twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2020: Part Six - #50 to #41...
I'm back from my short holiday day off to enter the top half of my countdown of the biggest songs on my weekly music chart for 2020. You can catch up on parts one to five (along with my post of also-rans) by clicking here. Onwards and upwards...
#50 - "Lovin' On You" by Luke Combs
from the album What You See Ain't Always What You Get (2020)
Highest rank: #8 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23
Billboard Country Airplay: #1
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Thomas Archer, Ray Fulcher, James McNair
Luke Combs went from being a total newcomer to the country music scene to being the hottest A-lister with nine (going on ten) #1 radio hits in the space of just two albums (albeit with "reissues"). This year Luke placed three songs on the top half of my list, and this one's the first, and the most "country radio of the 90s" sound to it. That might turn off a lot of critics, but I'm no critic, and it sure does the trick for me. Nothing more than a straight-ahead love song, but damn I has me missing my country dancing. Last year Combs was at #9 with "Beautiful Crazy", #26 with "Beer Never Broke My Heart", and #59 with "She Got The Best Of Me".
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#49 - "Might Be Right" by White Reaper
from the album You Deserve Love (2019)
Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 15
Billboard Hot 100 peak: DNC
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Billboard Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) Rock peak: #4
Songwriters: White Reaper (Tony Esposito, Ryan Hater, Sam Wilkerson, Nick Wilkerson, Hunter Thompson)
This piece of power-pop goodness from this Kentucky band that's not Cage The Elephant might have been forgotten by many since it crested in the pre-COVID beginning of the year, but the catchy song left a mark on me. Possessing attitude without being outwardly glum, the punchy track might turn out to be a one-off success, but what a nice car ride jam to go on.
#48 - "South Of The Border" by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B
from the album No. 6 Collaborations Project (2019)
Highest rank: #7 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 17
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #13
Billboard Dance Club Play peak: #3
UK Official Singles peak: #4
Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar (Cardi B), Fred Gibson (Fred), Jordan Thorpe (Pardison Fontaine), Steve McCutcheon (Steve Mac)
Sheeran's 2019 Collaborations collection had already placed two songs on last year's countdown with "Beautiful People" with Khalid at #37 and "I Don't Care" with Justin Bieber at #88. But this snakey little number went the highest on my list this year. Yes, even with Cabello and Cardi on board there's not much "Latin" sounding production here, but the lite reggae-pop works, with all three giving effortless performances over a bouncing beat.
from the EP Thousand Peaces (2017)
Highest rank: #9 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: DNC ("bubbled under" at #122)
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #3
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Billboard Triple-A Rock peak: #20
Songwriter: Jonathan Visger
Originally released way back in 2015, this quirky modern rock record was another early benefactor of TikTok, which brought the song to radio's attention. And unlike many other of the ilk on the platform, this was a welcome callback. A dreamy, drug-cloudy wisp in the matter of Foster The People and a hundred other hipster act, "Dissolve" is much more than a 20 second clip.
#46 - "ily (i love you baby)" by surf mesa featuring Emilee
from the stand-alone single (2019)
Highest rank (in 2020): #19 (one week) (still climbing)
Weeks on the chart: 32 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #7
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1
Songwriters: Powell Aguirre (surf mesa), Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe
...and on the other hand, we have this TikTok hit, which slices a few lines of chorus from the 60's pop classic "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" from the Four Seasons sung with wispy ennui from almost anonymous Emilee Flood and places it in a hypnotic tropical house style groove from the Seattle DJ. I admit it shocked my how high this placed, since the majority of its time on my list has been lingering in the lower half, but again, persevering pays, and by now since it's already in my top 20 heading north I believe it's simply worn me down. Help me, please.
#45 - "10,000 Hours" by Dan + Shay featuring Justin Bieber
from the album TBA (2021)
Highest rank: #17 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 21
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #4
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Dan + Shay (Dan Smyers, Shay Mooney), Justin Bieber, Jessie Jo Dillon, Jason Boyd, Julian Perretta
Oh God that cretin made my list two years in a row. Forgive me, I erase his presence on the record from the boyfriend country kings, but remember this came before Bieber assaulted us with his own album (fuck you, Grammy voting block!). It's treacly but not overly offensive, but definitely hasn't aged well in my mind. But hey, it did well with me in the pre-pandemic, so here it sits. At least it didn't grace 10,000 wedding receptions this year, and Dan + Shay followed up with a much superior song in "I Should Probably Go To Bed" (heard earlier on the list).
#44 - "If The World Was Ending" by JP Saxe featuring Julia Michaels
from the EP Hold It Together (2020)
Highest rank: #17 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 27
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #8
Songwriters: JP Saxe, Julia Michaels
This song got a hell of a lot of shit thrown at it, giving its timing although the song was written and released way before Wuhan, and the lyrics reference more natural disasters. I found it kind of sweet, with its simplicity in production in the verses a nice respite from the overproduced bombast that pervaded a lot of radio (yes, even I can get sick of disco at times). And at least their voices, especially the normally painful Michaels, are framed well by Billie Eilish's producer brother Finneas.
#43 - "Life In The City" by the Lumineers
from the album III (2019)
Highest rank (in 2020): #9 (two weeks) (was #9 for one week in 2019)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: DNC
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #6
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #4
Billboard Triple-A Rock peak: #1
Songwriters: The Lumineers (Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites)
The Lumineers are the most mainstream and biggest-selling indie-folk act in America these days in terms of exposure and records moved, with all three of their disc making the top two on the American Billboard 200 list. This song was the second single from their III opus, following "Gloria", which placed at #35 on my year-end in 2019. A piano bar style story song that quite reminds me of fun. (the band, not the emotion).
#42 - "My Oh My" by Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby
from the album Romance (2019)
Highest rank: #7 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 21
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #6
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #10
Songwriters: Camila Cabello, Jonathan Kirk (DaBaby), Adam Feeney (Frank Dukes), Louis Bell, Savan Kotecha, Anthony Clemons Jr., Alejandro Guillermo Marambio Altamirano
The former Fifth Harmony member found herself in a pickle promoting her sophomore solo effect Romance. After her duet with "boyfriend" Shawn Mendes, "Senorita", which made my 2019 list at #20, a series of pretty good singles followed with radio not paying much mind. Then came this collaboration with hot rapper du jour, DaBaby, and the moody and vaguely retro "My Oh My" lands Cabello her best single since her breakthrough "Havana". This is probably because, like "Havana", it allows Camila to infuse some personality into the song, and the black-and-white video is pretty memorable as well.
#41 - "Lose You To Love Me" by Selena Gomez
from the album Rare (2020)
Highest rank: #20 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 21
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #3
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #8
UK Official Singles peak: #3
Songwriters: Selena Gomez, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Matthias Larsson, Robin Fredrikson
This song is connected to two of today's installment's other artist, with Julia Michaels co-writing this veiled kiss off to Selena's ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber, Its a relief that it's not the cooing sexual nymph act she's ridden for years, but while "Lose You To Love Me" is restrained resignation on her struggle to have self-acceptance, it does teeter on being quite cold. But that may be ingrained in former Disney princess Gomez's psyche. Anyway the song marked a catharsis for her and her fans and a deserved #1 hit finally. Gomez was last on the list in 2018 as the singer on Marshmello's "Wolves" at #57.
That's it for tonight. I'll return tomorrow with some country ladies dealing with breakups, the return of the Monsters, and an alternative rock hit from 1985 gets a callback.
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