Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2022: Part Seven - #40 to #31...
We've entered the top-40 of my year-end countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart from the past year. You can catch up on the rest of the series so far by clicking here.
#40 - "Where Are You Now" - Lost Frequencies featuring Calum Scott
from the single (2021)
Highest rank: #22 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 29 (was on for four weeks in 2021)
Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #35
Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #4
Official British Singles Chart peak: #3
Songwriters: Felix de Laet (Lost Frequencies), Dag Lundberg, Joacim Bo Persson, Michael Patrick Kelly, Sebastian Arman
Belgian DJ/producer Felix De Laet, aka Lost Frequencies, had success in Europe last decade with tropical house music, but for his breakthrough in America he recruited British singer Calum Scott, who was on my year-end for 2016 at #64 with his ballad cover of "Dancing On My Own", for this dark trance excursion that lingers on British radio as well as the American dance sales/streaming charts.
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#39 - "Damn Strait" - Scotty McCreery
from the album Same Truck (2021)
Highest rank: #8 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 22
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #1 (three weeks)
Songwriters: Jim Collins, Trent Tomlinson
I usually think that country songs that are solely based on other country songs are crass product, but there's something in the writing and the performance of this hit that strings a list of George Strait song to document his heartbreak that is more personal and endearing. McCreery was last on here in 2019 at #64 with "This Is It".
#38 - "2Step" - Ed Sheeran featuring Lil' Baby
from the album Equals (=) (2021)
Highest rank: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Hot 100 peak: #48
Pop Airplay peak: #14
Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #28
Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #11
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #36
British Singles Chart peak: #9
Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Louis Bell, Andrew "Watt" Wotman, David Hodges
Sheeran recorded versions of this throbbing pop/rap song with featured artists from around the world, including Ukrainian band Antytila, but it was the single mix for radio with rapper Lil' Baby that won the most listens. The haunting music video was shot in Kyiv, however, before the invasion of the country by Russia. Last year Sheeran was at #90 with "Afterglow", along with two other tracks from his = album that will be coming up (one real soon).
#37 - "Bones" - Imagine Dragons
from the album Mercury Acts 1 & 2 (2022)
Highest rank: #4 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 19
Hot 100 peak: #47
Pop Airplay peak: #21
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #20
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #10
Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #10
Billboard Alternative Rock Airplay peak: #2
British Singles Chart: #51
Songwriters: Imagine Dragons (Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman), Mattman & Robin (Matthias Larsson, Robin Fredriksson)
The band people music snobs love to hate (like the new Nickelback) delivered the second part of their Mercury opus this year, and this rhythmic rocker was more nuanced than people gave credit for. The group was on my list last year with two songs from "Part 1", "Follow You" at #4 and "Wrecked" at #83.
#36 - "One Mississippi" - Kane Brown
from the album Different Man (2022)
Highest rank: #5 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 17 (was on for four weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #36
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Kane Brown, Jesse Frasure, Levon Gray, Ernest K. Smith
Brown, who was on the 2020 list twice with "Homesick" at #36 and "Cool Again" at #88, returned after a year out with this driving midtempo track about knowing when your hook-up soulmate is going to show.
#35 - "Freedom Was A Highway" - Jimmie Allen and Brad Paisley
from the album Bettie James (Gold Edition) (2021)
Highest rank: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 16 (was on for eight weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #45
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Jimmie Allen, Ash Bowers, Matt Rogers
Jimmie Allen brings on trad-country veteran Brad Paisley for this nostalgic country-rock number that paints pictures in your mind with ease. Allen was last here on the 2020 year-end list with "Make Me Want To" at #93.
#34 - "Wasted On You" - Morgan Wallen
from the album Dangerous: The Double Album (2021)
Highest rank: #23 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 33 (still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #9
Pop Airplay peak: #16
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #25
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #14
Country Airplay peak: #1 (three weeks)
Songwriters: Morgan Wallen, Ernest Smith (ERNEST), Josh Thompson, Ryan Vojtesak
And now for the big elephant in the room in 2022. After two publicized drunken escapades in 2020, including one the week before he was supposed to make a triumphant musical appearance on Saturday Night Live, Wallen cashed in his chance card when he was filmed using a racial epithet towards one of his drunk buddies. There was immediate outrage, and the aftereffects were swift, with radio pulling his songs from their playlists, and the industry attempting to (correctly) put him in an effective "time-out", with even his record company suspending promotion as well as his contract. He made apologies, and gave some money to some causes, and told people he was being counseled by leaders in the black community.
But while this was happening, the portion of this country (especially those still in the cult behind a certain urban corporate snake-oil salesman) loved him more because of the incident, and started to buy and stream his music in massive amounts, enough to make Dangerous the top album on the Billboard 200 in 2021 and the third biggest in 2022. Now Morgan didn't prod this reaction, but there is no denying that a large portion of people supporting him are using him as a vehicle for their prejudiced and racist thoughts, like a dogwhistle to the music industry. And after not even a year of his exile from radio, Nashville started playing his music again, and in time he was fully accepted on the forum so much that even pop stations started to play the country-rock amalgam of "Wasted On You".
And here's the dilemma. "Wasted On You" was a good song, and he hadn't prodded the fanbase he had. Radio was playing him again. I thought about other musicians who were involved with some horrid behavior. The first that came to mind is Chris Brown, who brutally attacked Rihanna back in the day, and averted any big culpability for that. Even so, his career hasn't suffered, to the point that the top R&B song of last year was his "Go Crazy". So putting that in perspective, and knowing that Wallen at least made the attempt to atone, I started to allow myself to listen again (I had bought Dangerous when it first came out before that video). And "Wasted On You" is indisputably one of the biggest singles of the year on multiple formats. I still despise the success of the album for the people who thought they were "sending a message", but Morgan as a separate entity is back on the list for the first time since 2020 when he was at #13 with "Chasing You". I still reserve my right to re-dump (his appearance at cretin Jason Aldean's concert almost did it again).
#33 - "Love Brand New" - Bob Moses
from the album The Silence In Between (2022)
Highest rank: #3 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 21
Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #3
Alternative Airplay peak: #1 (three weeks)
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Rock Airplay peak: #3
Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #11
Canadian electro-rock duo Bob Moses has a good pedigree to start with Jim Vallance the song of Jim Vallance the longtime collaborative partner of Bryan Adams. Vallance and singer Tom Howie got their big rock radio break with this propulsive dance-rock track that climbed both the rock and dance charts.
#32 - "Bad Habits" - Ed Sheeran
from the album Equals (=) (2021)
Highest rank (in 2022): #16 (was #1 for five weeks in 2021)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 28 (was on for 23 weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #2
Pop Airplay peak: #2
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Adult Top-40 peak: #1 (seven weeks)
Billboard Rhythmic Airplay peak: #24
Dance Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Fred Again (Fred Gibson), John McDaid
This song was #16 on last year's countdown, when it topped my chart for over a month, and it stayed on the list so long this time out to place still in the top-40 as well (one of three songs to do so). I still think of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" when I hear this though.
from the single (2021)
Highest rank: #7 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 26
Hot 100 peak: #50
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Sam Hunt, Chris LaCorte, Shane McAnally, Josh Osbourne
Country crossover singer Hunt, who we saw back at #79 with "Wishful Drinking" with Ingrid Andress, also comes in within the top-40 with this breezy look back at youth and old flames that's got a production that draws from the disco-infused country pop of the mid to late 1970s.
That's it for this installment - I'll return tomorrow with an alternative soul newcomer from the Internet, a revival for 90's country, and the biggest surprise on the pop charts of a year of surprises thanks to a streaming sci-fi series.
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