That sounds about right to me. I usually don’t get an e-mail notification about an iTunes charge, or any sign of it on my bank statement, until at least a couple days, sometimes more, after I’ve actually bought and started listening to the song.

I was just saying to Maura, “Real Real Real” was one of the last payola’d hits of the pre-SoundScan era, from one of the most payola-happy labels of the early ’90s, SBK (they brought you Vanilla Ice and Wilson Phillips). After spending a long, slow six months breaking “Right Here, Right Now” at Top 40 radio the (mostly) old-fashioned way, one station at a time, they slammed “Real Real Real” onto Top 40 playlists in a few swift weeks, milking JJ’s temporarily high profile.

I recall vividly that in November 1991, when Billboard made the monumental switch from the old Hot 100 (phone reports, fudging, payola) to the new Hot 100 (SoundScan for sales, BDS for airplay), “Real Real Real” fell like a stone. Clearly a big chunk of the radio stations that, in September and October, claimed to be power-playing it, actually weren’t playing it much at all.

2. The cast of High School Musical 3: The Oxford Years