Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2021: Part Five and a Half: the "honorable mentions"...
Hey folks, I hope those who celebrated had a great Christmas. I'm at the halfway mark on my countdown of the 100 biggest songs on my weekly music chart for this past year, and it's time to take a break to serve up the songs that "bubbled under", that almost made the list. Mind you, it was a little harder out this year, as six of the songs here would've made my main year-end in 2020, including Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (pictured above). You can catch up on the rest of the series by clicking here. So here we go...
#125 - "In Da Getto" - J. Balvin & Skrillex
from the album Jose (2021)
Highest rank: #45 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 21 (was still on the chart 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #90
Colombian reggaeton singer/rapper Balvin takes a short trip to the club as he and dubstep king Skrillex sample David Morales' dance classic for just over two minutes.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
#124 - "Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat)" - Jawsh 685 & Jason Derulo (with BTS)
from the stand-alone single
Highest rank (in 2021): 10 (one week) (was #3 for three weeks in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 12 (was on for 22 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
This TikTok meme was #27 on last year's list, and seems like a lifetime ago, but "Savage Love" was in the top ten at the start of this year, and ends up on this list. Still props to the Cook Islands-affiliated DJ that didn't get fully coopted by Derulo and kept his lead-artist status, even though he wasn't able to follow it up. Made #1 on the pop chart thanks to the BTS army for its remix.
#123 - "Momma's House" - Dustin Lynch
from the album Tullahoma (2020)
Highest rank: #23 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #59
Lynch is one of those non-descript country pin-ups on the periphery of "boyfriend country" and "bro country", and he tries his best to go hard on this barnburner (no pun intended). Dustin also made last year's also-ran list with "Ridin' Roads" at #113.
#122 - "Glad You Exist" - Dan + Shay
from the album Good Things (2021)
Highest rank: #32 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 19
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21
Speaking of boyfriend country, here's the standard-bearers of the subgenre who have apparently taken all the reins from Rascal Flatts for this simpy song about the low bar of love expectations.
#121 - "Happy Does" - Kenny Chesney
from the album Here and Now (2020)
Highest rank: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 12 (was on for seven weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47
The third single from Chesney's Here and Now album was in his beach-country wheelhouse, extolling the virtues of uninvolved bliss.
from the album Love + Everything Else (2020)
Highest rank: #30 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 15 (was on for two weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Singer/songwriter John Poulson, or "John K", was on last year's main countdown at #75 with "If We Never Met", as well as the also-ran list at #113 with "6 Months", and a third song from his Love + Everything Else debut album just about made the grade in 2021. Not bad for a small-time pop act.
#119 - "Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90's" - Sam Hunt
from the album Southside (2020)
Highest rank: #29 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32
Hunt's long-delayed Southside had already put two songs on last year's list with "Hard To Forget" at #29 and "Kinfolks" at #81, and almost pulled a hat trick with this half-spoken, half sung track with a music video that's much heavier than the record.
#118 - "Get Out My Head" - Shane Codd
from the stand-alone single (2020)
Highest rank: #30 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Irish DJ Shane Codd made the top ten on the British singles chart with his first of two club bangers that made my weekly chart this year, continuing the country's dominance in neo-house music.
#117 - "Elevator Boots" - Counting Crows
from the EP Butter Miracle, Suite One (2021)
Highest rank: #17 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
For a while it seemed like it was back in the mid-1990's, with both the Wallflowers and Counting Crows making a comeback to rock radio. The latter made it on to my chart with this throwback that has Elton John and Counting Crows nuances in production.
#116 - "Lasting Lover" - Sigala and James Arthur
from the stand-alone single (2020)
Highest rank: #32 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 18 (was on for 9 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
British DJ/producer Sigala (Bruce Fielder) and 2012 X Factor UK winner James Arthur pair up and crib MGMT's synth-rock gem "Time To Pretend" for this dance radio hit.
#115 - "Bed Head" - Manchester Orchestra
from the album The Million Masks Of God (2021)
Highest rank: #38 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Manchester Orchestra, neither an orchestra nor from Manchester, but an indie-rock band in Atlanta, scored their second top ten hit on Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A, or "hipster") rock radio with this sweeping opus.
from the EP Goosebumps (2020)
Highest rank: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 11 (was on for 7 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Also not from the Bastille, but from London, England, Dan Smith and his indie-rock band deliver a loose and trippy tune about coping in this crazy times.
#113 - "Officer Of Love" - CAAMP
from the stand-alone single (2020)
Highest rank: #14 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 12 (was on for 3 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Ohio indie-rockers CAAMP scored a second rock radio hit this year with this song which gives me a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground vibe.
#112 - "I Should Probably Go To Bed" - Dan + Shay
from the album Good Things (2021)
Highest rank (in 2021): #8 (two weeks) (was #2 for two weeks in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 12 (was on for 16 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28
This song from the country crossover duo was #52 on last year's countdown, but spent enough time on my weekly list to make it to the also-rans this time out. They were also at #45 last year with "10000 Hours". A lot of people were hating on this, but I honestly think it is one of their best, and uses Shay Mooney's voice to best epic use.
#111 - "Colorado" - Milky Chance
from the album Trip Tape (2021)
Highest rank: #20 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 14 (still on the chart at #20 as of 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Last year this German indie-folk duo were on the "bubbling under" list at #107 with "Dont Let Me Down" with Jack Johnson, and this year do the same with this pulsating weird James Bond/weed anthem meld.
#110 - "Fancy Like" - Walker Hayes
from the upcoming album Country Stuff The Album (2022)
Highest rank: #10 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 13 (still on the chart as of 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Man, did this song get people divided. As for me, I didn't mind the hokey cuteness of the Applebee's commercial, that at least was something that made it despite Nashville radio. For all the dads in the house.
#109 - "The Good Ones" - Gabby Barrett
from the album Goldmine (2020)
Highest rank: #37 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19
American Idol finalist Gabby Barrett was at #7 on my 2020 recap with her breakthrough hit "I Hope", a blatant Carrie Underwood rip-off that nevertheless filled a void that was needed in country radio. This female version of the "list song" was the follow-up.
#108 - "My Boy" - Elvis Shane
from the album Backslider (2021)
Highest rank: #9 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28
Shane, who also appeared on American Idol but never made the finals, nevertheless made one of my FAVORITE country singles of the year with this tribute to stepfathers that has such heart and soul that it puts a tear in my eye every time. It's a shame that country radio threw this away as soon as it hit #1, causing it to be this low on my list. Deserved much better.
#107 - "Mariposa" - Peach Tree Rascals
from the stand-alone single (2021)
Highest rank: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 11 (was on for 7 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Another song that made it from TikTok to rock radio, this song is named for a section of Yosemite National Park, and it made for a nice breezy break on the airwaves.
#106 - "Survivor" - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
from the album The Future (2021)
Highest rank: #19 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 13 (was still on the chart 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
After a solo album which placed title track "And It's Still Alright" at #82 on last year's last, Rateliff reunited with the Night Sweats for this retro soul-rock jam that I so needed this year. Joe Cocker's legacy is intact.
#105 - "Prisoner" - Miley Cyrus featuring Dua Lipa
from the album Plastic Hearts (2020)
Highest rank: #9 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #54
Miley was on last year's recap at #70 with "Midnight Sky", and she nearly made it this time with help from the current "it girl", Dua Lipa, for this electro-pop nugget that would've been right at home in 1983.
#104 - "Knowing You" - Kenny Chesney
from the album Here and Now (2020)
Highest rank: #5 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 14 (was still at #5 on the chart 12/17)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #57
Could the graceful waltz about letting go that's still in my top five about former wife Renee Zellweger? Who's to say, but it's been one of his best from his latter years.
#103 - "Made For You" - Jake Owen
from the album Greetings From ...Jake (2019)
Highest rank: #39 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 22
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32
Owen, one of the "old-school" of "boyfriend country", was able to spin off a third #1 country radio hit from his 2019 album with this wedding-ready ballad.
#102 - "You Time" - Scotty McCreery
from the album Same Truck (2021)
Highest rank: #13 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
Another Idol alumnus, this time the winner of the tenth season
and one of the most successful acts from the series, returned with this
by-the-books midtempo country number about paying attention that serves
his baritone well.
#101 - "Not Dead Yet" - Lord Huron
from the album Long Lost (2021)
Highest rank: #18 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Michigander rockers gave us their version of the "train song" not in theme but in its pulsating rhythm that washes over you in waves of emotion knowing you have made it through these effed up times.
Well that's it for the worthy runners-up. I'll be back tomorrow starting the main countdown back up, with a dance track that's more scandalous than it seems, an indie newcomer wallows in tryptophan, a country troubadour AND a dance-pop diva start anew.
Comments