This Week in Music History: December 13 - 19

This week, we’re runnin’ home for a second chance with 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Shinedown and Phillip Phillips.

December 13, 2003: 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. Are Runnin’ Companions

More than a decade ago, 2Pac (Tupac Shakur) and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) were continuing to make an impact even after their deaths. This week in 2003, the two hit the Top 10 of the Mediabase Rhythmic chart with their track “Runnin’ (Dying to Live).” The only song which the two rappers actually recorded in the studio together, the duo originally laid down the track in 1994. However, the final version released includes snippets of interviews with Biggie Smalls recorded just weeks before his death in 1997. The track didn't make its debut until 2002, when it was included on the posthumous soundtrack album and documentary Tupac: Resurrection.

December 13, 2008: Shinedown gets a Second Chance

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Exactly five years after “Runnin’” cracked Rhythmic Top 10, Shinedown’s “Second Chance” went to No. 1 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart. The track, which went on to become the brand’s biggest radio single to date with success on the Mainstream Rock Hot AC, Alternative, Classic Rock, Top 40, and Adult Hits charts as well, was actually one of two No. 1 songs (along with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”) played by Casey Kasem on the last weekend of his radio career, and was the final No. 1 on Kasem’s American Top 20 countdown show which aired in July 2009. The group has hardly remained quiet since “Second Chance,” though; this summer, they released their fifth studio album Threat to Survival, which already earned them No. 1’s on Active and Mainstream Rock charts with their single “Cut The Cord.”

December 15, 2012: Phillip Phillips Goes “Home” After Idol

Photo by Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

By Fall 2012, Phillip Phillips was already the winner of the 11th season of TV’s American Idol, yet it was unclear whether or not his musical success would be real and lasting. This week that year, however, his debut song “Home” went to No. 1 on the Mediabase Hot AC chart and solidified the singer-songwriters place in the music industry. With over four million copies sold, “Home” is the best-selling Idol coronation song of all time and became ubiquitous, featured coverage of the London Olympics and Los Angeles Marathon as well as numerous commercials, films and TV shows. Will the next — and final — Idol winner experience nearly the success of Phillips, Carrie Underwood, and Kelly Clarkson, or will he or she just be another name on the show’s winner list? Only time will tell when the final season premieres this January.