Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2020: Part Nine - #20 to #11...
We're coming close to the end of my countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart for 2020. You can catch up with the list so far with parts one thru eight by clicking here. Now let's get going...
#20 - "Say So" by Doja Cat featuring Nicki Minaj
from the album Hot Pink (2019)
Highest rank: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 26
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #7
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
UK Official Singles peak: #2
Songwriters: Amala Dlamini (Doja Cat), Lukasz Gottwald (Tyson Trax/"Dr. Luke"), Lydia Asrat
Whoa boy. This one is definitely one I have second thoughts about. It's not the song itself, which is a delicious slice of neo-disco pop that seems tailormade for roller blading or cruising. And taken just as such, it's a harmless mindless hit. But I should've realized why the sound was so familiar. Dr. Freakin' Luke. He can call himself whatever he wants, but his history, especially with Kesha, was supposed to keep him away for at least awhile, so when his recycled Katy Perry beats returned, I should've known. Also "Doja" has built a nice little scandal file on herself between the alleged homophobia as well as the initial COVID denialism. But that all came flooding out in the spring, so when I was hype on this I was blissfully ignorant. I can't deny I loved the song, but I have to admit it's tinged a bit now. I'm not sure where she'll go from here, we'll just have to see.
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#19 - "Lost In Yesterday" by Tame Impala
from the album The Slow Rush (2020)
Highest rank: #3 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 25
Billboard Hot 100 peak: DNC
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Billboard Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) Rock peak: #1
Songwriter: Kevin Parker
The Australian modern rock group had their biggest success on rock radio (and also on my chart) with this rolling rock track from their fourth album The Slow Rush. The looping lyrics coincide with the circular music video which travels through time like a Dr. Who.
#18 - "Even Though I'm Leaving" by Luke Combs
from the album What You See Is What You Get (2019)
Highest rank: #4 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 26
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Wyatt Durrette, Ray Fulcher
Here's the third song on my year-end list from Combs, and the highest, though when the 2020 chart year rang in it was already in the top-5, and if its "points" from last year were added it would've even been higher (though still just missing the top ten). It's generational separation theme is timeless, and the way Luke paints pictures in his verses is so damn refreshing from the posturing that infects both "bro" and "boyfriend" country. This one will last through the decades.
#17 - "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi
from the album Divinely Inspired To A Hellish Extent (2019)
Highest rank (in 2020): #2 (one week) (was #1 for eight weeks in 2019)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 29 (was on for 41 weeks in 2019)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #2
UK Official Singles peak: #1
Songwriters: Lewis Capaldi, Samuel Roman (ROMANS), TMS (Thomas Barnes, Peter Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn)
As opposed to other years, 2020 was a real turnover year on my weekly chart, with an abnormally low two songs that made my top 100 last year and also placing on this years countdown (though there are two that were also-rans one of which we'll see on this post). This one was 2019's winner, where it topped my list for two months. This time out the bleak ballad started at #2 but lingered on the chart for over seven more months. A bane of critics, something in Lewis' raw voice cutting the melody with emotion that did me in, and I don't question it for a second. And he even went and topped himself, as we will soon see.
from the album TBA (2021)
Highest rank (in 2020): #6 (three weeks) (was #6 for one week in 2019)
Weeks on the chart (in 2019): 35 (was on for 10 weeks in 2019)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #4
UK Official Singles peak: #5
Songwriters: Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Michael Pollack, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Jon Bellion, Vincent Ford, The Strangerz (Stefan & Jordan Johnson)
This cannibalization of Pachabel's Canon In D supposedly had a noble purpose - to mourn the loss of the band's manager Jordan Feldstein, from lung trouble in 2017. But its quiet, reserved presences served the entry to the pandemic in a way not intended, as a guide to focus on the good in those that were lost, and that's probably why it stuck around for so long. The track just made the "also ran" list last year at #124.
#15 - "Rain On Me" by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
from the album Chromatica (2020)
Highest rank: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 26 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40: #3
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1
UK Official Singles peak: #1
Songwriters: Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Michael Tucker (BloodPop), Matthew Burns (Burns), Nija Charles, Rami Yacoub, Martin Bresso (Tchami), Alexander Ridha (Boys Noize)
Gaga returned to the top of the pop charts for a second year in a row, and again it's with a little help from a friend, in this case pop princess Ariana Grande, who makes her only appearance on my countdown. They do it not with a ballad, but with this epic dance throwdown about overcoming troubles in your life, a recurrent theme in a hell of a lot of music this year. A glorious combination of Gaga's spaciness with Grande's cooing optimism give a lot of nuance to this song, from two titans who live their lives constantly in the public eye. Glorious.
#14 - "Everything I Wanted" by Billie Eilish
from the stand-alone single (2019)
Highest rank: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2020): 29
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #5
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #5
UK Official Singles peak: #3
Songwriters: Billie Eilish, Finneas
The start of 2020 found Billie Eilish sweeping the Grammy Awards with her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, as well as Song/Record of the Year "Bad Guy", which placed at #11 on my year-end list for 2019. Her next move was this dreamlike and delicate bonding with her brother Finneas though thick and thin (as dramatized in the music video). It's a delve into depression not expressed so beautifully from such an amazing mind that's still in her teens.
#13 - "Chasin' You" by Morgan Wallen
from the album If I Know Me (2018)
Highest rank: #13 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 38
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Morgan Wallen, Jamie Moore, Craig Wiseman
Mulleted country newcomer Wallen's "Whiskey Glasses" came in at #63 on my 2019 countdown, and he goes back to that same bottle for this year's entry. The critics sure hated this, but the fans (and I) didn't care, finding this even better, with his wistful desperation on getting his lost love back. I try not to get too much in the weeds with the lyrics, and just enjoyed the hell out of the soft rock intonations of the production that made this country radio's biggest hit of the year.
from the album OK Orchestra (2021)
Highest rank: #4 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 34 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #5
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #5
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Songwriters: AJR (Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met)
The other pop trio of brothers finally break through with radio with this circus-like showy big pop anthem about getting older despite your immature tendencies. Starting out as an alternative rock radio hit, it's now becoming huge on pop stations, finally making the top-40 at the close of the year, and may show up on next year's list. In 2018 the Met brothers had two songs on my list with "Sober Up" at #20 and "Burn The House Down" at #88.
#11 - "Level Of Concern" by twenty-one pilots
from the stand-alone single (2020)
Highest rank: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 33 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #11
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Songwriter: Tyler Joseph
If there's a song that encapsulates 2020, it would be this duo's COVID-inspired track, where Tyler pleads with his love to be his quarantine queen. Extremely heartfelt and musically fresh without sound like a cheap play (looking at you, Justin and Ariana). Even the creation of the song, where Tyler and musical partner Josh Dun would exchange the files through a flash drive in their mailboxes, is a symbol of getting things done through the isolation. This was on my playlist for months, and with good reason.
Well, there's only ten more songs to go, and I'll get to those tomorrow: Who will end up on top? See you then. Thanks for stopping by.
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