Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2021: Part Two - #90 to #81...
It's time for the second installment of my 2021 recap of the songs that went the highest and/or stayed the longest on my weekly music chart on this little corner of the interwebs. You can catch up on part one by clicking here. And away we go...
#90 - "Afterglow" - Ed Sheeran
from the non-album single (2020)
Highest rank: #8 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 13
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29
Billboard Adult top-40 peak: 7
Billboard Triple-A rock peak: #38
Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Fred Gibson, David Hodges
After taking a break for a year and a half, Sheeran emerged right in the middle of the pandemilovato at Christmastime with this sparse and open ballad that was the right mood to bring in such a stark new year. A big contrast to what Ed would serve up later this year. Even though his last album No. 6 Collaborations Project was released in July of 2019, the seventh single from the set, "South Of The Border", still made last year's list at #48.
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#89 - "Down To One" - Luke Bryan
from the album Born Here Live Here Die Here (2020)
Highest rank: #28 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 23
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Dallas Davidson, Justin Ebach, Kyle Fishman
This midtempo track from the country singer/American Idol judge Bryan wouldn't have been out of place on 1983 pop radio. Forgoing puns for the counting down gimmick, there's a hefty amount of unneeded pitch-tampering here, but Luke, like fellow now-veteran Blake Shelton, can sell this better than most of the new pin-up crowd. Last year Bryan was on the list with "One Margarita" at #74 for 2020.
#88 - "Blame It On You" - Jason Aldean
from the album 9 (2019)
Highest rank: #11 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 17
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Kurt Allison, John Edwards, Tully Kennedy, Michael Tyler, Brian Gene White
Ugh. If this year did one thing, it turned me on a handful of music artists I previously liked. Aldean is one of them, going from his somber response to the tragedy of Las Vegas that seems like a million years ago to being a full-on cultist anti-vax/anti-max know nothing creep (most likely helped by his tart of a psychocultist wife). This was later in the year, after the run of this third single from his 9 album, after "Got What I Got" (which just missed the top 100 last year) and "We Back" (which made it at #90). This break-up tune drowning in booze is competent if not special, but came in on a 'soft' period in the year, and just missed my top ten at its peak. It's a shame. People don't learn.
#87 - "Higher Power" - Coldplay
from the album Music Of The Spheres (2021)
Highest rank: #6 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #53
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #16
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #4
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #4
Billboard Triple-A Rock peak: #2
Songwriters: Coldplay (Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion), Max Martin, Federico Vindver, Denise Carite
British modern-rock titans Coldplay returned from the goop with their ninth studio album Music of the Spheres, which teamed the band with Swedish pop veteran Max Martin for this song that has an 80's synthpop vibe with a heavy-handed spiritual overtone. Still, a break from the drivel dominating pop radio this year, it may be a step down from their best, but definitely not a losing try. Last year the group was at #78 with "Orphans", from their mostly-forgotten Everyday Life record.
from the album Love Goes (2020)
Highest rank: #2 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 12 (was on for ten weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #8
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Sam Smith, Karl Schuster (Shellback), Oscar Gorres (OzGo)
This song was already in my top ten when the year started, and it's a shame that the rollout of Smith's Love Goes album seemed to be derailed by the pandemic (lead single "To Die For" came right at the start of this pandemic). This dark, funky break-up throwdown gave us Smith at his best, heart broken but more defiant than wallowing.
#85 - "Rain On Me" - Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande
from the album Chromatica (2020)
Highest rank (in 2021): #30 (one week) (was #1 for 3 weeks in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 24 (was on for 26 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #3
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Michael Tucker (BloodPop), Matthew Burns (Burns), Nija Charles, Rami Yacoub, Martin Bresso (Tchami), Alexander Ridha (Boys Noize)
Eight songs that made last year's list carried over onto 2021's countdown, and here's the first. Gaga and Ariana's club anthem that didn't get to be because of the lockdown still resonated long enough to last nearly a half-year into this one (it was #15 for 2020). Celebrating overcoming mental and physical trauma was a powerful message to make, and this follow-up to "Stupid Love" (which was #39 for 2020) outshined even that gem.
from the album La 167 (2021)
Highest rank: #22 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 21 (still on the chart 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1
Songwriters: Carlos Rosado (Farruko), Andy Bauza, Axel Fulgencio, Franklin Martinez, José Carlos García, Juan Manuel Gómez, Keriel Quiroz (K4G), Marcos G. Pérez, Victor Cardenas
Puerto Rican singer Carlos Rosado, aka Farruko, brought the mainstream American radio audience "tribal guarachero", which combines the Mexican pop style of cumbia with electronic dance music, or EDM, With a sing-along-ready chorus that was made for dancing in the summertime heat, this banger transcends language to give us a sweet mix of tender balladeer singing and fistpumping drops.
#83 - "Wrecked" - Imagine Dragons
from the album Mercury - Act I (2021)
Highest rank: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 15 (still on the chart 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart ("bubbled under" at #111)
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #4
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Billboard Triple-A Rock peak: #12
Songwriters: Imagine Dragons (Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman)
Las Vegas alt-rockers Imagine Dragons seemed to inherit Maroon 5's position as the band people loved to hate, but Dan Reynolds and the gang have evolved quite nicely, tackling meaty subjects as the one here, with the cancer-caused death of his sister-in-law. Haunting and powerful at just the right times, this one really struck a chord with me.
#82 - "Shame Shame" - Foo Fighters
from the album Medicine At Midnight (2021)
Highest rank: #3 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 13 (was on for two weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Mainstream Rock peak: #1
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #10
Billboard Triple-A Rock peak: #2
Songwriters: Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett)
Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters were deservedly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and they carry the flag for American mainstream hard rock with their stellar Medicine At Midnight album. This stomper led off the set, where the marching chorus is just a lead-up to the soaring chorus. And it was just the beginning for this album.
#81 - "Head and Heart" - Joel Corry & MNEK
from the single "Head and Heart" (2020)
Highest rank (in 2021): #14 (one week) (was #1 for two weeks in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 31 (was on for 19 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #99
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #3
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Joel Corry, Uzoechi Eminike (MNEK), Neave Applebaum, Daniel Dare, John Courtidis, Lewis Thompson, Robert Harvey, Leo Kalyan
Here's the second of the songs that were on last year's list; like Lady Gaga's, this one went to #1 last year, and ended up spending 50 weeks total on the chart. And it's from the British version of DJ Pauly D, as Joel was first on MTV's Jersey Shore knockoff Geordie Shore. Pairing him up with gay singer-songwriter MNEK is genius, as the latter's skill in both conveying emotion on the dancefloor and a hook that won't quit is an asset that won Corry international success.
Well that's it for round two. Tomorrow I'll be back with some R&B roller-rink action, a country divorcee laying low, and a diva switching things up.
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