The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- Another monster week on streaming for Roddy Ricch, although it is actually down from last week, but only 3 percent to 75 million U.S. streams. Does that mean the song has plateaued on streaming? Perhaps. But with streaming totals that high, it doesn't matter because nothing is close to it right now. Sales were also down and radio rose 38 percent, but said radio and sales are a very small percentage of the song's chart points as this is a streaming heavy song at the moment. Of note, there isn't yet an official music video for this song. Whenever Roddy's team decides to release that, the streaming could actually go up again. 2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- It makes me sad that this is still at No. 2. Yes, it's down from last week across the board, but it still has enough streaming to unfortunately keep it around, which is unfortunate. No one needs anymore Future or Drake. We've had way too much of both of them. 3- "Godzilla" - Eminem featuring Juice WRLD (new) -- Juice WRLD? Eminem has dipped this low, too? That's disappointing. I don't listen to songs that feature dead rappers, regardless of how big of a role they play on this song. So I'll never cover this. 4- "Circles" - Post Malone (-1) -- Despite the three rap songs ahead of this, all boosted heavily by streaming, Post Malone is managing to stick around due to strong radio. In fact, it's still No. 1 on radio right now. As long as that stays that way, this song might stubbornly stick around. And I'm still OK with that, all things considered. 5- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-1) -- At one point I thought this had potential to go No. 1. And I was going to be fine with that. But that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. The song just never had quite enough momentum to get over the hill and now it's being held back by a trio of streaming monsters, which is insurmountable for a pop song. 6- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+1) -- This song went up a spot? That actually really surprises me. I thought it had simply got a boost thanks to Justin's new song. But now that is gone and this is still rising. It's actually kinda impressive. 7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+1) -- I suppose hanging out in the bottom half of the top 10 isn't too bad. Having this song here in the top 10 in the first place is enough cause for celebration. But I would like this to get more momentum. 8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- I'm not sure how much longer this will be around, but it's certainly had an excellent run. No tears shed for me. 9- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (=) -- Make this go away. 10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (-5) -- This falling back down to Earth was expected. Selena got a boost last week from her new album, which didn't have much of an impact on the charts. But with that out of the way, Selena goes back to barely hanging onto a spot in the top 10.
Rising on the Hot 100:
20- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard (+7) -- Not much in the rising songs section due to a double album bomb from Eminem and Mac Miller. But I'm a little annoyed that one of the songs that managed to do well in spite of the album bombs is another song from Roddy Ricch. 21- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+11) -- This, on the other hand, is great news. "Blinding Lights" is a song that deserves to be a monster hit. At first I wasn't sure if it was going to stick around, but I'm stoked that this is getting traction. 34- "Suicidal" - YNW Melly (+5) -- Make this go away. 55- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj (+14) -- Why?
New Arrivals:
3- "Godzilla" - Eminem featuring Juice WRLD -- A double album bomb this week. I'm mildly curious about Eminem, but the long list of songs to cover from him and Mac Miller is just too long right now and I have other things I feel like doing. 16- "What a Man Gotta Do" - Jonas Brothers -- I'm getting the feeling that the Jonas Brothers don't put a whole lot of effort into writing their music. Or maybe that was already common knowledge. The positives here are that this song is upbeat and catchy enough to get a pass. It's obvious that the Jonas Brothers also know exactly who their target audience and they are good at writing music that panders directly to them. But I feel like that target audience is composed of mostly teenage girls who swoon after these brothers rather easily and don't care to pay attention to the lyrics at all. Because lyrically this is the most generic pop song you can come up with, especially coming from a boy band sort of thing. This reminds me of a One Direction song, if I'm being honest. Personally I'd like to see the Jonas Brothers put a little more effort into creating a song that that actually has some meaning to it rather than coming up with yet another empty pop song that will be huge for five seconds, then disappear into oblivion, never to be heard of again. But given that I'm obviously not the target audience here, what does my opinion really mean? Sure, I liked "Sucker." But I feel like ever since they released "Sucker," all they've done is try to re-write "Sucker" over and over and frankly I'm kinda bored. But if all the girls love it, they did their job, right? 28- "Darkness" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 31- "Those Kinda Nights" - Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 36- "Unaccomodating" - Eminem featuring Young M.A -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 38- "Blue World" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 48- "Circles" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 52- "You Gon' Learn" - Eminem featuring Royce da 5'9" & White Gold -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 57- "Black Swan" - BTS -- Lost in the mix of all the Eminem and Mac Miller is this little Korean group called BTS. Have you heard of them? 58- "P---- Fairy (OTW)" - Jhene Aiko -- I don't care who the artist is, I'm never going to listen to a song with a title like that. 61- "Leaving Heaven" - Eminem featuring Skylar Grey -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 63- "Comlicated" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 64- "Hand Me Downs" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 67- "Premonition (Intro)" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 68- "I Can See" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 71- "In Too Deep" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 75- "Woods" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 80- "Everybody" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 83- "Marsh" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 84- "No Regrets" - Eminem featuring Don Tolliver -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 89- "Lock It Up" - Eminem featuring Anderson .Paak -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 91- "Surf" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry. 93- "Stepdad" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it. 100- "That's On Me" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- Why in the name of everything good in the world does Roddy Ricch have 77.2 million U.S. streams with this song this week? And why have we decided to knight him a superstar in the rap world? I don't understand. With streaming totals that high, and sales and radio also on the rise, this ain't going anywhere anytime soon, which upsets me. But oh well. At least the song stopped Future and Drake from getting a No. 1 hit this week. The last thing we all need is more of those two in our lives. 2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (new) -- Seriously, I thought we were done with Future? I thought we left him in the past as an unfortunate mistake in the music industry, especially since he's directly responsible for mumble rap becoming a monster success as the worst form of rap. Usually songs with high debuts fall in their second weeks. And while I hope that's the case here, anything with the name Drake on it tends to stick around. So unfortunately I don't think this is going anywhere. Normally I'd say on a new arrival that debuts in the top 10 that my opinion is down below, but do you really expect me to care at all about a new Future song? 3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- Impressively Post Malone manages to stick around here at No. 3. I keep thinking this song is going to start falling, but it looks like it's stubbornly sticking around, so who knows when it's actually going to fall. 4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- Never in my life have I been cheering so hard for a Maroon 5 song to do better. But considering what's currently poisoning our top two, a surprisingly good Maroon 5 song would be more than welcome in my books. 5- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (+5) -- I wasn't exactly sure how high Selena was going to jump this week, but I knew the release of her new album "Rare," which impacts the charts this week, was going to give this a boost. And now Selena rightfully takes her spot in the top five. Unfortunately with the boost from the album bomb set to wear off next week, this will probably come toppling down again come next week. 6- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- Another song that's stubbornly sticking around. And I'm fine with that. I never jumped on the hate bandwagon for this song, nor did I ever really understand said hate. This is a good song. 7- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (-2) -- After a momentary boost due to the arrival of Bieber's new song, "10,000 Hours" falls back down this week. Although it didn't fall as hard as I thought it would. And now the song is currently in front of the other Bieber song from last week. 8- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (-1) -- Why is this not rising higher? If this ends up being the top of song that gets stuck in the bottom half of the top 10 before eventually falling out, I'm going to be a bit upset. Why are we letting the likes of Roddy Ricch and Future rule when we have a fun song like this ready to explode? 9- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (=) -- I'm glad that this song has fallen back down to nearly disappearing from the top 10, but let's officially push this all the way out, please? 10- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber (-8) -- Given how poor the quality of this new Bieber song is, I really hope this is the last ever week for the song in the top 10.
Rising on the Hot 100:
27- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard (+8) -- It's a bit weird that my highest rising song is No. 27. But yeah, they all got stuck. Plus there is three new debuts in the top 20. It's also really annoying when there's only one good song on the whole list. And it certainly isn't this one. No surprise there, right? 32- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+7) -- Here's our good song! Again, as a recap, this made my list of one of my top 10 favorite songs of 2019. It has all the ingredients to become a smash hit, so I'm glad The Weeknd's team is realizing this song's potential and giving it a good push instead of that "Heartless" nonsense. 69- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj (+18) -- This is crap. 77- "Say So" - Doja Cat -- This is crap. 79- "Makes No Sense" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+17) -- This is crap. 84- "All Dat" - Moneybagg Yo & Mgan Thee Stallion (+15) -- This is crap.
New Arrivals:
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake -- I'm not in the mood to cover a Future and Drake song, especially since I know exactly what these two bring to the table. 16- "Sum 2 Prove" - Lil Baby -- This honestly took me a second to realize what the title meant. "Something to Prove." Well, the only thing that Lil Baby needs to prove to me is how to speak the English language because he failed with this title. Also, his songs are garbage. So I'm going to pass and hope that the world overcomes their obsession with the untalented Lil Baby that seems to act his name. 17- "Good News" - Mac Miller -- I'm sorry, Mac Miller is dead. And that is awful. But the rap industry needs to stop clinging onto dead rappers in order to cash in on their death. It's disgusting. I don't know if that's the case here or if this is an honest tribute to a late artist, but either way I have a rule that I don't cover songs from dead rappers, so we're going to move on, which is something the rap industry needs to do as well. 29- "You should be sad" - Halsey -- In better news, it's Halsey vs. Selena this week as both have new debuts on the charts. Halsey's third album "Maniac" was released on January 17, meaning the full impact will be next week, but "You should be sad" gets a week's head start on all of that. In the intro to the album on Apple Music, she specifically says that not every song is about her break-up with G-Eazy. But this one has to be, right? It's a bitter breakup song where Halsey is acting like a typical drama queen in post breakup mode. Despite obviously having strong feelings for the guy during the relationship, the vibe here is that she's yelling at him for being an atrociously awful human being who can't truly love and can't do anything right, while taking no responsibility for herself. Granted, I couldn't care less about specifics with Halsey and G-Eazy's relationship. I certainly know that he's a piece of junk when it comes to his musical talent, so maybe that reflects in his personal life as well, giving Halsey justification to be upset. But I don't know, with this song I feel like I got trapped in between an argument between a recently broken up couple and it's a bit uncomfortable. But despite me obviously not being super impressed with the lyrical content here, musically this is rather enjoyable. I like the use of the guitar combined with the constant beat during the verses, which then erupts during the chorus. And Halsey's voice connects well with all of that, so overall I'd say this is acceptable. 30- "Rare" - Selena Gomez -- While Halsey's "Maniac" album impacts the charts next week, Selena's new album, which was released on January 10, impacts the charts this week. But unfortunately for Selena, all that meant was a boost in the top 10 for "Lose You to Love Me" and one new arrival. But that's OK. Not everyone has to have their own album bomb. There's too many of those anyways. Eventually I do want to check out Selena's album, but for now "Rare" is the lead-off track to the album. And without any knowledge right now of what comes after it on the album, I'd say this is a good intro song. It's actually very similar to Halsey's song that I just talked about, but Selena is less specific in her lyrical content which is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it feels less like I got stuck in between the argument of a bitter couple as it's geared more towards a broad audience. But on the other hand, being less specific means it feels more generic. A slightly disposable pop song that could've been sung by anyone. But I think Selena has enough charisma to pull off a simple pop song like this. The beat is catchy enough and her delivery is on point. I hope that the remaining songs on the album have a bit more substance to them and make better use of Selena's talents. But as I said, this is a solid start to the album that leaves me wanting more. 83- "Eleven" - Khalid -- And in much less interesting news than our two female pop singers, we have Khalid, an artist who typically needs a bit of help from others to steer him in the right direction because when he's on his own he typically wanders aimlessly, which is exactly what happens here. This song isn't bad by any means. I think he's trying to be smooth and relaxing as he's singing about driving around at night with this girl, but most of his lyrics are a bit too slurred for my liking and the song doesn't really have any groove to it, nor does it feel unique or special at all. It's at least as generic as Selena's new song, but with a lot less energy and passion. Khalid commits one of the more serious sins in the musical world here of simply being boring and forgettable. 86- "Conversations in the Dark" - John Legend -- In a slightly weird coincidence, here's our second song in a row about being with a girl late at night. And even though the songs are fairly similar in terms of content, John Legend is miles ahead of Khalid in terms of vocal talent. While Khalid stumbles his way through a song that he didn't seem to care much about, John Legend delivers his confident, poised vocal prowess that's extremely pleasing for the ears. Thus we have two clear examples of the importance of execution. Even if you don't have a particularly great song on your hands, own up to it and give it everything you've got. No, this isn't anywhere close to the top tier of John Legend's material. And I'm not convinced that this is going to be a huge hit with the public. But it's nevertheless a pleasant experience that I don't think I'll ever turn away from if it starts playing when I'm around. 89- "Protect da Brand" - Moneybagg Yo featuring DaBaby -- No. Just... no.
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (+2) -- I'm not too terribly surprised here. "The Box" has been surging on streaming ever since its release and has now accumulated 68.2 million U.S. streams this week, which is a 60 percent increase from last week. And it's done this without an official video, which means this could be a streaming monster for weeks and weeks. At some point, it's going to have to get some sales and radio to go along with that, but until then the streaming is strong enough to hold this one up. I'm not really sure why the hip-hop world has started salivating all over themselves after hearing this song, which really isn't that good nor unique, but I suppose this is better than having "Roxanne" at No. 1, which is what I initially was thinking would take over for "Circles" following the end of the holiday season. 2- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber (new) -- I'll give my thoughts on this song below, but for now I'll just mention that Bieber had an excellent debut on sales (No. 1) and streaming (No. 2) and not a bad week on radio (No. 10). But those numbers are going to come crashing down next week. At least with those sales. Then Bieber will need to show traction on the charts after that for this to become a true hit. Quite frankly, I hope it doesn't. 3- "Circles" - Post Malone (-2) -- "Circles" has had a decent run at the top of the charts, but suffered a bit from unlucky timing around the holiday season and now gets pushed down again after a brief return. With Bieber set to tumble, this could go back up. 4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-2) -- I'm a tad bit surprised that this song got bullied out of the way. I would easily rather have this at No. 1 than "The Box" and I thought it had enough consistency to at least get ahead of "Circles." But it did not. 5- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+4) -- Whoa! I'm guessing that this song got a residual boost from Bieber's debut? Or maybe Bieber fans needed a palette cleanser after listening to Bieber's new song. 6- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- After a brief return to the top five last week, Lewis gets bullied back out thanks to Bieber. Honestly I don't really expect this to go back even though both Bieber songs will tumble next week. It seems like it's ran its course and is now ready to slowly disappear. 7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- Consistency is good. Now let's hope this song can take advantage of the slightly shaky songs ahead of it and become a monster hit! 8- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (-2) -- This has also seemed to have already ran its course and probably won't be here for too much longer. But both Lizzo and Lewis Capaldi were welcome entries to the top 10 and I hope they get good replacements. 9- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (-4) -- It makes me really happy that, after last week's unimpressive performance, "Roxanne" is now looking like its ready to plummet. Which is fantastic. Hip-hop fans have appeared to have already moved onto the next useless hip-hop song, meaning the whole world will forget this ever existed soon. 10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (=) -- Selena has a new album out that should be impacting the charts next week. I don't know how big it will be or if Selena will get many new tracks to chart, but at the least I'm expecting this song to get a boost next week and soar up charts a bit. I'm not sure how big it will get, but there's enough weak songs in the top 10 right now for this to do some real damage.
Rising on the Hot 100:
14- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+7) -- Can we please get Dua Lipa in the top 10? I really enjoy this song. This month I was going through all my favorite charting songs of 2019 in order to create my top 10 list that I posted on Monday. While this one didn't make the cut, it was a strong contender during my ranking process. So if we're going to start replacing some of the 2019 songs, this would be a solid replacement. 16- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+3) -- Speaking of my top 10 music list, this song was the last song left out, coming in at No. 11 as the top honorable mention. And it broke my heart that it couldn't fit in. The journey for this song has been a rather long one, meaning I don't know how much this really has left in the tank, but if it could manage to sneak into the top 10 for at least a week or two, that would be cool. But I'm not crossing my fingers as this might be destined to peak here in the teens, which is not bad for a smaller song like this from an otherwise unknown group. 17- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+3) -- No, let's not let this one back in the top. The Weeknd has another song that is miles better. And thankfully its actually doing rather well. So let's continue to build that one and simply forget this song ever existed. 19- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+4) -- 2019 was a great year for Billie as she had two songs in my top 10 list and six more in the honorable mentions section. This here was one of the stronger honorable mentions of the Billie songs and thus it would be excited if it could maintain some traction and get Billie another monster hit. Although admittedly it's not the most mainstream thing. But hey, Billie has so far made a living off of convincing the world to love her weird, unconventional music that I really love, so why can't this be another big hit? 22- "Woah" - Lil Baby (+5) -- Yeah, whoa is right. Let's not get this one any higher. Although typing this up is making me realize that Lil Baby doesn't know how to spell whoa right. Because, yes. It is spelled with the "h" before the "o." Not that I expect rappers to know how to spell since most of them probably flunked elementary school. But I still feel obligated to point out their continued incompetence with this thing called English when they don't know how to do it right. 24- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+11) -- Can Harry Styles actually gain traction with a song from his album? He's been unable to do that so far, but we'll see if that changes. This song isn't the best song from the album, but I'll accept it. 26- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+10) -- Good for Maren! I like me female country singers, so seeing one of them doing really well is encouraging. Nashville needs to accept more of them into their regular radio rotation instead of over-promoting so many lazy and untalented male country singers. 30- "Futsal Shuffle 2020" - Lil Uzi Vert (+14) -- Gross. This debuted in the top 10 and quickly plummeted, making me happy. So let's not let this get real traction. 35- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard (+35) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now? 39- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+20) -- YES!!!! Are we actually going to make this song a thing instead of The Weeknd's other lame song that his team tried to promote instead? While "Heartless" is a piece of junk, "Blinding Lights" is so good that it could not be denied a spot in my top 10, despite it being a fairly new song comparatively. So let's push this song to be the smash hit of 2020 because it absolutely deserves it. 40- "What if I Never Got Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+9) -- We're starting off on the right foot with country this week. Maren Morris is the big country riser this week and Lady Antebellum is right behind them. This is a solid song, so go country! Although I just now discovered the piano version of this song. And that version I like a whole lot more. 44- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+6) -- Please no, Camila. Your next big hit shouldn't be one that pushes DaBaby any higher. Let's leave him back in 2019 and forget that his mistake of a career ever happened. 49- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+5) -- I'm not sure why this is rising this week. I don't expect it to be here many more weeks. 56- "Start Wit Me" - Roddy Ricch & Gunna (+12) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now? 61- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B (+11) -- I suppose we're at the point where we might have to start taking this song seriously. It's not my favorite song from Ed Sheeran's collaborations, but he also has plenty worse. Ed Sheeran and Camila do have strong interplay in the song. They mesh rather well. We just have to ignore that third-verse rap feature from Cardi at the end. 69- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+12) -- Please, no. 75- "What She Wants Tonight" - Luke Bryan (+11) -- Well, I suppose it couldn't be all rainbows and butterflies with country this week, right? At least this is only at No. 75. 79- "Tip toe" - Roddy Ricch featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+10) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now?
New Arrivals:
2- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber -- I've often defending Justin Bieber as someone who has matured quite a bit after a rough start to his career. I mean, he certainly had his huge fan base, but as far as mainstream likability, he didn't quite hit that until much later. Now it comes to the point where I often can anxiously await a new Justin Bieber song. He proved most recently with his collaboration with Dan + Shay that he can still make likable music. But yikes. "Yummy" sees him digressing by about 10 years. "You've got that yummy?" I mean, really Bieber? Is yummy an adjective that any girls likes being described by. It feels more degrading to me. That aside, it also makes for a really cheesy, stupid song as he repeats yummy way too much and doesn't have anything intelligent or interesting to say on any of the verses. It just becomes extremely annoying. If Bieber has a new album coming soon, let's hope that he has some songs on there that are much better than this because this is an awful start. If this is simply a randomly released single that has nothing to do with an upcoming album, then let's just forget that this one existed and all move on with our lives. 60- "U Played" - MoneyBagg Yo featuring Lil Baby -- So many things wrong with this. And that's just when I look at the song title and artists. I'm sure it would get much worse if I actually listened to the song. Which I have no desire wasting my time doing. 70- "Sugar" - BROCKHAMPTON -- I initially thought that BrockHampton was an individual singer who had just taken his full name and removed the space to create a rap name, which is stupid. Turns out this is a group of 14 people, none of whom is named Brock Hampton. Turns out that's the name of a street that one of the members grew up on. OK. The song is not really my thing. This is a hip-hop group. And who knows, maybe if I were to dig deep I would find something good. But I'm really not that motivated at the present time because I found this song more annoying than anything, with plenty of hip-hop tropes that drive me crazy combined with an overabundance of creativity and random nonsense, like 14 people trying to create one song without any sort of unity as to what they're doing. I don't know. Maybe that's too harsh. 90- "All I Want" - Olivia Rodrigo -- We got a "High School Musical" song to chart this week. Or, rather, a song from "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," which I certainly haven't kept up with. Even if I did get my Disney+ working properly on my devices, this is probably not the series that I would be catching up on. But I'm still rather amused at the title, which gets even worse when I look at the album cover for this song: "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack." Someone had a little too much fun with that. But the song? Well, OK. But I won't dive too deep into it because I would feel obligated to know more of the context. Although after listening to the song, it probably isn't rocket science as far as what's going on here. This is a very high school themed song. Specifically it's a high school themed love song for the teenage girls watching this series. I'm not sure it's really going to connect to anyone outside that audience, but it probably wasn't trying, nor was it probably attempting to be a big Billboard hit. But I will give Olivia Rodrigo credit for having a good voice. Vocally, she nails the song. That doesn't quite make up for the juvenile love song lyrics that are overly cheesy and hard to connect with or take seriously. 93- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice -- And now we graduate from teenage love to adult love with this big boy and big girl country song. And you should know that I like my country girls, which I why I don't mind this one. Carly has a great voice and her and Lee Brice fit well together. For a while there I was thinking that she was going to give him and the other country boys a piece of their medicine by only using him for backing vocals, but he did get his own verse. And I liked the attempt at a duet. Although it still kinda does this thing where it's not much of a duet. Just two different voices taking turns singing with the same voice, if that makes sense. Carly is singing about a breakup, which she may have actually instigated, but is irritated at his poor reaction. With that, I was hoping for a bit more of a contrasting tone when Lee Brice came in, but there really wasn't one. Still not bad, though. It does get a bit too heavy, which is a common annoyance of mine with mainstream country. They always go loud and boisterous despite lyrics that would work better with music that is more stripped down. But Carly and Lee are still good enough together to cause me to be accepting of this country song. On a completely unrelated note, after listening to this song, I went and listened to "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked" because that's one of the songs that showed up in the search results of my Apple Music after searching this title. 94- "20/20" - Lil Tjay -- Nope. 95- "Say So" - Doja Cat -- Nope. 98- "ORANGE SODA" - Baby Keem -- Part of me was hoping that this was another "Baby Shark" style of kids song. I mean, who calls your song "ORANGE SODA" and hopes to be taken seriously unless the song is directed at five-year-olds? But nope. This is another trap artists thinking he's super cool with Baby in his name while releasing a song that is barely over two minutes. Yeah, I'll pass.
It's time for one of my favorite lists to do each year, my top 10 favorite songs of 2019. The first thing that I will say here is that those of you who checked out my least favorite songs of 2019 list will notice that I added an additional parameter. With that list, I said that in order to be eligible a song not only had to debut on the Hot 100 in 2019, but it also had to make Billboard's official year end Hot 100 for 2019. That's because I didn't want to filter through 200+ bad songs to come up with a silly list that 30 of my friends will quickly glance through and forget about 10 minutes later. No such additional parameter will be added to this favorite list simply because I enjoy going through all my favorite songs. There were 50+ candidates this year that I took a close look at. Yes, it took a long time to get it right. But it was an enjoyable process and I am proud of my final results. So all a song had to do in order to be eligible was to debut on the Hot 100 at some point during 2019. And it had to be a new song. Sorry, I didn't count "Jingle Bells" or "Blue Christmas," which both debuted for the first time. But everything else was fair game. So I hope you enjoy going through these songs because several of them didn't get the attention they deserved, which I think is a real shame. 10- "Miss Me More" - Kelsea Ballerini 9- "Cornelia Street" - Taylor Swift 8- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd 7- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish 6- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Niall Horan 5- "Walk Me Home" - P!nk 4- "bury a friend" - Billie Eilish 3- "homecoming queen?" - Kelsea Ballerini 2- "Soon You'll Get Better" - Taylor Swift featuring Dixie Chicks 1- "Rainbow" - Kacey Musgraves
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Circles" - Post Malone (+4) -- While some music critics and other Grinches on the internet are overjoyed with the departure of all of the Christmas music on the charts, I for one am really depressed that things have to go back to the status quo. I always love the Christmas-powered Hot 100 during the holiday season. It brings a welcome breath of fresh of air. But unfortunately the holiday season is over and the Hot 100 is all sorts of wonky this week, which is why I'm going to go through this real fast. Much to my surprise, "Circles" returns to No. 1 after a four-week interruption. Through this process it wasn't really that strong, but was consistent enough across the board to maintain its position. This week it holds steady on the radio while soaring in both sales and streaming, although the latter two are a bit of an anomaly as most songs surged in sales and streaming due to a combination of Christmas songs disappearing as well as holiday music gift cards and end-of-year playlists all contributing to the chaos. Things will settle down here in the next week or so and then we can examine closer. 2- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+7) -- I had a feeling that "Memories" was going to survive the holiday chaos, but I didn't quite expect it to shoot all the way up to No. 2 given that it was at No. 9 last week. I expected it to be at No. 4 or No. 5. But hey, I'm actually not complaining here. There's two other rap songs in the top five right now and if "Memories" can block both of them from going No. 1, that's a huge win in my book. 3- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (+10) -- The hip-hop world is absolutely obsessed with this song, so in the aftermath of all the holiday stuff, I'm not at all surprised to see this soar right into the top five. I suppose it's not the most offensive thing on Earth, so I won't complain too much at its existence. But it still has all the hip-hop tropes included that drive me crazy, so don't expect me to celebrate if it continues to surge high. At the best, this is a factory-produced hip-hop song that the world will forget existed in a year or two, like most of the rest of them that charts these days. Lucky for me, this is currently powered purely by streaming as its radio and sales numbers are currently quite miserable. Songs boosted up by streaming alone only last so long and won't hold up in the long term against songs like "Circles" and "Memories." 4- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+4) -- I don't know how much longer this song is going to be around, but for now it swings back up into the top five after getting bullied a bit by holiday music. If there's no serious competition, this might still hang around for a while. 5- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- The great news this week is that I thought "Roxanne" was going to be the song to jump to No. 1 following the disappearance of the Christmas music. But while every other song in the top 10 this week jumped at least four spaces, this only jumps up one spot. That means it had a really bad week. As I mentioned with "The Box," songs boosted solely on streaming are built on a very weak foundation and only last so long. Hopefully this is a sign that "Roxanne" won't last a whole lot longer in the top 10. 6- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+4) -- Another song that I don't think will be around for too much longer. But last week it was on the verge of getting kicked out, so it has a few more weeks to breathe. 7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+7) -- This NEEDS to become a hit in 2020. The one silver lining with the holiday songs disappearing is that the door has been left wide open for "Dance Monkey" to finally dominate. I just hope it actually continues its momentum. At the very least I think it has the potential to quickly slip ahead of the three songs immediately in front of it. 8- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (+30) -- Travis Scott has a new album out this week. That's why this song jumped up 30 spots. It'll be gone next week, though. 9- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+8) -- The last time this song was in the top 10, and I'm not sure which week that was, I mentioned that it's most likely going to continue to yo-yo up and down depending on the strength of the top 10. The song has already hit its ceiling, but it's pretty consistent still, meaning that it'll continue to show up every once in a while for the next month or so. At the very least, this will probably hang out in the teens for the next month or so. 10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (+8) -- I don't know why I was surprised to see Selena back in the top 10 this week, but it was a pleasant surprise. I just don't know what the overall strength of this song is. I hope it is able to maintain traction and become a staple in the top 10, but I genuinely have no idea if it will or not.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (+15) -- With 25 Christmas song evaporating, combined with end-of-year playlists and holiday music purchasing, nearly the entire Hot 100 showed up in this section. That means I'm going to fly through this really quickly since it took long enough to type this whole thing up. I let you look at the number of spots each song jumped up. If it rose 20 spots or more, it's actually rising. If it's an old song (like this one), the rise is only for this week and maybe for whenever the Grammys happen. Anything outside that is most likely the Hot 100 just resetting itself. We'll find out together next week what songs are actually rising. 12- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+7) -- Don't care. 13- "BOP" - DaBaby (+7) -- Go away. 14- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+9) -- Temporary rise. 15- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Bill Ray Cyrus (+19) -- Temporary rise. 16- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (+9) -- Go away. 17- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (+13) -- Go away. 18- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+17) -- This has lived out its life. We have "Good as Hell" in its place. 19- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+27) -- I want this to make a reappearance. 20- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+19) -- Don't care. His other song is better. 21- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+31) -- This is one of our real risers. And that's great news. 22- "Bandit" - Juice WRLD & YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+5) -- Go away. 23- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+18) -- I hope this somehow sticks around. 24- "Hot" - Young Thug featuring Gunna (+9) - Go away. 26- "One Man Road" - Old Dominion (+28) -- Don't care. 27- "Woah" - Lil Baby (+20) -- Go away. 30- "Even Though I'm Falling" - Luke Combs (+29) -- I'll get back to you on this one. 31- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel (+20) -- Go away. 32- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+23) -- Why is this still a thing? 33- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+17) -- Temporary rise. 34- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+23) -- Temporary rise. Most likely. 35- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+18) -- We'll see what this does in future weeks. 36- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+28) -- Go Maren Morris! 37- "Graveyard" - Halsey (+24) -- I don't know what this song is going to do. 39- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+19) -- Go away. 41- "Suicidal" - YNW Melly (+15) -- Go away fast! 45- "Juicy" - Doja Cat & Tyga (+18) -- Gross. 46- "No Idea" - Don Toliver (+14) -- No idea why people care. 49- "What If I Never Get Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+22) -- Make this a country hit. 50- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+12) -- A no from me. 51- "Ridin' Roads" - Dustin Lynch (+22) -- I'll get back to you on this. 53- "Heat" - Chris Brown featuring Gunna (+13) -- Chris Brown needs to disappear. 54- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+11) -- Temporary rise. 55- "Into the Unknown" - Idina Menzel & AURORA (+12) -- I don't mind this hanging around. 57- "VIBEZ" - DaBaby (+11) -- Go away. Make DaBaby a thing of the past. 58- "Heartache Medication" - Jon Pardi (+17) -- I'll get back to you on this. 59- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+13) -- Why is this not the big song from The Weeknd? 60- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+20) -- Boo! 61- "Remember You Young" - Thomas Rhett (+21) -- I'll get back to you on this. 63- "Take What You Want" - Post Malone featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott (+14) -- This has a surprising amount of staying power. 64- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+24) -- Go away. 66- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+20) -- The movie comes out this month, so this could do well for a few weeks. 67- "Leave Em Alone" - Layton Greene, Lil Baby, City Girls & PnB Rock (+11) -- Gross. 72- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B (+28) -- Is this going to be a thing? 73- "Slide" - H.E.R. featuring YG (+12) -- Nope. 75- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Niall Horan (+18) -- Please make this go higher! 76- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj (+22) -- Go away. 79- "Easy" - DaniLeigh featuring Chris Brown (+11) -- Chris Brown's career needs to end. 81- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+16) -- WHY THE CAPS LOCK? 85- "Enemies" - Post Malone featuring DaBaby (+14) --I forget what I think of this one.
New Arrivals:
38- "OUT WEST" - JACKBOYS featuring Young Thug -- JACKBOYS is Travis Scott, in case you were curious. The album, also titled "JACKBOYS," is a compilation album by Travis Scott and his record label, Cactus Jack Records. Why he's calling himself JACKBOYS instead of Travis Scott is beyond me. This occasionally happens in the hip-hop world and it's one of the many things that I don't understand. Four songs from this seven-track album charted this week and I'm not going to touch a single one, especially because the world is going to forget this existed come February. 48- "GANG GANG" - JACKBOYS & Sheck Wes -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album. 52- "HAD ENOUGH" - Don Toliver featuring Quavo & Offset -- Why was Takeoff not invited to this party? And why have we decided to make Don Toliver a thing? 56- "WHAT TO DO" - JACKBOYS featuring Don Toliver -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album. 69- "GATTI" - JACKBOYS, Pop Smoke & Travis Scott -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album. 70- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard -- I don't care about Roddy Ricch. Sorry. 74- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett -- Did you know "American Idol" is still going on? Yeah, Gabby Barrett placed third during season 16. Next month they will begin season 18. But not that any of that matters. The winner of the last three seasons hasn't even been able to chart a single song on the Hot 11 and it's been since Phillip Phillips in season 11 where the winner has become a star. That's why I was a bit surprised when I looked up Gabby Barrett and learned that she was from "American Idol." I used to be a huge loyalist to "American Idol," but season 10 made me so upset that I haven't watched since. In regards to Gabby Barrett, she does sound like a bit of a Carrie Underwood wannabe. But maybe that's because this song, wherein the lyrics go, "I hope he cheats" reminds me a lot of "Before He Cheats" by Carrie. The person Gabby reminded me of was Miley Cyrus with her country album. No, Gabby isn't as good as either of them. And "Before He Cheats" is miles better than "I Hope." But there's certainly a lot worse around than a B-version of Carrie Underwood. The song is in the right lane of country pop to make me satisfied. I could be like Simon Cowell and be super critical of this or I could kick back and relax and realize that this is still way better than most of the stuff on the country charts these days. I'd be happy making Gabby a thing. 84- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen -- Speaking of inferior country songs, here's one quick example. Granted, Jimmie Allen has more personality than a lot of country artists and I may even enjoyed one of his previous songs. But this is an example of an over-powered country song where the heavy beat doesn't match the tone of the lyrics, which are pretty generic in the first place. 88- "More Hearts Than Mine" - Ingrid Andress -- It's a country week on the charts with our new arrivals. And unlike the previous two, I have no idea where Ingrid Andress comes from. This is her first charting song and the internet doesn't tell me a whole lot about her. But I certainly like what I hear. This is a song that I think technically qualifies as country, but it's a lot more restrained as Ingrid focuses more on her vocal performance and delivering the message she wants to get across rather than some over-produced piece of nonsense coming straight from country pipeline. Granted, the lyrics here aren't necessarily anything super unique, but it's the approach here to the song that I really like. Whereas a lot of country songs feel like no effort was put into it, Ingrid sounds like she actually cares and has a voice that I really like. Granted, I'm a lot more forgiving towards me female country girls, but still. This stands out from the crowd and makes me want to hear more. 90- "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" - Riley Green -- In looking through all the new songs this week, I thought this song was going to be the highlight. By the title alone, it sounded like a country song that was going to cut deep and talk about something that meant something to the artists. The positive thing here is that the music isn't overpowered and Riley sounds like he cares as he gives a decent delivery. But the lyrics are just so disappointing as the song is him listing off a bunch of things that he wishes, few of which actually connect and most of which are silly. And he doesn't say the lyrics, "I wish grandpas never died" until halfway through the song. And at no point before or after does he give an emotional tribute to a grandpa. He just tacks the line on along with him wishing other random things. An unfortunate missed opportunity. 99- "Slow Dance in a Parking Lot" - Jordan Davis -- Somewhere on the charts is the song "Slow Dancing in the Dark" by Joji. In fact, I think it's one of the songs that didn't rise high enough to be included. But now we have this to team up with that as we have a multiple choice as to where we're going to dance. And with this particular song in mind, a parking lot is not going to be my personal choice since this song isn't even appropriate for a slow dance at all. Jordan Davis has a decent voice and a softer tone, but in come the heavy drums and guitars, making this song another generically-produced country song where the music doesn't care to fit the tone of what the song should be. And he's specifically talking about a Walmart parking lot in this song. I don't know if Jordan has ever been to a Walmart parking lot, but that's a parking lot that's never quiet enough to go slow dancing in. So this is yet another song that misses out on an opportunity to do something good as I think this should've been more restrained and romantic rather than being what it is. 100- "July" - Noah Cyrus featuring Leon Bridges -- In a very busy week where nearly every song on this chart made it onto my post, Miley's less talented little sister somehow snuck onto the very end. I will give Noah credit for having a decent voice. And the song is decently restrained with a simple guitar strum and some whistling. But if we're going to keep trying to make her a thing, I would love it if she would take some lessons from her older sister on how to be an interesting singer and songwriter. Because, in an attempt to be slow and restrained, this song accidentally leaves all personality by the wayside and ends up being boring and lifeless. The lyrics are uninspired and the song itself is not constructed very well. If Noah wasn't a Cyrus, I don't think she would've ever had a music career.
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!
This week will be the swan song for all of our Christmas music as the tracking for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, as well as the weekend leading up to the holiday, impacted the charts this week, which has caused quite the Christmasy Hot 100, as you're about to see. It's been fun tracking these songs all Christmas season and I look forward to next Christmas when they'll all return once again.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (=) -- See comment below. 2- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (=) -- See comment below. 3- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (+6) -- See comment below. 4- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+2) -- See comment below. 5- "Circles" - Post Malone (-2) -- Instead of trying to thinking of two things to say about our Christmas songs, I'm referring you to my Christmas songs sections for all of my comments on them. And it's such a fun week there with 25 Christmas songs on the Hot 100 and five of them in the top 10. But alas, Christmas songs can only lost for so long. Like Frosty the Snowman, they'll be back again one day. And I'm excited for this yearly tradition of Christmas songs dominating the Hot 100. But for next week, Post Malone looks to return to No. 1 as "Circles" remains the top non-Christmas song this week.
6- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (-2) -- Can Arizona Zervas leapfrog Post Malone next week and be the actual song to go No. 1 next week? I certainly hope not, but I'm guessing it has a bit more staying power given that it's the much newer song. 7- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+8) -- See comment below. 8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- With two Christmas songs passing Lewis this week, it's impressive that he managed to stay put at No. 8. That means he might jump back up to No. 3 next week. Or at least somewhere in the top five. 9- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-2) -- Maroon 5 weren't quite as lucky as Lewis Capaldi, dropping two spots this week. But I still think this song will survive next week. With Christmas songs out of the way, this should surge on the radio and might make a play for the top spot given the weaknesses of some of the songs ahead of it. 10- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (=) -- Lizzo also stays put this week. We'll see what her fate is next week as this song isn't the most stable thing right now, but I would love for it to find some consistency and stick around for a bit longer. Without the Christmas songs this week, this song would be No. 5 this week, which isn't too bad.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (+5) -- Roddy Ricch doesn't seem to be phases by the onslaught of Christmas music this week, which means he's in for a good week next week. We'll get to my thoughts on that when it actually happens. 34- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (+7) -- Nope. No other rising songs this week. If you're surprised to see "Old Town Road" back on this list this week, it's because people often give music gift cards for Christmas, which recipients of said gift cards then use to buy songs, causing a lot of the popular songs from this past year to have one final surge. That combined with radio stations playing their year end lists of the most played songs is going to cause a lot of other 2019 hits to get a good boost next week and perhaps the week after. Then we have the GRAMMYs in late January that will give another boost to old songs. Then they'll finally disappear for good.
Christmas Songs:
1- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (=) -- Mariah has achieved a huge milestone this week thanks to "All I Want for Christmas is You" celebrating a third straight week at No. 1. She now becomes the first artist in the history of the Hot 100 to have a No. 1 hit in four different decades. Because, yes, we're in 2020 now, meaning Mariah has topped the charts in the 90s, 00s, 10s and 20s. Eight other artists have been No. 1 in three different decades: Stevie Wonder (60s, 70s, 80s); Michael Jackson and Elton John (70s, 80s, 90s); Janet Jackson and Madonna (80s, 90s, 00s); and Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Usher (90s, 00s, 10s). So yeah, this is pretty huge. If Mariah wasn't already the queen of the Billboard charts, she is now. And now my personal question will be how big can this song continue to be? Will 2019 be the peak of "All I Want for Christmas is You" or is it just getting started. If this song returns to No. 1 for three or more weeks each holiday season, by the end of the 2020s, this song could be pretty high on the all-time list in terms of top Billboard songs. But I guess we'll take this one year at a time. For now, due to large streaming week with Christmas coming on a Wednesday, the song had 72.2 million U.S. streams, nearly 20 million more than the previous week. Next year, due to it being leap year, Christmas lands on a Friday, which will separate Christmas Eve and Christmas in the tracking week for streaming, which may mean this current weekly record stands for a few years. But we'll see. 2- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (=) -- Coming in right behind Mariah again is Brenda Lee, with a weekly streaming total of 65.1 million U.S. streams. I'm really happy that this fun, upbeat Christmas rock song has been accepted into our culture as an annual Christmas classic. Last week Brenda going to No. 2 made it for the first time ever that holiday songs have doubled up in the top two spots. This week that mark got doubled as the top four songs are all holiday songs, which is exciting. 3- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (+6) -- And it only makes sense that the third song right behind "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is fellow Christmas rock song, "Jingle Bell Rock." While Mariah remains the Christmas juggernaut, it brings me much joy seeing the two upbeat rock songs right behind her. For Bobby Helms, this is his first ever top five hit, marking 61 years, four months and two weeks since first arriving on the charts, which is the record for the longest wait for an artist to get a top five hit following their first appearance on the charts. This is slightly different than Brenda's record from two weeks ago as her getting to the top five with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" marked the longest journey for an individual song to get to the top five following its initial debut on the charts. Chart records for everyone this holiday season. All records being pretty significant. In terms of its weekly streaming total, "Jingle Bell Rock" had 54.4 million U.S. streams. 4- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+2) -- And wrapping up the top four streak for Christmas songs is Burl Ives, with 53.2 million U.S. streams. Yup, that's four different Christmas songs getting at least 50 million U.S. streams this week thanks to Christmas. This is impressive. I'm a bit nervous to see what the top five or top 10 will look like next week when all these songs disappear. 7- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+8) -- While Andy Williams didn't quite get enough streams to help Christmas songs completely monopolize the top five (41.1 million U.S. streams - still impressive), it's arrival in the top 10 sets the record for most Christmas songs in the top 10 at the same time, that being five. And we got really close to having two more in the top 10 as well. 11- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+6) -- I was rooting for "Last Christmas" to crack the top 10 this year, but alas it'll have to wait another year to see if it can qualify. While not everyone is on board with loving this song, it is nevertheless a fun Christmas song that has a different twist on it than your typical Christmas song as a bitter, salty Christmas song directed a past lover broke one's heart. 12- "Feliz Navidad" - Jose Feliciano (+11) -- While I am sad that "Last Christmas" missed the top 10, seeing "Feliz Navidad" also get this close to the top 10 was both exciting and a bit sad because that's certainly a much more loved song in my books. Granted, I wasn't expecting to get into the top 10, so I'm not upset by any means. But still, wouldn't it have been fun to see "Feliz Navidad" as a top 10 hit? 15- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin (+13) -- Not much snow in my personal area of the woods this Christmas, although the snow has decided to come after Christmas, which I find slightly annoying. I don't mind Christmas looking like Christmas, but I don't like the cold myself, so without the holiday connection, snow is just cold and miserable. That weather report aside, Dean Martin has such a welcoming, warm voice that I love having this song around. 16- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+14) -- Five Christmas songs occupied the top 10 this week. But as you can see, that is not all when it comes to Christmas songs as these most recent four songs make it so nine Christmas songs occupy the top 20 and it's good having Nat King Cole as a part of this club. Like Dean Martin, Nat King Cole has such a welcoming voice. When everyone plays their Christmas streaming playlists, it's fun seeing the old-timers get the most love. 21- "Sleigh Ride" - The Ronettes (+16) -- The Ronettes just barely missed out on the top 20. But all is well. "Sleigh Ride" has quite the fun journey this season. This song has a special place in my heart because I remember it as the song each ninth grade band class plays for the Christmas program. Granted, The Ronnettes' version isn't the exact version of that, but still. It's a wonderfully exciting Christmas song. 22- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry (+14) -- Rudolph also cruises up the charts, sneaking in just behind "Sleigh Ride," despite being slight ahead on last week's charts. Who doesn't love Rudolph? This song brings out your inner child. 24- "Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season" - Andy Williams (+16) -- It's always fun seeing which new songs debut each year. And we have three more joining this club this week. But I will admit that the journey of this song was a surprise because this is not the song that would initially come to head. But of course wishing everyone a happy holidays, courtesy of Andy Williams, is understandably popular. 28- "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" - Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres and His Orchestra (+22) -- As I mentioned above, we didn't get much of a white Christmas this season, but snow is starting to come now, meaning this is the Christmas song that I might continue to sing over the next few weeks. 29- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love (re-entry) -- And now we enter the segment of this list of re-entries. Songs that will only be here for a week, but are more than welcome. And we start with a song that I always forget exists. I believe this first debuted last year and I'm not sure if I had ever heard of it before then. And then it showed up this year and I was almost as equally as surprised, especially since it is now a top 30 hit as our top new re-entry. When it comes to quality, I need to remember to have this song stick in my head more because Darlene has an excellent voice and this song has a hint of sadness and desperation and she's begging who I assume is a lover to please come home so that they can enjoy Christmas. And is often the case with older songs like this, the instrumentals are quite excellent, especially the saxophone. 31- "Underneath the Tree" - Kelly Clarkson (re-entry) -- While most of these entries, both this week and in past weeks, have been hits from the far distant past, it's interesting seeing Kelly insert her name into the list of annual Christmas entries, putting her in a league parallel to Mariah Carey, who is also fairly new comparative to the other songs around her, but has established herself as having a new modern classic. Much in that same scenario, is Kelly's song here developing into a Christmas classic? It took Mariah 25 years from when she initially released the song to finally hit No. 1 on the Hot 100. Is it possible that some day in the future, Kelly heads down the same path. Because this is a solid Christmas song that I would be happy to develop onto a classic. 32- "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" - Gene Autry (+15) -- I spoke too soon, here. We have one other gainer from previous weeks instead of all the rest being re-entries or new arrivals. I suppose that "Here Comes Santa Claus" simply doesn't have quite the amount of traction that some of the other songs had from previous weeks, probably because it's one of the more unique Christmas songs that isn't always played too often, but I personally like a Christmas song that will make an attempt to connect the commercialism of Christmas with the religious element of Christmas. You know, the reason the holiday exists in the first place. Giving Santa Claus a close connection with Jesus might be weird for some, but I appreciate the attempt. 36- "Run Rudolph Run" - Chuck Berry (re-entry) -- The main Rudolph song has charted for a few weeks now. And it makes total sense that it's here instead of this. But this is one of the stranger, yet fun Christmas songs. It reminds me of "Johnny B. Goode," perhaps the more famous, mainstream song from Chuck Berry. Thus it's in the same vein as something like "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," but with a slightly different flavor that doesn't feel Christmasy at all. But that's OK. In fact, the uniqueness of the angle this song takes makes it fun to have around. 37- "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" - Perry Como (re-entry) -- We go from unique Chuck Berry song back to a more traditional Christmas song. This one is certainly not as popular as something like "A Holly Jolly Christmas" or "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," but it's in the same family as those, thus making it a warm and welcoming Christmas song. 40- "Blue Christmas" - Elvis Presley (re-entry) -- I was hoping to see Elvis back this year. "Blue Christmas" itself is a bit of a depressing Christmas song that doesn't necessarily inspire the warmth and cheer of the holidays. Thus it's a bit of a black sheep in the Christmas family, but if we can manage to have Elvis returning to the charts each year, that will be an excellent feat. And this is such an Elvis song with his performance that it makes it delightful. It's hard seeing other people cover this because then the unique flavor that Elvis brings to the table is gone. It's like trying to cover just about any Elvis song. You just can't do it. There was only one Elvis. 42- "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby (re-entry) -- When it comes to holiday albums and holiday singers in general, I feel like Bing Crosby is one of the first that will come to the top of people's minds. And I feel that this song in particular is one of the most classic Christmas songs, so I'm honestly surprised that this is not significantly higher. Yes, I'm glad it's here, but it should be one of those songs that debuts in the beginning of December and climbs into the teens at least, not one that peaks in the 40s. 43- "Jingle Bells" - Frank Sinatra (re-entry) -- Speaking of classic Christmas songs, it doesn't get any more classic than "Jingle Bells," am I right? I mean, I'm not so sure that everyone is specifically playing Frank Sinatra's version of "Jingle Bells." And when it comes to Frank Sinatra, him not getting a different Christmas song other than "Jingle Bells" to chart seems a bit silly. But hey, who is going to complain? 44- "Like It's Christmas" - Jonas Brothers (+9) -- They did it. The Jonas Brothers managed to cross the top 50 this year with their new Christmas song. And I'm happy for them. It's a decent Christmas song. Although it could use a bit stronger Christmas flavor to it. And I'd be shocked if this showed up at all next Christmas season as I don't see this becoming a new holiday classic. But nice job overall. And I wouldn't mind it additional holiday songs from modern artists were to get released and chart each year. 45- "Baby It's Cold Outside" - Dean Martin (new) -- Oh yes! I've been waiting a long time for this one to chart. I'm almost disappointed that it didn't chart last season during the height of the controversy surrounding the song. Because, yeah, our favorite thing to do in the modern age is to get offended at everything seemingly out of nowhere "Baby It's Cold Outside" got completely thrown under the bus as a terrible date rape Christmas song that should be banned by all stations. And I think all the hatred towards the song is a bit laughable. It's not that I don't understand people's concerns here. But I can guarantee you that nearly every rap song is about 100 times worse than this one, yet people don't blink an eye when all of the modern thug rappers are casually rapping about murder, drugs, partying it up, and in some cases actual gang rape with certainly a whole lot of objectifying of the female gender, as females are just objects for these thugs' pleasure rather than actual human beings. And this culture is so toxic that I'm not surprised when I see a story like that of Juice WRLD dying of a drug overdose. Yes, it's sad. But it's more sad that the culture is becoming normal and accepted into our modern society that consequences to this aren't thought about. Drugs kills you. Murder is bad. And if we're going to flood negative content into our popular media, then people are going to die simply out of pure negligence to consequences. Yet we don't bat an eye at all of this while suddenly losing our minds at a flirtatious Christmas song that may have been a bit lazy in some of the lyrics when it was written over 70 years ago?
But sure, let's dive into this more. Could some of the lyrics be a bit better? Of course. But the song was initially written by Frank Loesser in 1944. Him and his wife would sing it at parties to get the guests to leave. That's the context of the song here. That's important to remember. The popularity of the song quickly grew, then in 1948 Loesser sold it to MGM, where it appeared in the 1949 movie "Neptune's Daughter." It went onto win best song on the Oscar's and the rest is history. I honestly think it's one of the most covered Christmas songs since it's one of the few Christmas duets out there, making it a fun one to sing. Granted, there's good covers and there's not so good covers, but the success of the cover depends on the two people singing it. If the tone remains innocent and flirtatious, with both singers having the same flirtatious tone rather than it sounding creepy and weird, then I think it's a great song simply due to how fun and catchy it is. And if you want to simply flip all of the controversy on its head, then just listen to the version with Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt where it's Gaga singing the part of the person persistently trying to stay and extend the evening, with JGL wanting to leave. It's hard to get people too offended at that, right? Now, sure, if I'm talking about this specific cover with Dean Martin, I think it's decent. It's not my favorite version, but that's because it's Dean Martin singing with some backup singers. The female part isn't as prevalent. Honestly my favorite version of the song might be the one in "Elf" with Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel, but maybe it's because that scene is so funny. I just wish Will Ferrell would've sung on the full version. 49- "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" - Thurl Ravenscroft (new) -- No controversy with this one. Just an excellent Christmas song that should be even higher. Everyone loves "The Grinch" and this particular song was written by Dr. Seuss himself to go along with the original TV special in the 60's with the vocals as being originally uncredited. But of course the song has caught on over the years and now gets its well deserved debut on the charts. I'm not sure if this is Thurl Ravenscroft's personal debut on the charts, but it might. While the song itself is a fun ode to the Grinch and unique in the sense that it's a Christmas song full of insults, it's Thurl's deep bass voice that knock this out of the park. In terms of the other movies, I also really like the Jim Carey version of this song. It's a fantastic cover and a wonderful part of the movie, which I really love. I'm not quite as nice when it comes to Tyler the Creator's cover in the newer animated Grinch. Whoever thought we needed a hip-hop cover of the classic song should be slapped. Let's bury that version deep in the ground and never let it resurface. 69- "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" - John Legend (new) -- For our final Christmas song we have John Legend covering... "Happy Xmas (War is Over)"? Say what? The original John Lennon version debuted last year and failed to make a reappearance this year, which I'm not too upset about, although I wouldn't have minded having it around. But to have a cover of the song here is a bit strange since that song is very specific to its time. So out of all songs for John Legend to cover, I'm not sure why he picked this one. But it's whatever. If the original can't manage to re-enter the charts, I don't imagine John Legend's version will ever make a reappearance. It's a fine version of the song. John Legend has a great voice and will thus typically makes any song he sings sound good. And Jorja Smith is also great in the song as she appears on the YouTube video recording of the song that I found. I'm assuming that's the official version that was released, but I can't say for sure since it's an Amazon Music exclusive.
New Arrivals:
85- "Slide" - H.E.R. featuring YG -- There's only one new arrival this week that is not a Christmas song. And I don't feel like talking about it. But I'm sure this section will be quite large next week with the 25 Christmas songs set to drop out, so I'll give myself a break for now and simply dedicate this post solely to the Christmas songs.
