When Maroon 5 landed at Top 40 radio in late 2003 with “Harder To Breathe,” their rhythmic-infused pop made them a better fit for the format than some of the longer-running Modern AC bands who didn’t fit as well between 50 Cent and Linkin Park. In an era without much that pop radio could own, Maroon 5 quickly became a core act over the two year run of the “Songs About Jane” LP.

As Top 40 developed more of its own product, Maroon 5 began to face more resistance at the format. Adam Levine and company were never out of business at Mainstream Top 40—but subsequent chart runs were harder fought, particularly when more narrowly defined Rhythmic Pop stations became a larger part of the Mainstream Top 40 panel.

All that changed at summer’s end when the Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera duet “Moves Like Jagger” became Maroon 5’s fastest-rising No. 1 single, propelled by the event value of Levine and Aguilera’s judging stints on the TV show, “The Voice,” but also by a change in producers, and a perceived freshening of the group’s sound.

At this writing, “Moves Like Jagger” is in its third week at No. 1 at CHR, its second week at Hot AC No. 1, and is up 26–16 at Rhythmic Top 40. Levine’s appearance on Gym Class Heroes’ “Stereo Hearts” is No. 2 at CHR. The song also gave Aguilera her biggest hit in nine years and, with “The Voice,” ended a streak of negative publicity for the singer. Maroon 5’s “Jagger-naut” becomes Radio-Info’s first pop “Anatomy Of A Hit,” as related by Interscope Geffen A&M Senior VP/pop promotion Chris Lopes and A&M/Octone Executive VP/head of promotion Ben Berkman.

“Moves Like Jagger” began when Levine and manager Jordan Feldstein brought in two demos in late 2010, the other being “Stereo Hearts.” Produced by Benny Blanco and Shellback, it was Maroon 5’s first collaboration with a “go-to” writing/producing team of the sort that have dominated Mainstream Top 40 in recent years. Initially, there was discussion of using the songs either on a repackaging of the current “Hands All Over” album or saving them for a fourth album.

Then “Moves Like Jagger” was heard by “The Voice” producer Mark Burnett, Aguilera, and her manager, Irving Azoff. Eventually, it became the song designated for exposure on “The Voice.” The original plan, Berkman recalls, was for the song to “go to iTunes and be available as soon as it was performed around 9 p.m. that evening. But earlier that same morning, the track leaked and it immediately started to feel like something big.”

“Within a few hours, the song had appeared on every pop music blog and the feedback on it was amazing. All the bloggers were saying it was catchy, fun and perfectly timed for the Summer. Shortly thereafter, #moveslike jagger began trending worldwide on Twitter which was phenomenally exciting,” Berkman recalls.
Besides showcasing the song, “The Voice” also helped give Maroon 5 more of a persona as viewers got to know Levine. “I think we can all see the positive impact ‘The Voice’ had on Adam and Maroon and how it helped launch ‘Jagger,’” says Lopes. “This was the first time that Adam as an individual was introduced to the masses, and that introduced more people to Maroon 5. So many people found out that Adam has a great sense of humor and saw how charming and personable he is. They started following him on Twitter because he was so funny.”

That said, not every artist-turned-TV-celebrity is able to parlay that into a hit song. “The song itself was the biggest catalyst,” says Berkman. “‘The Voice’ certainly exposed Adam and let the audience know how charming and appealing a person he is. They were ready for a hit from him, but had the song not been great, it would have faded away.”

The rush-release of “Moves Like Jagger” came at a time when “Hands All Over” had sold more than 500,000 copies, and Lopes felt the group was turning a corner at Mainstream Top 40 with “Never Gonna Leave This Bed,” which also became a top 5 Adult Top 40 hit. “We were in the 20s with ‘Never Gonna Leave This Bed’ and we were just getting our legs firmly in place underneath it. Then suddenly, a new song drops and that presented a whole different scenario,” says Lopes.

“Jagger” opened at No. 1 on iTunes, perhaps surprising some who thought Maroon 5 was a passive act. It then leveled off, but returned to No. 1 as airplay kicked in. “We made the decision to put the emphasis on ‘Jagger’ because it was doing so well on iTunes. Young people were really into the track and their instant reaction created this huge opening. A couple of stations were very committed to ‘Bed’ and didn’t want to play a second track, some wanted to play both, and an entirely new layer of people only wanted to play ‘Jagger,’” Lopes adds.

“Jagger” also opened with good first week CHR stations, some of them surprising. That helped serve notice that it wasn’t going to develop on the usual track of a pop/rock work record, with rhythmic-leaning majors coming in after only months of effort. Early believers included WXXL (XL106.7) Orlando, Fla., KDWB Minneapolis, WIOQ (Q102) Philadelphia, KSLZ (Z107.7) St. Louis, KDND (The End) Sacramento, Calif., KKRZ (Z100) Portland, Ore., WEZB (B97) New Orleans, and widespread support from Cumulus, including WWWQ (Q100) Atlanta, KLIF-FM (i93) Dallas, and KCHZ (The Vibe) Kansas City, as well as secondaries WKRZ Wilkes-Barre, Pa., WDJQ (Q92) Canton, Ohio, KZBD (Now 105.7) Spokane, Wash., KLAL (Alice 107.7) Little Rock, Ark., and KLJT (The Breeze) Tyler, Texas.

The rise of “Moves Like Jagger” coincided with the band’s already planned tour with Train and Gavin DeGraw. "For the first time on this project, we had everything happening all at once: TV, radio, ITunes, a tour and social media," Berkman recalls.

During its chart rise, “Moves Like Jagger” had “six or seven weeks in a row of 20-25 adds a week,” Lopes notes. The evenness of the build “just ensured perpetual growth.” The song was closed out at the end of August when the last of the most-rhythmic CHR reporters came in. When the song hit No. 1, it was still posting explosive growth, “It’s pretty unusual to be No. 1 and still be +1300 spins,” says Lopes. “We didn’t get to No. 1 and peak, we got to No. 1 and just kept going.”

At press time, “Moves Like Jagger” has digital songs sales of 2,404,632. And for the first time in the band’s career, they’ll be leading off their next project with the follow-up to a No. 1 single. Berkman says, “The goal is to coincide a new project launch with ‘The Voice’ Season 2, which will debut with the killer lead-in after the Super Bowl [on Feb. 5, 2012]. Given how red-hot Adam is right now, it stands to reason that there will be a lot of anticipation for the next Maroon 5 project. They have a ton of new fans and we think they are better positioned than ever to release a new album into the marketplace.”