Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2022: Part One - #100 to #91...
How can a year feel like it was eternal yet too short by half at the same time? Well, between our neverending affair as a country of playing Russian Roulette with our lives, while Russia itself decides to bomb the hell out of neighboring country that never attacked them, along with the "football-style" politics that has turned network news into a reality show no one asked for, 2022 was better and worse than 2021 in so many ways. The music business got somewhat back on track, with acts going on tour again spotting by the occasional "we had to cancel because X members of the band got COVID", while Spotify seems to have perservered after all the calls to drop the service because of taintstain "guy at the party no one likes" Joe Rogan (if only Apple wasn't so monopolistic and Amazon weren't determined on being the Zune of streaming with their better-sounding but wonky app). And for music artists, there were just two major forces on the scene, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, with everyone else orbiting around them.
But life goes on, and now it's time to kick off my countdown of the 100 biggest "hit" tunes of the year on my little corner of the interwebs. Each week I list my top 100 songs,
culled from what made the top of the charts in pop, rock, R&B,
country, and dance music, along with what's big in Britain, and I took
each week's rank, did some Excel magic, and with the power of math came
up with this list. While most of the "big" hits of the year are here (like nine of the top ten songs on Billboard's 2022 Hot 100 list, save the dillweed that Cheeto Benito pardoned), there's still a healthy smattering of nuggets I gave extra love to. Are there surprises? Yes, both good and bad (the longevity rule really took effect for a couple songs here), but on the most part this has been the yearly list most consistent with my mainstream tastes in quite a while (or course, many of my favorite songs weren't hits, and won't be on here, I'll try to post separately). But it's tradition, and it's a good snapshot of the year, so here we go....
#100 - "We Don't Talk About Bruno" - the Encanto Cast
from the album Encanto (Original Soundtrack) (2021)
Highest rank: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (five weeks)
Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #24
Billboard Adult Contemporary airplay peak: #17
Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #20
Official British Singles chart peak: #1 (seven weeks)
Songwriter: Lin-Manuel Miranda
It's only fitting that the numerical gods placed this song as the first song I cover, since January of 2022 seems like a lifetime ago. I'm sure no one could have placed bets on a song from an animated Disney movie with a structure like an exposition song in a Broadway musical would top the pop chart for multiple weeks on both sides of the Atlantic, but here we are. It's a true triumph of quality, as the public picked this song from the film to continuous stream (and incorporate into TikToks), but this track even got decent radio airplay, proving it wasn't just the kiddie crowd listening to this. With a salsa beat (which may have helped the medicine go down easier) and layers and layers of voices trading off with each other (which was against the odds), this was certainly the underdog that won the race. In fact, three songs from the film were big enough hits to make my weekly chart, no small feat.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
#99 - "At The End Of A Bar" - Chris Young featuring Mitchell Tenpenny
from the album Famous Friends (2021)
Highest rank: #12 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Hot 100 peak: #75
Country Airplay peak: #1
Songwriters: Chris Young, Mitchell Tenpenny, Chris DeStefano
After making it to #20 on last year's year-end list with the title track from his album Famous Friends, a duet with Kane Brown, the midliner pairs up with another relative newbie in Tenpenny for the fourth single, which followed it to the top of the country airplay chart, although staying not as long. I prefer this one actually, with both bringing the requisite drama to the song. Still, it is a rewrite of "Almost Doesn't Count" musically.
#98 - "Forget Me" - Lewis Capaldi
from the album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (2023)
Highest Rank: #3 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 11 (in 2022, still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #95
Pop Airplay peak: #21
Adult Contemporary airplay peak: #22
Adult Top-40 airplay peak: #9
Official British Singles chart peak: #1
Songwriters: Lewis Capaldi, Philip Plested, TMS (Tom Barnes, Pete Kelleher, Ben Kohn)
After having the #1 song on both my 2019 ("Someone You Loved") and 2020 ("Before You Go"), the jovial plump Scotsman took a year off before returning with this absolute stunner of a broken heart anthem. His yell-y voice works perfectly with this song of despair where he's resolute to the fact that he'd rather they be angry with him than put him out of their minds. And the music video is freaking hilarious. This is body positive marketing! Anyway, this is one of two songs that just snuck on to the top 100 in the last week of eligibility, with only 11 weeks giving him the points needed.
#97 - "Crazy What Love Can Do" - David Guetta, Becky Hill, and Ella Henderson
from the single (2022)
Highest rank: #32 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 22
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #4
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #12
British Singles chart peak: #5
Songwriters: David Guetta, Becky Hill, Ella Henderson, Rob Harvey, Jordan Riley, Lewis Thompson, Naeve Applebaum
55-year-old club legend Guetta has had a bit of a resurgence this year, with his (over a year-old) collab with Bebe Rexha, "I'm Good (Blue)", making the Hot 100 top ten at the end of the year, while this banger, which includes two singers who got their start on TV singing competitions (Becky on The Voice UK, Ella on X Factor UK) as they play Bonnie and Bonnie in the music video, made the British Top Ten. He may have "dumbed down" his sound to match the times, but in this case Ella and Becky are strong enough vocalists to make this more than a workout mixtape filler.
#96 - "Half Of Me" - Thomas Rhett featuring Riley Green
from the album Where We Started (2022)
Highest rank: #10 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 14 (in 2022, still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #52
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Thomas Rhett, Rhett Akins, Will Bundy, Josh Thompson
Here's the second song to sneak on to the year-end list in the last week. Rhett, who has been the face of solo male crossover country for a while to see his throne usurps by the somewhat younger crowd, comes through with a breezy comic ode to procrastination by bringing newcomer Green along for the ride (giving Green his first top #1 country hit). Rhett was on the list in 2021 at #51 with "What's Your Country Song".
#95 - "Glimpse Of Us" - Joji
from the album Smithereens (2022)
Highest rank: #17 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 19
Hot 100 peak: #8
Pop Airplay peak: #9
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #13
British Singles peak: #12
Songwriters: Connor McDonough, Alexis Kesselman, Castle, Riley McDonough
The man partly responsible for "breaking Billboard magazine", which is non-music artist persona on YouTube helping to make the song "Harlem Shake" by Baauer viral and a #1 pop hit (based on 30 second snippets on the channel by copycats), surprises everyone by delivering this actual poignant ballad of loss of love, successfully reinventing himself into something much better.
#94 - "Boy" - The Killers
from the single (2022)
Highest rank: #7 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 13
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #29
Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #1 (five weeks)
Billboard Alternative Rock Airplay peak: #1 (six weeks)
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriter: Brandon Flowers
The modern rock veterans were one of the very few concerts I went to this year, and they put a hell of a show (not to mention opener Johnny Marr of the Smiths, whom I was even more stoked for). This one-off (possibly for an upcoming album) was made during the wait to get the tour back on schedule, and it found a welcome home on rock radio. I still can't get Erasure's "A Little Respect" out of my head though.
#93 - "Supermodel" - Maneskin
from the album Rush! (2023)
Highest rank: #13 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Pop Airplay peak: #34
Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #5
Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay peak: #36
Alternative Rock Airplay peak: #1 (five weeks)
Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Airplay peak: #30
Songwriters: Maneskin (Damiano David, Victoria De Angelis, Thomas Raggi, Ethan Torchio), Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Sylvester "Sly" Sivertsen, Justin Tranter
The Italian rock band that went from that country's X Factor to winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 to having a "viral" hit from a cover of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' (by way of Madcon) "Beggin'" from their X Factor days, they prove they aren't a one-off with this new original from their still-upcoming first post-Eurovision album. It has the dirty snarl that you'd never expect this is a Max Martin production. Last year "Beggin'" was #62 on the big countdown.
from the single (2022)
Highest rank: #27 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Pop Airplay peak: #34
Dance Airplay peak: #1 (eight weeks)
Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #11
Songwriters: Joel "deadmau5" Zimmerman, Ryan "Kaskade" Raddon, Hayla (Hayley Williams), Camden Cox, Will Clarke
Two of the most revered DJ's in the trance music subset of dance music come together after 14 years to bring us this dreamy and mesmerizing song featuring British singer/songwriter Hayla. This ruled dance radio for two months for good reason.
#91 - "Victoria's Secret" - Jax
from the single (2022)
Highest rank (so far): #5 (three weeks - still at peak)
Weeks on chart: 14 (in 2022 - still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #35
Pop Airplay peak: #11
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #2
Dance Airplay peak: #27
British Singles peak: #33
In the wake of Olivia Rodrigo, Jersey Girl Jackie Miskanic, aka "Jax" parlayed her third-place finish on American Idol to YouTube success to this stompy rail against body shaming from the lingerie giant. It's got enough campy kitsch to make you think this is from the 80's, but it's got a charm that even can make my ten year old nephew love it.
Well that ends the first part of this 2022 party. I'll be back tomorrow with another angry young woman, some self-love from an unholy singer, and a band that lost its heart and soul this year.
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