Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2021: Part Eight - #30 to #21...
My countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart rolls on, and we now enter the top 30. You can catch up with the rest of the series posts by clicking here. Let's get it started...
#30 - "Deja Vu" - Olivia Rodrigo
from the album Sour (2021)
Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #5
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #19
UK Singles chart peak: #4
Songwriters: Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
If there was the breakout artist of 2021, it was Olivia Rodrigo, who went from being Disney fodder on the teen series High School Musical to putting out the biggest pop album of the year until Adele came around. It makes sense, since Sour is a teen's version of Adele's 25, as Olivia sprawls out a failed relationship, which was presumably about fellow High School Musical actor Joshua Bassett, who had been dating her before being tied to actress/singer Sabrina Carpenter, which he wouldn't comment on. However in June, Bassett came out as "sexually fluid", knocking every theory out of whack, and coming close to smelling like the whole thing was a promotional tool. Nevertheless, something in the music caught the many girls (and some boys) going through those issues as teens, as the catharsis of letting out your bitterness and anger is enticing if possibly beneficial (as opposed to bottling it in). In "Deja Vu", Rodrigo confronts the ex (possibly in her mind) about basically replacing her with his new fling, doing the same things to recreate the joy they had without the feeling of loss. And where else would Billy Joel and Glee get name-checked? Swift, Antonoff, and St. Vincent get writing credit due to Rodrigo and producer Nigro too closely cribbing Swift's "Cruel Summer".
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#29 - "Kiss Me More" - Doja Cat featuring SZA
from the album Planet Her (2021)
Highest rank: #8 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 30
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #6
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #20
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #3
Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Airplay peak: #34
UK Singles chart peak: #3
Songwriters: Amala Dlamini (Doja Cat), Solána Imani Rowe (SZA), Lukasz Gottwald (Dr. Luke), Stephen Kipner, Terry Shaddick
2021 was certainly a year full of questionable music artists, and both singer rapper Doja Cat and her initial COVID denialism along with Lukasz Gottwald and his history with accusations of abuse from Kesha are both "redeemed" by the pop public here, as the musical sequel to her neo-disco hit "Say So", which was #20 on my list last year, was a radio wet dream. SZA proves a great foil to Doja's antics here, and the music video is a memorable one. I still don't hear the interpolation of "Physical" that gave Kipner and Shaddick writing credit.
#28 - "Heat Waves" - Glass Animals
from the album Dreamland (2020)
Highest rank: #8 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 30 (still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #6
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #21
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #5
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Rock peak: #17
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #15
UK Singles chart peak: #5
Songwriter: Dave Bayley
"Heat Waves" was the song that just wouldn't go away, flitting from format to format, being a rock radio hit, then an adult pop hit, then a dance radio hit, then a mainstream pop hit where it's only getting bigger as the year closes. Not bad for a trippy break-up song that's only in one musical chord, but maybe that put us all in a trance.
#27 - "Without You" - The Kid Laroi
from the album F*ck Love (Savage) (2020)
Highest rank: #30 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 40
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #21
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #9
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #6
UK Singles chart peak: #2
Songwriters: Charlton Howard (The Kid Laroi), Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi, Billy Walsh
Another record that jumped from format to format, Australian "rapper/singer" Howard, son of well-connected music industry parents, finally got his Stateside break with this wailing break-up track best known for its "can't make a wife out of a ho" line that infected TikTok like the Rona. The standard bearer for "emo rap" since the death of "mentor" Juice WRLD.
#26 - "Way Less Sad" - AJR
from the album OK Orchestra (2021)
Highest rank: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #54
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #10
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #4
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Songwriters: AJR (Adam Met, Jack Met, Ryan Met), Paul Simon
The Brothers Not Jonas upstaged their big hit "Bang!" (heard earlier on the list) with this epic emotional ride which interpolates the musical denouement in Simon & Garfunkel's "My Little Town" to the best effect. If there ever was a mantra for this year, it's "No I ain't happy yet, but I'm way less sad".
#25 - "Better Together" - Luke Combs
from the album What You See Is What You Get (2019)
Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 27 (was on for three weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Dan Isbell, Randy Montana
Only a musically true artist like Combs can get a pass from me for a "list song" such as this, taking me back to the better days of country music before the advent of "bro country". It's become a wedding staple in the making, for good reason.
#24 - "Beautiful Mistakes" - Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion
from the album Jordi (2021)
Highest rank: #7 (six weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 26
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #7
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #31
Songwriters: Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Megan Pete (Megan Thee Stallion), Adam Goldstein, Matthew Musto (blackbear), Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Joseph Kirkland (Artist vs. Poet)
Man, I am embarrassed this ended up this high, but then again, the same thing happened last year when their mediocre "Memories" ranked at #16 on my 2020 countdown. The thing is, the record came with very little competition in quality that were big hits, and ended up rising on my list like the scum on gravy as adult pop radio gave this a free pass. Critics hated this, but they trashed Megan's verse, which actually was my favorite part of the record. Much better than Levine's sing-song attempt to make trap music for the cougars.
#23 - "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" - Lil Nas X
from the album MONTERO (2021)
Highest rank: #5 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 28
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #17
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #5
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Montero Hill (Lil Nas X), Take A Daytrip (Denzel Baptiste, David Bilal), Omer Fedi, Rosario Lenzo
On the other hand, I'm ashamed this isn't higher on my list. Montero "Lil Nas X" Hill proved that "Old Town Road" wasn't a one-off with his stellar opus MONTERO, with his song and music video that was unavoidable this year. Bringing black gay sensuality to the mainstream music conversation if more important than anyone realized, and this short little song replaced the former as his "signature" hit. Twerking on the devil infuriated the hypocritical fundies, who didn't care he "killed" Satan in the end.
#22 - "You Broke Me First" - Tate McRae
from the EP Too Young To Be Sad (2021)
Highest rank: #16 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 33 (was on for eight weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #4
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #15
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
UK Singles chart peak: #3
Songwriters: Tate McRae, Blake Harnage, Victoria Zaro
It's unusual that the dance remix of this song first became a hit before the ballad version crested on pop radio. Maybe not surprising since McRae got her first taste of fame when the Canadian appeared on So You Think You Can Dance. A "fuck you, ex-boyfriend" track in the Olivia Rodrigo/Gayle vein, even though this preceded both.
#21 - "Driver's License" - Olivia Rodrigo
from the album Sour (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #9
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro
That's it for this installment, I'll be back tomorrow with a second Eurovision Song Contest winner, more pain from Olivia, and the woman who really beat the system this year.
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