1996 Hit Album, Whose Single Knocked ‘The Macarena’ From the No. 1 Spot, Turns 30 Today

Thirty years ago today, on Sept. 10, 1996, Blackstreet put out Another Level.

Two months later, one song off it took the No. 1 spot from a record that had been sitting there since the summer. That song stopped “The Macarena.”

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On the Hot 100 dated Nov. 9, 1996, “No Diggity” moved from No. 3 to the top and “The Macarena” dropped from No. 1 to No. 4. It had been up there 14 weeks, and on the chart for 47.

“No Diggity” held No. 1 for four weeks, per Billboard, and stayed on the chart 31.

The climb was quick. “No Diggity” entered the Hot 100 on Oct. 12 and was sitting at No. 1 four weeks later.

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Billboard ran a photo of the group in early October, on a break from shooting the video for it. They had not gone out on the road yet either. That started at the end of the month, after the single was already climbing.

“The Macarena,” by contrast, had been on the chart since September 1995.

The Album Never Got That High

Another Level peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and sat on that chart 60 weeks without ever spending one of them at the top. The single outran the album it came from.

Blackstreet put ten songs on the Hot 100. Three reached the top 10. Exactly one went to No. 1, and it was this one, with Dr. Dre on it.

Teddy Riley Called It

Three weeks before the album came out, Billboard ran a piece on what Blackstreet was about to release. Teddy Riley, the group’s founder and producer, told the magazine what he was going for.

“We’re taking our music to a higher plane,” he said.

By November “The Macarena” was at No. 4.

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