Capitol Records is adding another weapon in its arsenal to help Katy Perry's "The One That Got Away" reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
The label serviced a remix of the song featuring rapper B.o.B to pop and rhythmic radio on December 15. It expects to make the track available for digital purchase as soon as next week.
The first five singles from Perry's album "Teenage Dream" all reached No. 1 - "California Gurls," featuring Snoop Dogg; the title cut, "Firework"; "E.T." (which upon its release as a single featured Kanye West, as opposed to Perry's solo album version); and, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" - making the set just the second, following Michael Jackson's "Bad" (1987-88), to yield five Hot 100 leaders.
If "The One That Got Away" hit No. 1, "Teenage Dream" would become the first album to generate six Hot 100 toppers.
"The One That Got Away" shoots 9-4 on this week's Hot 100, spurred in part by a previous marketing push by Capitol: its 69-cent sale pricing in the iTunes Store. (This week's chart is the first to reflect its sales activity since its digital discount took effect). As of this posting, the song remains the only title among the retailer's top 75 songs available for less than $1.29.
The sale pricing, as well as Perry's hosting gig on last weekend's (Dec. 10) "Saturday Night Live," helps "The One That Got Away" rise with gains in both sales and airplay, as it logs identical 7-6 upticks on Billboard's Digital Songs and Radio Songs charts. On the former chart, it increases by 24% to 117,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. On the latter list, the song improves to 92 million in audience (up 12%), according to Nielsen BDS.
The remix of "The One That Got Away" marks the latest in a trend of labels enlisting high-profile guest stars for remixes as songs approach the Hot 100's summit.
Earlier this year, Island Def Jam released a remix of Rihanna's "S&M" featuring Britney Spears. The following week, the song soared 2-1 on the Hot 100 with a 108% increase to 293,000 downloads sold. RCA's Spears herself welcomed Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha on a remix of "Til the World Ends." On the May 14 Hot 100, the title bounded from No. 11 to its No. 3 peak with a 102% gain to 246,000 in digital sales.
Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" additionally received a remix featuring Missy Elliott, although after it had already topped Digital Songs two months earlier following the premiere of its star-studded video. Unlike the above examples, however, where remixes accounted for a majority of the songs' overall sales once available, the remix of "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" accounted for just 25% of the song's overall digital sales the week after its arrival (with all versions of the song discounted to 69 cents in the iTunes and Amazon mp3 stores in that span). Still, the Missy Elliott remix helped "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" reach the Hot 100's top spot at last after eight weeks in the top five on the Aug. 27 chart.
