriously not a "joiner". Proud to have began writing about the man when this past season of American Idol began. Proud to watch him metamorphose from the quiet man in a polo shirt belting out Sam Cooke, accapella in the Idol auditions, (and wondering where in the heck had he been all my life) to the person he is supposed to be - with a number one on the Billboard charts.

You can watch Taylor on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Thursday, June 22nd (his second visit to the show). The songs on this CD will featured by Hicks in the American Idol Tour which begins July 5 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Taylor has said in numerous interviews, "I've been a hard working musician for the past ten years trying to become the best singer and harmonica player I could be and I'm thrilled that I can now focus entirely on my music," says Hicks. "Having a number one single is only the beginning."

Life is full of beginnings. Ask the next butterfly that flies by.

Groove on Soulman.