twostepcub's Best of 2017: Part Nine - #20 to #11...
We're getting close to the end of my year-end countdown of the biggest songs on my weekly music chart for 2017. You can catch up on everything so far by clicking here and checking out parts one through eight...
#20 - "Stay" - Zedd & Alessia Cara
from the album Everything, Everything (Original Soundtrack) (2017)
Highest rank: #7 (six weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 27
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7
Songwriters: Anton Zaslavski (Zedd), Alessia Caracciolo (Alessia Cara), Linus Wiklund, Sarah Aarons, Anders Frøen (Mood Melodies), Jonnali Parmenius (Noonie Bao)
Russo-German DJ/producer Zedd, who had the third biggest song on my countdown for 2013 with "Clarity" and at #47 the year after with "Stay The Night", returns to the year-end with his collaboration with Canadian singer/songwriter Cara, who was at #46 last year with "Here" and is coming up again soon. Cara makes this slowed down EDM track warmer than it would've been with another voice.
Killer lyrics: Won't admit what I already know,
I've never been the best at letting go,
I don't wanna spend the night alone...
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
#19 - "Wish I Knew You" - The Revivalists
from the album Men Amongst Mountains (2015)
Highest rank (in 2017): #14 (three weeks) (in 2016 went to #18 for a week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 43 (in 2016 was also on the chart for 18 weeks)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #84
Songwriters: The Revivalists
Another of the five songs on this years top 100 that were also on last years list (this one was at #88), this little record that could chugged along through different radio formats as well as exposure in the TV commercial for Blue Moon beer. It spent more weeks on my weekly chart (43) than any other song this year, and that's not even including the 18 weeks it spent last year when it was a hit on album alternative rock radio. The combo of alt-rock coolness, soft-disco guitar strumming, and subtle saxes give this record its true charm.
Killer lyrics: Well I'll be god damned,
You're standing at my door,
We stayed up in the city,
Until the stars lost the war...
#18 - "Water Under The Bridge" - Adele
from the album 25 (2015)
Highest rank: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26
Songwriters: Adele Adkins (Adele), Greg Kurstin
The fourth and final single from Adele's massively successful 25 album, it followed three that made last year's list - "Hello" (#5), "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" (#9), and "When We Were Young" (#19), and was just as emotionally soothing, as she heals herself during a breakup.
Killer lyrics: If you're not the one for me
Then how come I can bring you to your knees,
If you're not the one for me
Why do I hate the idea of being free?
#17 - "Redbone" - Childish Gambino
from the album Awaken, My Love! (2016)
Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 34 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12
Songwriters: Donald Glover (Childish Gambino), Ludwig Göransson
Actor/rapper/singer Donald Glover, under his alter ego Childish Gambino, broke into the mainstream pop world with this beautiful slice of neo-soul that defied all categorization. Heck, "Redbone" isn't even mentioned in the lyrics. But the repetitive "stay woke" hypnotized me like nothing I've heard this year. And with musical elements like electronic keys, 70s-style guitar-ish fuzz, and funky bass, it was a song you may not name but knew as soon as it was played.
Killer lyrics: But stay woke,
N!ggas creepin'
They gon' find you,
Gon' catch you sleepin' (oh),
Now stay woke,
N!ggas creepin',
Now don't you close your eyes...
#16 - "Scars To Your Beautiful" - Alessia Cara
from the album Know-It-All (2015)
Highest rank: #4 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 27
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Songwriters: Alessia Caracciolo (Alessia Cara), Pop & Oak (Andrew Wansel & Warren Felder), Coleridge Tillman (Sebastian Kole)
Aforementioned singer/songwriter Cara, who last year took her homage to fellow introverts, "Here", to #46 on my 2016 recap, returns this year with an equally worthy self-love anthem that was the salve the youth of these past years needed. The most important pop music of the year.
Killer lyrics: She has dreams to be an envy, so she's starving,
You know, covergirls eat nothing,
She says beauty is pain and there's beauty in everything,
What's a little bit of hunger?
I could go a little while longer, she fades away,
She don't see her perfect, she don't understand she's worth it,
Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface...
#15 - "Something Just Like This" - The Chainsmokers and Coldplay
from the albums Memories...Do Not Open (Chainsmokers 2017) and Kaleidoscope EP (Coldplay 2017)
Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 35
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Songwriters: Andrew Taggart (Chainsmokers), Coldplay (Chris Martin, Will Champion, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland)
The bro-dance duo, who are also on this year's list at #80 with "Closer", teams up with one of the biggest rock bands of the world, Coldplay on this lullaby-like track that evolves into a wishful dance jam. Both acts have had a lot of derision thrown at them this year, but you can't deny that there is something earnest and hopeful about this song. (Last year, the Chainsmokers had three songs in the year-end chart with "Don't Bring Me Down" at #18, "Roses" at #45, and "Closer" at #50, while Coldplay had a pair themselves with "Adventure Of A Lifetime" at #14 and "Hymn For The Weekend" at #22.)
Killer lyrics: But she said, where'd you wanna go?
How much you wanna risk?
I'm not looking for somebody,
With some superhuman gifts,
Some superhero,
Some fairytale bliss,
Just something I can turn to,
Somebody I can kiss...
#14 - "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" - Shawn Mendes
from the album Illuminate (2016)
Highest rank: #3 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 30 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6
Songwriters: Shawn Mendes, Teddy Geiger, Geoff Warburton, Scott Harris
The Canadian teen idol that we already have seen at #23 with "Mercy" (and on the also-rans with last year's entry "Treat You Better") became the true successor to Bieber this year, without the drama (and crazy-ass fan-base) with straight-forward pop nuggets like this one that you can shake your booty to. The off-kilter percussive arrangement is a nice touch.
Killer lyrics: You take me places that tear up my reputation,
Manipulate my decisions,
Baby, there's nothing holding me back...
#13 - "Body Like A Back Road" - Sam Hunt
from the album TBA (2018)
Highest rank: #8 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart in 2017: 40 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6
Songwriters: Sam Hunt, Zach Crowell, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne
Country music's most successful newcomer from last couple years, Hunt was on last year's tally with "Make You Miss Me" at #49 and "Break Up In A Small Town" at #68, and in 2015 with "Take Your Time" all the way up at #16. But this year, with just one single with no album as yet and only a lyric video managed to become the format's biggest smash, spending 34 weeks on Billboard's Country Songs chart, and crossing over to the pop top ten.
Killer lyrics: Had to get her number, it took me like six weeks,
Now me and her go way back like Cadillac seats...
#12 - "Rockabye" - Clean Bandit featuring Anne-Marie and Sean Paul
from the album TBA (2018)
Highest rank: #2 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 28
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9
Songwriters: Jack Patterson (Clean Bandit), Sean Paul Henriques (Sean Paul), Steve Mac, Ina Wroldsen, Ammar Malik
Unlike many dance acts, British trio Clean Bandit completely reinvented their sound from their breakthrough single "Rather Be", which was my #3 song from 2014, with this tropical house masterpiece. Expanding the children's lullaby into a story about a woman who does anything for her child, it was the thinking-man's dance music this year. It also brought Anne-Marie to American ears, and Sean Paul even was tolerable here. The group is also on the list at #36 with "Symphony".
Killer lyrics: Now she gotta a six year old,
Trying to keep him warm,
Trying to keep all the cold,
When he looks her in the eyes,
He don't know he's safe when she says...
#11 - "24K Magic" - Bruno Mars
from the album 24K Magic (2016)
Highest rank (in 2017): #1 (four weeks) (in 2016 was #1 for four weeks as well)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 25 (in 2016 was on the chart for 8 weeks)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
Songwriters: Bruno Mars, Christopher Brody Brown (1500 or Nothin'), Phillip Lawrence
Last year, Bruno landed on my recap at the bottom rung, #100, with only eight weeks on the chart at that point, but half of those at #1. In 2017, he spent another month on top the first four weeks of my chart year, and just missed my top ten by a notch. This song, which sounds as it was transported from R&B radio in 1982, had been primed as the celebratory cry of a new era, which of course was fucking smashed to hell on November 9th of last year (I'm positive that had a big factoring on why it missed out at #1 on the pop chart). Nevertheless, this record is just as crazy fun to listen and sing along to as his "Uptown Funk" from 2015, which landed at #3 on the year-end.
Killer lyrics: Oh shit, I'm a dangerous man with some money in my pocket,
So many pretty girls around me and they waking up the rocket,
Why you mad, fix ya face, ain't my fault y'all be jocking...
Well the next installment will be the big ten. A Latin song of the summer, a colorful demand for recognition, a couple of ginger snaps, a bluesy big guy, and more. Who'll be on top?
Comments