Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2021: Part Six - #50 to #41...
Hey folks, we're over the "hump" and on to the top half of my year-end countdown of the songs that went the highest and/or stuck around the longest on my weekly music chart. You can catch up with the rest of the series (including yesterday's of the 25 that almost made it) by clicking here. And away we go....
#50 - "ily (i love you baby)" - surf mesa featuring Emilee
from the stand-alone single (2019)
Highest rank: #11 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 20 (was on for 32 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #14
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: 7
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1
Songwriters: Powell Aguirre (surf mesa), Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe
Seattle-based one-man electronica act surf mesa, aka Powell Aguirre, and singer Emilee Flood ended up spending a full year on my chart between 2020 and 2021. It was #46 on last year's recap, and nearly matches it this time, albeit with more points even. Consider it a test of longevity more than quality, although the trippy cover of the Four Seasons tune (one of two Four Seasons remakes on this countdown along with Maneskin's "Beggin'") isn't offensive as much as background music.
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#49 - "Take My Breath" - The Weeknd
from the album TBA (2022)
Highest rank: #5 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 17 (was still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: 6
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #21
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: 6
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #14
Songwriters: Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd), Ahmad Balshe (Belly), Max Martin, Oscar Holter
Canadian pop/R&B star the Weeknd continued his ride on 1980's electro-soul vibes with his single, which sports an persistent groove as well as kind of dark lyrics about hooking up with a woman who possibly is into autoerotic asphyxiation at best and snuffing out at worst. It's creepy but fascinating as a music piece, I gotta say though. And as a person whose history involved a hella ton of leather bars, something I can't say shocks me.
from the album OK Orchestra (2021)
Highest rank (in 2021): #17 (two weeks) (went to #4 for three weeks in 2020)
Weeks on the chart (in 2021): 19 (was on for 34 weeks in 2020)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #17
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #1
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #5
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #22
Songwriters: AJR (Adam Met, Jack Met, Ryan Met)
Another song that spent a full 52 weeks (plus one) on my list between 2020 and 2021, this one deserved its place here and at #12 on last year's countdown. Critics love to hate this, but I quite enjoyed this self-deprecating pop romp from the brotherly trio that wasn't named Jonas.
#47 - "Nowhere Generation" - Rise Against
from the album Nowhere Generation (2021)
Highest rank: #3 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Mainstream Rock peak: #1
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #9
Songwriters: Rise Against (Brandon Barnes, Zach Blair, Joseph Principe, Timothy McIlrath)
The standard-bearers of pop-punk right now, Chicago's Rise Against returned with this anthem for the downtrodden and ignored youth, and this sing-along rocker was a breath of fresh air on rock radio.
#46 - "Just The Way" - Parmalee and Blanco Brown
from the album For You (2021)
Highest rank: #33 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 37
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #25
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #19
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Matt Thomas (Parmalee), Kevin Bard, Nolan Sipe
This manufactured slice of "boyfriend country" that could have easily been identified as a number of pin-ups instead of a real band (their drummer isn't even credited to have played on the album), rebounded from their sophomore jinx with this song that country radio wouldn't let go of, possibly due to novelty act Blanco Brown's attachment (for "diversity", you know), resulting in autotuned fodder for the ladies. Stayed on the bottom half of my chart forever so it's here, but yeah.
#45 - "Serotonin" - Girl In Red
from the album If I Can Make It Go Quiet (2021)
Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 22
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #6
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #2
Songwriter: Marie Ulven (Girl In Red)
Norwegian indie-pop singer/songwriter Marie Ulven Ringheim, aka Girl In Red, broke through on rock radio with this song that straddled the line between Billie Eilish's dark mental quirks and Olivia Rodrigo's bratty anger with this ode to the nervous condition that shifts her mood and her fears to good effect. A great song that hopefully will be repeated.
#44 - "Starting Over" - Chris Stapleton
from the album Starting Over (2020)
Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 21
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #2
Songwriters: Chris Stapleton, Mike Henderson
Country-rock artist Stapleton cemented his place as the force of the honest side of the genre, with his stellar Starting Over and the title track which granted Chris his first crossover top-40 hit. Although I loved the blues rock epic opus "Cold" from the set much much more, this graceful reflection on picking up the pieces of your life is just as memorable in the country music canon.
from the stand-alone single (2021)
Highest rank: #28 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 27
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart ("bubbled under" at #116)
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #5
UK Singles chart peak: #4
Songwriters: Nightcrawlers (John Reid, Graham Wilson, Ross Campbell, Hugh Brankin, Samantha Harper)
British DJ/producer RITON (Henry Smithson) resurrected the club classic "Push The Feeling On" from rave act Nightcrawlers and brought along TikTok "personalities" Mufasa and Hypeman, but it's odd that singer Samantha Harper, who sang new lyrics she wrote for this doesn't get a credit on the record. Of course the rework of the single that hit the American dance top ten in 1992 before topping the list in 2004 on another remix was a big favorite for the stay-at-home working class.
#42 - "Waiting On A War" - Foo Fighters
from the album Medicine At Midnight (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Billboard Rock Airplay peak: #1
Billboard Mainstream Rock peak: #1
Billboard Alternative Rock peak: #8
Billboard Adult Alternative (Triple-A) Rock peak: #3
Songwriters: Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett)
And finally we get to the first of the songs on this list that went to #1 on my weekly chart (sadly, Adele's "Easy On Me" was too new to get the points to do it, just missing the also-ran list at #133). Grohl and the band tackle the weight of the world on this one without giving up any anger and determination, cementing my love for this band who no one can say is just a Nirvana subproject.
#41 - "Love Again" - Dua Lipa
from the album Future Nostaglia (2020)
Highest rank: #3 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 19 (still on the chart 12/17/21)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41
Billboard Adult Contemporary peak: #16
Billboard Adult Top-40 peak: #9
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #12
Songwriters: Dua Lipa, Stephen Kozmeniuk (Koz), Clarence Coffee Jr. (Monsterz & Strangerz), Chelsee Grimes, Bing Crosby, Max Wartell, Irving Wallman
This dramatic neo-disco gem from Dua Lipa sampled the Bing Crosby co-write "My Woman" by Lew Stone from 1932 (and better known to the Gen-Xer's from White Town's rework as "Your Woman" in 1997) to this ride on the romantic roller coaster that was my most-loved highlight of her Future Nostaglia album, but like "We're Good", was sadly overshadowed by the unending success of "Levitating" on pop radio. Seriously, one of my favorite singles of the entire year from any artist and a 10 out of 10. I lived this song on a drive home one Thursday night in particular.
Well that does it for today's ten. We enter the 2021 top-40 tomorrow with a pair of intoxicated firebrands, the comeback mashup we never expected, and Billboard's official biggest hit of the rock era.
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