Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2021: Part Nine - #20 to #11..
We're getting close to the end of this year's countdown of the biggest "hit" tunes on my weekly music chart for 2021. You can catch up with the rest of the series by clicking here. Now let's get rolling...
#20 - "Famous Friends" - Chris Young & Kane Brown
from the album Famous Friends (2021)
Highest rank: #15 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 32 (still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Chris Young, Corey Crowder, Cary Barlowe
This year's big "buddy country" hit came from Young and Brown who regale on their "small town past" with this song that again radio won't let go of. Good intentions for a slightly corny premise with big production.
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#19 - "Arcade" - Duncan Laurence
from the album Small Town Boy (2020)
Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 32
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #4
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #9
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #31
UK Singles chart peak: #29
Songwriters: Duncan Laurence, Wouter Hardy, Joel Sjöö, Will Knox
This song won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2019, but thanks to the TikTok app became a worldwide sensation, and the biggest Eurovision song in America in decades. It by far wasn't my pick for the win that year (see Iceland's "Hatrid Mun Sigra" from Hatari and Keiino's "Spirit In The Sky"), but I respect Laurence's craft in this haunting heartbreak ballad that brought legitimacy back to the competition (even if the American critics loved to hate on this).
#18 - "You" - Regard, Troye Sivan, and Tate McRae
from the stand-alone single (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 29
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #58
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #24
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1
Songwriters: Dardan Aliu (Regard), Troye Sivan, Tate McRae, Jordan Sudak, Isaac Sakima, Thomas Mann, Frederik Eichen
Kosovan DJ/producer Regard, who was on last year's "bubbling under" list at #114 with "Secrets", scored a massive dance radio hit with this moody banger with Sivan and McRae portrayed two sides of the break-up coin.
#17 - "Good 4 U" - Olivia Rodrigo
from the album Sour (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 28 (still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #12
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, Hayley Williams (Paramore), Josh Farro (Paramore)
Out of the trio of teen heartbreak anthems from Olivia's Sour album that appear on this list, "Good 4 U" brought the anger out (with a little help from Paramore's "Misery Business"). Chock full of quotable lines like "what the fuck is up with that?" and "you're doing great there without me baby like a damn sociopath".
#16 - "Bad Habits" - Ed Sheeran
from the album = (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 23 (still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #1
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #1
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Fred Gibson (Fred Again), Jonny McDaid
Ed Sheeran grabbed the backbeat of Bronski Beat's gay anthem "Smalltown Boy" and turned it into a pub crawl staple for the British masses. Sheeran sings in a strong whispering coo as he details the sin he's to commit for this love obsession.
#15 - "Therefore I Am" - Billie Eilish
from the album Happier Than Ever (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 27 (was on for one week in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #5
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #18
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #1
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Rock peak: #31
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #8
UK Singles chart peak: #2
Songwriters: Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell
After serving us the one-off single "Everything I Wanted" in 2020, which was at #14 on last year's countdown, Eilish returns with this quirky electro-slink through the mall that addresses her critics and the "gossip media" machine. Turns every rule for female pop stars on their head.
from the album El Dorado (2021)
Highest rank (in 2021): #2 (three weeks) (was #2 for a week in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 34 (was on for 12 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #20
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #7
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #8
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #11
UK Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Golden Von Jones (24kGoldn), Michael Olmo (iann dior), Keegan Bach (KBeaZy), Omer Fedi, Blake Slatkin
If The Kid Laroi carried out the banner of emo-rap for 2021, 24kGoldn brought it in with this record that "bubbled under" on my 2020 list at #109. Reaching pop, rock, R&B, and dance radio, this that could only be made by teenagers. Put "fuckin' round like I'm brand new" into the mainstream vernacular.
from the album Back Of My Mind (2021)
Highest rank: #8 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 38
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44
Billboard R&B Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Adult R&B peak: #1
Songwriters: Gabriella Wilson (H.E.R.), Carl McCormick (Cardiak), Jeff Gittleman (Gitty), Tiara Thomas, Ant Clemons, James "Jimmy Jam" Harris, Terry Lewis
This slow jam that is built on the lush production of Jam & Lewis on Herb Alpert's 1987 hit "Making Love In The Rain", "Damage" is like the soul equivalent of the rap mixtape cut where an artist freestyles over an established beat. In this case, it works. I'm not H.E.R.'s biggest cheerleader, but this one got me this year.
#12 - "Willow" - Taylor Swift
from the album Evermore (2020)
Highest rank: #8 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 31
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #6
UK Singles peak: #3
Songwriters: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dressner (The National)
Swift had quite a year in 2021. After going "acoustic" in 2020 with her Folklore album, which spun off "Cardigan", which placed at #60 on last year's list, along with "The Man" at #68 and "Lover" at #87 from her previous album Lover, Swift returned with a second equally poignant set with Aaron Dressner of the National which explores folk-rock through a younger woman's lens. She also did the ultimate "fuck you" to former label Big Machine (and grade-A asshole Scooter Braun) by so far re-recording two of her previous albums that were kept from her from buying outright (Fearless and Red) and was the first artist to successfully pull that off, hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 with each of them. Now for "Willow", its quiet grace and cloudy imagery put Swift in a different plane of existence that I hope she stays in for a while.
#11 - "Forever After All" - Luke Combs
from the album What You See Ain't Always What You Get (2020)
Highest rank: #5 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 34 (was on for one week in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Drew Parker, Rob Williford
Another wedding reception staple from Combs, who again gets a pass for a "list song" with this earnestly sung ode to his own wife. Luke proves why he is this generation's Garth, Alan, Tim, and Kenny put together.
We've only got nine more songs to get to #1 on my recap, and I'll be back tomorrow with them all.
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