Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2022: Part Three - #80 to #71...
It's time for the third installment in this year's countdown of the biggest hits on my weekly music chart. You can check out part one or part two or the whole series (so far) by clicking here.
from the album SOS (2022)
Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 23
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7
Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #33
Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #1 (four weeks)
Billboard Adult R&B Airplay peak: #4
Billboard Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Official British Singles Chart peak: #38
Songwriters: SZA (Solana Rowe), Rob Bisel, Cody Fayne, Carter Lang, Dylan Patrice
It's fitting we start out with the woman who is currently ruling the charts; Jersey-born SZA's second album, SOS, made its debut this week, with twenty of its previously unreleased tracks making the Hot 100, two of them in the top ten (a feat with the glut of Christmas music at the top of the list). "I Hate U" wasn't one of them, having peaked in the top ten on the pop chart at the end of 2021, then making its way up the airplay lists where it topped the urban radio chart for a month. It's seductive and biting at the same time as she tells off an ex while making them immediately feel what they'll be missing. And while the music video of more a "visualizer", it has Lakeith Stanfield rocking a harness for the straightys.
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#79 - "Wishful Drinking" - Ingrid Andress featuring Sam Hunt
from the album Good Person (2022)
Highest rank: #10 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 18 (so far, still charting)
Hot 100 peak: #47
Billboard Country Airplay peak: #4
Songwriters: Ingrid Andress, JP Saxe, Lucky Daye, Jonny Price, Ryan "Rykeyz" Williamson
This is the second time country singer/songwriter Andress has appeared on my year-end chart; she placed at #33 in 2020 with her breakthrough single "More Hearts Than Mine". "Wishful Drinking" pairs her up with country crossover hunk Hunt, who was on that 2020 list at #29 with "Hard To Forget" and #81 with "Kinfolks" (he almost made the 2021 list at #119 with "Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90's"). Here she wrestles with her unsober mind about her ex and how it takes the sauce to make her think it'll work out. Hunt appears almost like a mental image in the affair, but there's no happy ending with this one.
#78 - "Last Night Lonely" - Jon Pardi
from the album Mr. Saturday Night (2022)
Highest rank: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Hot 100 peak: #27
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Jimi Bell, Joe Fox, Dylan Marlowe
On the other hand, country traditionalist Pardi rocks out while starting up hopefully long-term fling at the bar. It's appropriate that the video for the song about taking a chance is shot in Fremont Street in Las Vegas. Pardi was on the countdown last in 2020 with his "Heartache Medication" at #54 and as a guest on Thomas Rhett's "Beer Can't Fix" at #51.
#77 - "My Love" - Florence + The Machine
from the album Dance Fever (2022)
Highest rank: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay peak: #6
Billboard Alternative Rock Airplay peak: #10
Billboard Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) Rock Airplay peak: #1 (four weeks)
British Singles Chart peak: #51
Songwriters: Florence Welch, Dave Bayley
Returning after four years (their song "Hunger" was #96 on my 2018 recap), Florence Welch and her band collaborate with Dave Bayley from Glass Animals, who are now white-hot from their success on "Heat Waves", but this doesn't sound like single at all. Instead, Welch howls over the wall of sound that is quite reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan's earlier dance-rock material.
#76 - "Light Switch" - Charlie Puth
from the album Charlie (2022)
Highest rank: #6 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Hot 100 peak: #27
Pop Airplay peak: #11
Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #13
Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #9
Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #21
British Singles Chart peak: #25
Songwriters: Charlie Puth, Jacob Kasher, Jake Torrey
Another singer back from 2018 is Charlie Puth, who was on that year's list three times with "How Long" at #27, "Done For Me" with Kehlani at #37, and "The Way I Am" at #84. Since then he acquired a sense of humor enough to know that he can win by poking fun at himself, as this self-help story proves. This, plus the 80's vibe in the production, got our approval.
from the album Red (Taylor's Version) (2021)
Highest rank: #8 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 14 (was on for two weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #45
Pop Airplay peak: #17
Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #11
Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #10
Songwriters: Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Karl "Shellback" Shuster
After her triumphant two-album indie-folk detour that had "Willow" at #12 on last year's recap, Taylor prevailed over scumbag former label CEO's Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, re-recording two of her previous albums completely and releasing them both in 2021 and both going to #1 on the Billboard 200. Each of these were padded with extra tracks that originally didn't make the single-disc original versions, and for 2012's Red, the Max Martin and Shellback-assisted track "Message In A Bottle" was offered up to radio. It's definitely got the Swedish pop masters' stamp on it, while Swift gives this one her all to prove its worthiness in her mainstream canon.
#74 - "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" - Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde
from the album 29: Written In Stone (2021)
Highest rank: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Hot 100 peak: #63
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde, Shane McAnally
Duets of female country music singers portraying the wife and mistress have been done before (most notably Reba McEntire and Linda Davis' "Does He Love You"), but instead of measuring their relationships, this one has Carly and Ashley both getting played by the man unbeknownst to them until that point, and the pain each portrays in their vocals is just damn heartbreaking. Simply tearfully beautiful, and it gave McBryde her first top ten radio hit and #1, in a year that she released one of the best country albums of the year with Lindeville which radio ignored. In 2020 Pearce was at #34 with another collaborator, Lee Brice, on "I Hope You're Happy Now".
#73 - "Circles Around This Town" - Maren Morris
from the album Humble Quest (2022)
Highest rank: #6 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 17
Hot 100 peak: #52
Country Airplay peak: #9
Songwriters: Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd, Julia Michaels, Jimmy Robbins
The singer who straddles the country and pop world with ease went back, back, back to her roots on this autobiographical song about making it in the cutthroat Nashville music business world. the track's production is organic and laidback, yet her vocal performance is emphatic in her desire to get her point across. It's a damn shame that she's gotten a raw deal from country radio these days, no doubt a silent "semi-blacklisting" after Maren stood up to Jason's Aldean's taintstain of a second wife (the one he cheated with on the first) for her transphobic remarks in the social media, but proved she is a true ally by using the publicity in douchecanoe Tucker Carlson calling her a "lunatic country music person" to sell T-shirts to benefit the LGBT group GLAAD. Morris was all the way up at #10 on my 2020 list with "The Bones".
#72 - "Pressure" - Ari Lennox
from the album Age/Sex/Location (2022)
Highest rank: #17 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 19 (was on for two weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #66
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #2
Adult R&B peak: #1 (three weeks)
Songwriters: Ari Lennox (Courtney Salter), Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Johnta Austin, Anthony Parrino, Jai'Len Josey
After a debut album and three EPs, neo-soul newcomer Lennox finally gets her breakthrough this year with this jam that samples a top-20 hit from Shirley Brown and shows producer and co-writer Jermaine Dupri still has some juice in him. But it's Ari's show, and she makes this retro yet in the moment at the same time.
#71 - "You Should Probably Leave" - Chris Stapleton
from the album Starting Over (2020)
Highest rank: #4 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 14 (was on for five weeks in 2021)
Hot 100 peak: #28
Country Airplay peak: #1 (one week)
Songwriters: Chris Stapleton, Ashley Gorley, Chris DuBois
The current critics' darling of country music (for good reason) scored his second #1 radio hit with this bluesy song. Most of us have been there, reuniting with an ex for a night for better or worse, and this does it with heart and humor. Chris was on my 2021 list with "Starting Over" at #44.
I'll be back tomorrow with ten more, including country music's big wedding proposal, a test for your speakers, and a former Disney princess goes dark.
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