Twostepcub's Best of 2012: Part Six - #50-#41...

Hey gang, I'm back to kick off the second half of the 2012 recap of the biggest songs on my personal chart this year. You can also check out parts one, two, three, four, and five as well, and like before, I've included links to buy anything you like on Amazon.

#50 - Calvin Harris - "Feel So Close"
          from the album 18 Months (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #5 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 21 (in 2012)

The Scottish-born DJ and producer had a great 2012, supporting Rihanna on her biggest hit and having has first American hit as a lead artist. This song originally was on my chart back in the summer of 2011 when it was a big British single, but slowly and surely "Feel So Close" with Harris' own conversational vocals over the grand synth hook caught hold in the States. Sometimes you don't need wailing women on the track to make a good dance record...

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#49 - Katy Perry - "Part Of Me"
          from the album Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #7 (one week)
          Weeks in the chart: 20

This song of empowering yourself after a breakup came out right at the time that her marriage to comedian Russell Brand was falling apart, but the probably toss-off from her original album in 2010 was directed toward former boyfriend/druggie Travie McCoy of the Gym Class Heroes. Still, the subject is timeless, even though it's odd that it took four people to write this "coming to yourself" homage.

#48 - Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen - "Good Time"
          from the albums The Midsummer Station and Kiss (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #9 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 19

Both the one-man electronic-pop act and Canadian viral video siren escaped one-hit-wonder status with this Disneyfied party song that exists for parents' approval for their kids' pool parties. However both of them are so honestly happy in this song that I can give them a pass this time.

#47 - Beyonce' - "Love On Top"
          from the album 4 (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #9 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 24 (in 2012)

The song that marked her baby-bump announcement to the world ended up being Beyonce's fourth single from 4, and fittingly the most lasting hit of the album, with the fresh sunniness of the track and vocal acrobatics the highlight of this underrated album. And the eye candy dancing behind her in the video doesn't hurt either.

#46 - Bruno Mars - "It Will Rain"
          from the album Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (Soundtrack) (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #10 (two weeks) 
          Weeks on the chart: 17 (in 2012)

The Hawaiian singer proves his debut album wasn't a fluke with this epic ballad, the second song from the Twilight movie (which I have no interest in seeing) to make my top-100 list this year. Bruno truly is one of the songwriting greats of this generation in the Motown tradition. This song doesn't have to be wordy, it just has to be true.

#45 - Flo Rida - "Good Feeling"
          from the album Wild Ones (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #7 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 18

The rapper named for his state owned 2012, and did the rare feat of sampling a current song (that itself samples another song) that also appears in my top-100 list. Co-opting Swedish DJ/producer Avicii's "Levels" (which will be coming later), which cribs a verse from Etta James' "Something's Got A Hold On Me", the rapper paid fitting tribute to the blues/soul legend that passed right when this was hitting.

#44 - Taylor Swift - "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
          from the album Red (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #3 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 17 (in 2012)

Ah, the song that made me fall out of love with my magazine obsession. When Billboard magazine changed the way they calculated the Country (as well as the R&B and rock) Songs chart, they decided to not only include sales and internet streaming into the equation, but also airplay from any station for any song the editors deem a "country" song. And the results weren't more disastrous than when this even self-admittedly non-country track from Swift, which was forced down country radio by Clear Channel in a promotion fiasco that rivals the payola days from the 60s, was pushed up from a #37 ranking on monitored radio stations to be the "#1 country song" in the country. And then it stayed up there, propped up by airplay from all the pop stations, for the next nine weeks. So we have to pretend the this pop song written by Swift with the Swedish production team behind Katy Perry and the Backstreet Boys (and Maroon5), is supposed to be the longest-running country single since the 60s. Riiiight. After a flurry of comments hit their website, the editors attributed the huff over Carrie Underwood fans upset that their fave didn't get her rightfully earned #1 country hit with "Blown Away" (which there were, and hilariously so, since that song wasn't much more country in the first place). But I call shenanigans. Attributing the reaction to the change is solely not the result of a battle between two music stans. The problem is, if the "Country Songs" chart is merely a dissection of the Hot 100 in the exact same order, why have a different chart at all? Because obviously the current editors of the magazine are having trouble deciding what exactly is a "country record" (example: Cassadee Pope, who is a rock singer from a former rock band that was on The Voice, showed up on the Country Songs list seemingly only because she was coached by Blake Shelton and sang reformatted country songs). Now the embarrassing factor of songs the magazine doesn't consider "country" being played on the radio (example: Mumford & Sons' "I Will Wait") but being "banned" from the genre list. The editors also claim that the genre is still served by the "Country Airplay" chart (which isn't even printed in their physical magazine editions), but they know damn well that the outside entertainment media is only looking at the "big chart". And lastly, as the magazine's own staff decries (and they have their heart in it I guess) that the purpose is to give a "true" picture of the popularity of songs regardless of crossover appeal, why do they have a "recurrent" chart that pushes records off after a certain amount of time or below a certain benchmark? Doesn't that "game the system" just as much? Right now if a song falls below the top-10 on the airplay chart - off it goes! And below #25 on the Songs list - banished! Now how is that a true measure of really what is selling? And considering that the song ended up in airplay only at #86 for 2012 (under songs that just barely made the top-30 on the weekly list) kind of tells you where the truth is. Mind you, I think it's a great idea to add sales, and their really is a balanced way to do it since every chart is weighted differently as it is - use a percentage of the sales figures based on the percentage of country radio airplay versus all airplay that a song gets. Simple. And they wouldn't even have to decide "what's a country record". Because it this happened last year, they would've messed Kelly Clarkson's "Mr. Know It All"'s latter country success all the hell up.

And what's funny about this whole thing is that I love the damn song. It's a great pop song. A great break from Taylor's usual whiny fare with all the bells and whistles that a good pop single should have. In fact, its rated higher than any other "true country" song on my year-end list. But does that make it my favorite country hit of the year? Fack, no.

#43 - Maroon 5 - "One More Night"
          from the album Overexposed (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #10 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 20 (in 2012)

I originally named this Adam Levine's "You Da One", the faux-reggae number deserves a little more credit than that, though maybe not so much as to explain its nine-week reign at #1 on the Hot 100. I do think Adam is a master wordsmith subtly infusing a wanna-breakup song in this semi-sunny swayer. I guess my love affair with this song is like the protaganist in the song.

#42 - Selena Gomez & The Scene - "Love You Like A Love Song"
          from the album When The Sun Goes Down (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #9 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 20 (in 2012)

Another "guilty pleasure" hit, the Bieber ex-gal shined better than he with this fun, fluffy pure-pop piece of product that had a hook unlike any other of the Disney princesses, and so won over the hearts of mainstream American (and quite a few gay men in the process).

#41 - Muse - "Madness"
          from the album The 2nd Law (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #1 (three weeks in 2012)
          Weeks on the chart: 16 (in 2012)

With all the hype over the return of Mumford & Sons this year, the awesome left-turn opus that was British alt-rockers Muse's sixth studio album didn't get the attention it deserved. But rock radio eventually succumbed to the space-age proto-rock of "Madness", like some apocalyptic reprise of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" for the Mayan end-times. Proof that a simple song that builds to an understated climax is perhaps the recipe for the best rock song of the year.

Well that does it for today's recap, tomorrow as I start the top-40 for the year I'll bring out some plushies, some Red Rocks, and some board games.