I’ve been spending a lot of time on www.besteveralbums.com, and I’ve posted my top 100 albums.
After 12 months and hours of listening, I have distilled the 460 songs that were new in 2011 (plus a few from 2010 that peaked in 2011) to the 40 best. Using a Casey Casem-esque countdown procedure (also to honor the #20 song on the list) here they are.
# 41 was “Friday” by Rebecca Black.
I’ve been thinking about the Best of 2011. The year isn’t over yet, so I can’t reveal the final winners at this time.
However, here is a list of the songs that I, at this time, think are the best of each year. I imagined having a conversation with someone, who asked me what the single best song of each year was. My answers follow.
As usual, we start with the songs already on the Best Of All Time List:
And now the best song of 1993:
Spin Doctors — Two Princes
This song would have been on the Best of All Time list a long time ago, but I didn’t know the title, I just loved the song. The backing music, drumming especially, and the vocals blend to an amazing degree throughout the song, but on these five lines:
“Marry him, or marry me / I’m the one that loves you baby, can’t you see / I ain’t got no future or family tree, but / I know how a prince and lover ought to be / I know how a prince and lover ought to be”
During those five lines, Aaron Corness is the Best Drummer in the World.
Runners up:
Duran Duran–Ordinary World
Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince–Boom! Shake the Room
Before Will Smith was a huge movie star, he was the Fresh Prince, who made this amazing song.
Quarter-Finalists:
Honorable Mention
In 1994, something happened that I thought would happen much more often, but I had to go all the way back to 1994 to see it. The same song won for both US and UK.
Now, given that there is some overlap between US hits and UK hits, one would expect that the best of one would be the best of the other. But when I’m listening to a set of songs that were hits in the UK, several things change the nature of the game. First, American songs I’ve heard and evaluated when I did the US side, so I’m less interested in evaluating them, which tends to count against them. Second, there is less overlap than one would expect, and that means that a song from one is competing with a different field. Third, when I’m listening to the British songs, I try to listen with British ears. Being an American, I don’t need to adjust when I’m listening to American songs, but when I listen to songs that were hits in the UK, I try to get in touch with my inner Englishman. This works in favor of the British songs that I liked when I listened to the American songs. Also, songs that are that much better than their field are probably on the Best Of All Time list already. Finally, during this period there were many great American songs that weren’t hits according to Billboard because they were not released as singles; the British chart company has no such restriction.
Best of 1994, UK: Always by Erasure.
Always by Erasure dominated its field on both sides, and it will be added to the Best of All time list as number 645. I thought about fast tracking it to the list before the results were in, but I wanted to see how it turned out.
Runners up:
Sixth finalists:
Monthlies:
I’m hoping the “better late than never” maxim applies here. But I think I’ve finally got a good final list.
Songs that I’ve already reviewed I’ve linked to earlier reviews. As to the rest, I only reviewed them if I had something to say.
Anyway, here it is.
1. Miranda Lambert–Only Prettier (#61. Dec 4, 2010.).
2. Glee Cast–River Deep Mountain High (#41. Oct. 30, 2010.)
Let me explain a little about how I work. Each week I select certain songs (according to a complicated rotation algorithm) for comparisons. New songs are heard automatically. The songs are placed in pairs, and the song I like best moves on to the next round.
River Deep Mountain High was one of Glee Cast’s weekly flash hits. But I loved it. It kept winning, no matter what I compared it to (except Only Prettier, and not always then). The Glee cast version is a duet between Naya Rivera and Amber Riley (Santana & Mercedes), the best song they’ve done so far.
3. Ke$ha–Take It Off (#8. Sept 11, 2010.).
4. Flo Rida–Club Can’t Handle Me (#9 Sept. 25, 2010.)
5. John Mayer–Heartbreak Warfare (#34. March 27, 2010)
6. Orianthi–According To You (#17. March 6, 2010)
7. Selena Gomez & the Scene–A Year Without Rain (#35. Sept 25, 2010)
8. Blake Shelton–Hillbilly Bone (#40. March 20, 2010)
9. Disturbed–Another Way to Die (#81. July 3, 2010)
10. Artists for Haiti–We Are the World 25 (#2. Feb. 27, 2010)
11. Glee Cast–Marry You
If River Deep Mountain High was Glee Cast’s best record, Marry You was their best ensemble piece. Every member of the cast gets a moment, a line to sing. The song was an album track from Bruno Mars’ 2010 album Doo Wops & Hooligans; it (the Bruno Mars song) has since become a minor hit for the Smeezington. Now, Mr. Mars has an amazing voice, but when all of the amazing voices combined, it was truly wonderful.
12. Linkin Park–The Catalyst (#27. Oct 2, 2010)
The aural impression made is that of a concert where there is only an organist on stage. Then the drummer joins. Then the band comes walking down a long tunnel, with the reverb bouncing of the sides of the tunnel. They sing that way for about ninety seconds, and then the keyboards and drums let loose and the band comes out into the open and everything is bigger in the huge arena.
13. Lady Gaga—Telephone (#3. April 4, 2010)
14. Dierks Bentley–Up On the Ridge (#99. July 24, 2010)
I got to admit, I’m a sucker for good bluegrass. And there’s so little of it in pop music. Up on the ridge, although a flash hit, stuck with me, and I kept coming back to it.
15. Sara Bareilles–King of Anything (#32. Sept. 25, 2010)
16. Shakira f/ Freshleyground–Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (#38. July 3, 2010)
17, Little Big Town–Little White Church (#59. Sept 11, 2010)
18. Florence + the Machine–Dog Days Are Over (#21. Oct 2, 2010)
Music can remind of emotions long forgotten. This is nothing new, everyone knows this. But Dog Days Are Over provokes an emotion I haven’t felt since I was a child. The joy of just running. I’m not a fan of exercise generally. But when I was young, and I would run, I would feel like I could fly for those few seconds before my legs and lungs got tired. But looking back I don’t remember the tired, but I do remember the flying. But I had not thought about it for years until Florence commanded “Run fast for for your mothers, run fast for your fathers. Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers.”
19. My Darkest Days–Porn Star Dancing (#90. Nov 6, 2010)
20. OneRepublic—Secrets (#21. Oct 23, 2010)
21. Katy Perry–Circle the Drain (#58. August 28, 2010)
22. B.o.B. f/ Rivers Cuomo—Magic (#10. Sept. 4, 2010)
23. Rascal Flatts–Unstoppable (Olympic Mix) (#52. March 6, 2010)
24. Miley Cyrus–When I Look At You (#16. April 17, 2010)
25. Three Days Grace—Break (#73. Jan 9, 2009)
26. Pink–Raise Your Glass (#1. Dec. 11, 2010)
27. Nelly–Just a Dream (#3. Oct 23, 2010)
28, Selena Gomez & the Scene—Naturally (#29. Jan. 30, 2010)
29. Michael Buble—Hollywood (#55. Sept. 25, 2010)
30. Rob Thomas—Someday (#59. April 17, 2010)
31. Juarin Bieber—Baby (#5. Feb. 6, 2010)
32. Reba–Turn On Your Radio (#53. Dec. 25, 2010)
33. Charice—Pyramid (#56. May 29, 2010)
34. Ne-Yo–Beautiful Monster (#53. August 7, 2010)
35. Travie McCoy f/ Bruno Mars—Billionaire (#5. June 26, 2010)
36. Spose–I’m Awesome (#37. April 24, 2010)
37. Bruno Mars–Just the Way You Are (#1. Oct. 2, 2010)
38. Nicki Minaj f/ Eminem–Roman’s Revenge (#56. Nov 20, 2010)
39. Maroon5—Misery (#14. Oct 9, 2010)
40. Zac Brown Band f/Alan Jackson–As She’s Walking Away (#34. Nov. 20, 2010)
I have finished sorting out the best song of 2010 in the United Kingdom. I was able to finish this earlier than the US list mainly because only the Top 15 per week (to be Top 20 in 2011) were considered, so there were fewer songs to worry about–183 compared to 453 in the United States.
The best song was
Lamar–The Way Love Goes (February 21, #8)
This was a soulful tune, produced in such a way to give it a lot of space, like he was singing in an indoor swimming pool enclosure. And the band rocks. An ordinary pop song, done extraordinarily well.
Third-finalists:
Sixth-finalists
This was a mashup of Queen’s Under Pressure and Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby, which sampled the bass line from Under Pressure. Jedward sang most of it, and Vanilla came in for the last couple verses of the Ice Ice Baby part.
This song peaked at #4 in May in Britain and later hit the charts in the United States. It’s still there, at its peak position of #16 on the Hot 100.
Monthlys:
In the United States, it went to #1 in October, 2009.
While I’ve been working on my end-of-year best of 2010, I made enough progress on the 1994 US songs to finish that.
The top 6:
These were already in the BOAT list. And now, the newest candidate for BOATitude:
Erasure–Always
I’ve read a little bit about Erasure, and it seems clear that their two greatest hits were Always and Breathe (see Best of 2005-UK). Both songs climbed to the top of their respective years.
1994 Finalists:
Semi-finalists
Quarter-finalists
Previously, on Pop Songs and Other Lists:
At the end of 2008, as I was compiling my list of best songs, as far as I was concerned the best song was clearly No Air, by Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown. Similarly, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga was not only clearly the best song of 2009, but I’d put among the Top 10 of the last twenty years.
However, 2010 has no such front-runner, which makes my year-end list a little more interesting to compile. At this writing (around noon on New Years’ Eve, 2010), I don’t know what will end up at the top of the list.
Will it be one of the newer African-American crooners like Flo Rida (Club Can’t Handle Me), B.o.B (Magic). Taio Cruz (Dynomite) or Bruno Mars (Just the Way You Are)? Perhaps one of the young country singers like Taylor Swift (Mine, Fearless) Miley Cyrus (When I Look at You), or Miranda Lambert (Only Prettier). Not to mention Up on the Ridge by Dierks Bently; Little White Church by Little White Town, or Hillbilly Bone by Blake Shelton.
It’s even possible that Glee Cast, which produced some really enjoyable songs this year, will reach the top with River Deep Mountain High or Marry You. It could be a Heavy Metal flash hit like Three Day’s Grace’s Break or Disturbed’s Another Way to Die or even Katy Perry’s Circle the Drain.
This is not meant to be an exaustive list, but here’s a few more. We Are the World 2010. Selena Gomez’s Naturally and A Year Without Rain. Sara Bareilles’ King of Anything. Orianthi’s According to You. Ke$ha’s Take It Off. Nelly’s Just a Dream. Maybe Lady Gaga will return to the top of the year-end list with Telephone or Alejandro.
In the UK, there were several great songs that did not chart in America. Lemar’s The Way Love Goes. Plan B’s She Said. Alexander Burke’s Start Without You. Eliza Doolittle’s Pack Up. Diana Vicker’s My Wicked Heart. Again, not an exhaustive list.
I will keep you informed as I go through my winnowing process. Maybe I’ll make it a Playoff once I get down to 32. We’ll see.
Here’s what I’ve got in my Best of Christmas playlist. The songs are listed in no particular order. Years are given when I was able to find them.
Merry Christmas from the Listmeister.
Pop Songs and Other Lists 