Twostepcub's Biggest Hits of 2022: Part Five and a Half - the "Bubbling Unders"...
We've come to the halfway mark of my countdown of the songs which made the biggest impact on my weekly chart this past year. I calculated the points for each week a song was on my list, and let the disc fall as they lay. It's time to take a breather, though, and do a quick spotlight on the songs that almost scored enough points to make the top 100 for 2022. Mind you, there were 506 songs that reached my chart in the timeframe, so these 25 should get some love, especially since some are here only because of timing; my "year" went from December 24th of last year to December 17th of 2022, so songs that had been big in between years got left, including the final #1 of the period, which is here. You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here....
#125 - "Tippa My Tongue" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
from the album Return Of The Dream Canteen (2022)
Highest rank: #25 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 15 (still charting)
The veteran funk-rock band released two albums this year, and the second produced this seemingly drug-induced jam was the looser of the singles from them.
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#124 - "Free Mind" - Tems
from the EP For Broken Ears (2020)
Highest rank: #19 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 15 (still charting)
After the success of Afrobeat artist Wizkid's "Essence", which appears on my year-end list at #65, Nigerian singer/songwriter Temilade Openiyi found herself with an delightfully unexpected hit when a track from her debut EP from 2020 went "viral" before radio picked up on it.
#123 - "With A Woman You Love" - Justin Moore
from the single (2022)
Highest rank: #35 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 19
Recreating 90's country now counts for "traditionalism", and Moore delivers the straightforward goods on this love song that tries to be tough and dramatic at least.
#122 - "AA" - Walker Hayes
from the album Country Stuff: The Album (2022)
Highest rank: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Man, this follow-up was even more polarizing that Hayes' huge hit from last year "Fancy Like" (which also "bubbled under" at #110 on the 2021 list), but I appreciated the dorky dad-humor in it.
#121 - "Crutch" - Band Of Horses
from the album Things Are Great (2022)
Highest rank: #20 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 12 (was on for four weeks in 2021)
This #1 Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A, or "hipster rock") airplay hit reminded me of early guitar-dominant New Order singles.
#120 - "Fall In Love" - Bailey Zimmerman
from the EP Leave The Light On (2022)
Highest rank (in 2022): 4 (still climbing)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 11
This year saw a new crop of country music artists that instead of the regular Music Row route got huge on the interwebs on YouTube or TikTok, like Zack Bryan and Priscilla Block, but the country radio conglomerate looked down on these upstarts. Zimmerman was the first to break that ceiling, when this song went to #1 on the country airplay chart in Billboard magazine.
#119 - "The Hardest Cut" - Spoon
from the album Lucifer On The Sofa (2022)
Highest rank: 16 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022); 13 (was on for two weeks in 2021)
This alternative rock band started out in 1993, and while only lead singer Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno remain from the beginning, their youthful chunky attitude remains intact in this stomper.
#118 - "Unholy" - Sam Smith & Kim Petras
from the album Gloria (2023)
Highest rank: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 9 (still charting)
It's a shame the final #1 song on my chart before I stopped for 2022 didn't have enough points for the big list; it's really a milestone. Two LGBT artists (Sam in gay/non-binary and Kim is trans) having a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 is incredibly mindblowing, and the song is worthy of its success (though it could've used just a tad more fleshing out, but the kiddies like the short TikTok-worthy snippets). The gothic but playful soundscape is like it was ripped from the annals of a hundred different leather bars.
#117 - "You Right" - Doja Cat & The Weeknd
from the album Planet Her (2021)
Highest rank: #30 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 21 (was on for two weeks in 2021)
This space-pop track from this year's "too big to fail" artist in the record companies mind compatibly paired the gruff rap-singer with the Weeknd's ominous crooning.
#116 - "The Outside" - twenty-one pilots
from the album Scaled and Icy (2021)
Highest rank: #22 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 14 (was on for one week in 2021)
The third big hit from the duo's sixth album (the other two made last year's big chart) is headphone ear candy as its electronic bleeps and bloops carry the lyrics along like an army march.
#115 - "5 Foot 9" - Tyler Hubbard
from the album Tyler Hubbard (2023)
Highest rank: #21 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 16 (still charting)
The dual kings of bro-country, Florida Georgia Line, split this year, and Hubbard came out of the gate with this song that's less offensive than it has a right to be (maybe the lack of Brian Kelley did it).
#114 - "Best Thing Since Backroads" - Jake Owen
from the single (2021)
Highest rank: #13 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 15
Nashville B-lister Owen also delivered a song that would've been much more hokey in lesser hands, though I think that Tim McGraw would've killed this single in the early naughties. Still, the chorus on this simply soars.
#113 - "Until I Found You" - Stephen Sanchez
from the EP Easy On My Eyes (2022)
Highest rank (in 2022): #22 (one week, still climbing)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 16 (still charting)
This record seems like it was plucked from the late 50's, with its haunting but warm echoed production that was a great vehicle for newcomer Sanchez's voice. The song is getting a second chance on the radio, and has already climbed higher on its new run that its first time, and just might slip on to next year's list.
#112 - "I Don't Live Here Anymore" - The War On Drugs
from the album I Don't Live Here Anymore (2021)
Highest rank: #9 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 12 (was on for nine weeks in 2021)
This is a prime example of what I mentioned before with songs splitting their "points" between two years - this single from the Philly-based indie-rock band would've made this year's top 40 if combined. My immediate attachment to the song isn't just a little on how it sounds like Def Leppard's "Hysteria".
#111 - "Hold Me Closer" - Elton John & Britney Spears
from the album The Lockdown Sessions (Reissue Edition) (2022)
Highest rank (in 2022): 11 (one week, still climbing)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 14 (still charting)
After staging the comeback of 2021 with his mash-up collab with Dua Lipa, "Cold Heart" (which we'll see on the big list, Elton John acts as fatherly benefactor in bringing Britney Spears from imposed music purgatory with this record with Frankensteins another three of Elton's hits ("Tiny Dancer", "The One", and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"). It may be the lesser of the recycled bops, but it was nice to see Britney succeed (before she decided to Kanye herself a little on the Instagrams).
#110 - "Snap" - Rosa Linn
from the single (2022)
Highest rank (in 2022): #7 (one week, still climbing)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 12 (still charting)
2022 was full of surprises, and while the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest, "Stefania" from the Kalush Orchestra, seemed pretty preordained (although I feel still quite worthy of the prize), it was the after-contest success of the song that came in 20th in the final, that couldn't have been predicted by any bookie. The Armenian singer, who was one of the last acts announced for the competition, seemed quite unassuming in a contest full of big production and dance extravaganzas, but somehow people on the TikTok app totally independently of the worldwide show made this huge, to the point when it has been streamed more times that the other songs all put together. Incredible.
#109 - "Ghost Town" - Benson Boone
from the EP Walk Me Home (2022)
Highest rank: 22 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
This fledgling singer/songwriter also is a TikTok-fueled success, even forgoing his advancement on American Idol (perhaps to keep his rights to his songs), and it may have been a good choice, since he scored with his teen angst broken love anthem.
from the single (2021)
Highest rank: #29 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 23
It was a joy when two of my favorite artists in the British dance scene came together for this banger that lingered on British radio for months.
from the album Diplo (2022)
Highest rank: #25 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 20
DJ Diplo brings Latin Soul prince Miguel out of semi-obscurity (he hasn't had a hit and a full album since 2017) for this neo-house nugget.
#106 - "West Coast" - OneRepublic
from the single (2022)
Highest rank: #18 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 15
I think there's a competition going on between the dinosaurs of pop/rock, Maroon 5 and OneRepublic, and this year Ryan Tedder and the boys took advantage of a break on the other bands schedule and finally released this slick single that's been worked on for years. It didn't have as big of an impact as it could have since their Top Gun song "I Ain't Worried" totally eclipsed it (you'll see it on the main list).
#105 - "El Incomprendido" - Farruko, Victor Cardenas, and DJ Adoni
from the album La 167 (2021)
Highest rank: #52 (five weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 27 (was on for eight weeks in 2021)
Farruko, who bridged the gap between club mix and Latin pop with his "Pepas", took two club classics from David Guetta and Alice Deejay and inserted them into this tailgate anthem (it means "Misunderstood" in Spanish). While it didn't even make the top half of my chart, it was on there for more than half the year - if last year's points were added it would've actually made the top 100.
#104 - "Stay" - The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber
from the mixtape F*ck Love: Over You (2021)
Highest rank: #44 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 30 (was on for 20 weeks in 2021)
In the words of the late Leslie Jordan, well shiiit. Yeah, this two minute and change pop snippet was unavoidable both last year and this, and although this never entered the top-40, it stayed on the chart for 50 total weeks. Mind, Bieber is actually decent on here, competently hidden in the loud mix to the part where you have to really listen to where the Kid Laroi ends and he begins. And hell, Justin will be coming on my list, so I better get my apology in early. (If the points from the two years were added, this would've been in the top-40. Oof.)
#103 - "Brightside" - The Lumineers
from the album Brightside (2022)
Highest rank: #3 (four weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 11 (was on for eight weeks in 2021)
Yes, this song suffered the fate of riding high at the start of the new year, but the little indie-folk act that could still made the big list with this one's follow-up, and "Brightside" came so close here.
#102 - "Wild Blue" - John Mayer
from the album Sob Rock (2021)
Highest rank: #15 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 14 (was on for five weeks in 2021)
Singer/songwriter Mayer's trip back to 1982 adult-pop, Sob Rock, spun off this unassuming gem as the sixth single, but this would've ruled the pop chart back then.
#101 - "7500 OBO" - Tim McGraw
from the album Here On Earth (2020)
Highest rank: #9 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 16
At 55, Tim is the elder statesman of country music right now, and Nashville may have tried to age him off, but he proves his stamina with this top ten radio hit from his long-running sixteenth album.
Well there ya go, I'll be back on Monday to start on the top half of my 2022 countdown. See you then!
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