Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2022: Part Eight - #30 to #21...
I'm deep in my year-end countdown of the biggest songs on my weekly music chart for 2022, and it's time for part eight. You can check up on the rest of the series (including my 25 also-rans) by clicking here.
#30 - "Don't Come Lookin'" - Jackson Dean
from the album Greenbroke (2022)
Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 22 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #3
Songwriters: Jackson Dean, Luke Dick
Country rocker Dean's breakthrough single took a long time to catch on at radio, but it's bluesy charm cannot be denied. The sing-along chorus is perfect bar-band material.
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#29 - "When I'm Gone" - Alesso and Katy Perry
from the single (2021)
Highest rank: #10 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 25
Hot 100 peak: #90
Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #24
Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #12
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #4
Official British Singles Chart peak: #49
Songwriters: Alessandro Lindblad (Alesso), Katy Perry, Space Primates (Nathan Cunningham & Marc Sibley), Rami Yacoub, Alida (Alida Garpestad Peck), Alma Goodman
Before she became a cultural pariah again thanks to her shitty "influencer peddling" in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race, Katy Perry had just been successful in putting herself back on pop radio with this infectious bop from Swedish DJ Alesso.
#28 - "Bad Habit" - Steve Lacy
from the album Gemini Rights (2022)
Highest rank: #1 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 17 (still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks)
Pop Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #11
Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #39
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Rock Airplay peak: #3
Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #34
Billboard Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Dance Airplay peak: #10
British Singles Chart peak: #8
Songwriters: Steve Lacy, Diana Gordon, John Carroll Kirby, Fousheé (Brittany Fousheé), Matthew Castellanos
It's biscuits, it's gravy. The musician/producer of the alt-R&B band the Internet strikes out on his own and snags the top newcomer slot in the mainstream pop world with this dreamy emo-soul about a girl he's having a tumultuous relationship with.
#27 - "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" - Cole Swindell
from the album Stereotype (2022)
Highest rank: #4 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 19 (still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #16
Country Airplay peak: #1 (four weeks)
Songwriters: Cole Swindell, Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, Thomas Rhett, Tim Nichols, Mark Sanders
Cole basically cribbed fellow red-head country singer Jo Dee Messina's breakthough single from 1996 "Heads Carolina, Tails California" for this record, but the way he and the songwriters spun a story in the new lyrics than interweave the old hit is too damn cute by half, but it works better than any other song in 2022 that sampled another.
#26 - "Heart On Fire" - Eric Church
from the album Heart (2021)
Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 22
Hot 100 peak: #56
Country Airplay peak: #5
Songwriter: Eric Church
Last year country rock troubadour Church pulled a "Guns N Roses", simultaneously releasing a two separate album plus EP set Heart & Soul, which had already put "Hell Of A View" (from Soul) on my 2021 year-end list at #98. This winner from the Heart set gives off the best Mellencamp vibes.
#25 - "Big Energy" - Latto
from the album 777 (2022)
Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 24
Hot 100 peak: #3
Pop Airplay peak: #1 (three weeks)
Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #25
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #6
Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #9
Billboard Adult R&B Airplay peak: #29
Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (seven weeks)
Dance Airplay peak: #4
British Singles Chart peak: #21
Songwriters: Latto (Alyssa Stephens), Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald), Vaughn Oliver, Jaucquez Lowe, A1 LaFlare, Randall Hammers, R. City (Theron Thomas), Tom Tom Club (Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, Adrian Belew, Steven Stanley)
I've got to admit that I'm embarrassed that this mindless dance-rap fodder is this high, but it was against much weaker competition during its chart run. And it's use of Tom Tom Club's classic "Genius Of Love" mentally broke me down and made the lyrics just STICK in my mind.
#24 - "Running Up That Hill" - Kate Bush
from the album Hounds Of Love (1985)
Highest rank: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 22
Hot 100 peak: #3
Pop Airplay peak: #5
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #9
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #5
Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #2
Billboard Alternative Rock Airplay peak: #2
Triple-A Rock Airplay peak: #24
Dance Airplay peak: #16
British Singles Chart peak: #1 (three weeks)
Songwriter: Kate Bush
There is absolutely no way that anybody predicted this. Not since the radio heydays of the late 1980s did an older modest hit single get brought back successfully to mainstream consciousness like this electro-pop classic from Kate Bush. After being featured in a pivotal scene on the sci-fi series Stranger Things, where the song wasn't just background music but an integral part of the plot, people of all generations grabbed on to it, including youngsters who had never heard of either Bush or the song (my ten year old nephew, for one). The best case of a classic that deserved a second chance that the goddesses allowed.
#23 - "Break My Soul" - Beyonce
from the album Renaissance (2022)
Highest rank: #1 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 23 (still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Pop Airplay peak: #8
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #11
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #1 (five weeks)
Adult R&B Airplay peak: #1 (two weeks)
Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (three weeks)
Dance Airplay peak: #1 (five weeks)
Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #1 (eleven weeks)
British Singles Chart peak: #2
Beyonce did have a renaissance on the radio with this house music banger, but I feel the tenuous similarity to Robin S.'s "Show Me Love" overshadows the impact of "bounce music" queen Big Freedia had on this record. Freedia's verses pulled from "Explode" are like a mantra for the new age. Release your trade indeed.
#22 - "One Right Now" - Post Malone and the Weeknd
from the album Twelve Carat Toothache (2022)
Highest rank: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 21 (was on for three weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #6
Pop Airplay peak: #5
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #15
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #13
Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Dance Airplay peak: #19
Songwriters: Post Malone (Austin Post), The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), Louis Bell, Brian Lee, Andrew Bolooki, Billy Walsh
The sometimes rapper/sometimes singer was last on a year in 2020, where he was all the way up at #4 with "Circles". His more melodic fare brought him back to the pop top ten pairing him up with the Weeknd in this record that sports the most earwormy bassline of the year, as well as the most graphic music video.
#21 - "The Kind Of Love We Make" - Luke Combs
from the album Growin' Up (2022)
Highest rank: #3 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 22 (still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #8
Country Airplay peak: #2
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Jamie Davis, Dan Isbell, Reid Isbell
Luke is at the top of his game this year, and this rocking "dad-country" is a prime example of his ability to throw a great song without resorting to cliches or puns (well, sort of) or branding. A lascivious song for the everyday crowd.
We're closer and closer to the top, and tomorrow I'll be back with revivals of songs from the 70s and 00s, a newcomer spells it out for you, and another rides with the top down.
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