In recent years, I’ve been sharing my Top 100 songs as a gauge of how I felt about the year’s available music. The annual “Songs That Made a Difference in 2021” column is about hits that helped steer the direction of music radio. In recent years, my personal Top 100 has just been a test of whether I could find a hundred songs each year. In 2018, a bottoming-out year for pop music as well, I could not. But as with the previous two years, my list is closer to 120 songs.
Since the early 2000s I’ve often first heard songs as part of a weekly exercise of listening to every song that is cracking the various major charts with 100 spins. But I’ve also tried to “listen to my mail” a lot more recently, and that gave me a few of my less-known favorites of the year: “Francesca” by the Murlocs, “Stacking Chairs” by Middle Kids, and “Talk About It” by Jungle.
In 2021, my new-music listening routine was augmented by the weekly top 10 countdown on SiriusXM’s TikTok radio as a way of acknowledging but also regulating that firehose of music. I don’t feel bad that I’m still looking for songs in the old ways as well. Somebody has to do that. TikTok has become America’s Music Director because it has so many more people to do the job than radio. But it is not necessarily the place to find radio records. And, as suggested in the “Songs” article this year, when radio finds radio records, it can set streaming’s agenda as well.
I wish more of my “place memories” of favorite songs involved radio, as opposed to sitting at my desk on Sunday night. The most indelible radio memory of 2021 is still hearing WHTZ (Z100) New York playing “Good 4 u” followed by “Love Again” and feeling like Top 40 music was turning the corner. (There was also one ironic radio moment — Triple-A WXPK (the Peak) Westchester, N.Y., playing Brett Dennen’s “See the World” as we drove our daughter to college for the first time.) I would be flattered if your place memory of any of these songs was the Big Hits Energy playlist I created to spotlight uptempo pop music that might or might not make it to American CHR radio.
There are a number of 2020 top 100 entrants that could have made the list again this year: Billie Eilish, “Therefore I Am”; Elvie Shane, “My Boy”; Foo Fighters, “Shame Shame”; Harry Styles, “Golden”; Jazmine Sullivan, “Pick Up Your Feelings.” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” was on the list last year at all, but in the spirit of its 2021 accomplishments, it’s here again, and it’s my radio record of the year. (Of non-radio hits, the Murlocs single is the favorite.)
As has been the case in recent years, a lot of this year’s favorites are those songs that were too pop for Alternative radio and too Alternative for Top 40. Again, there were a lot of rock entrants from Canada, a place where rock radio is not in crisis. I’ve divided the list into songs that were U.S. radio hits or near-hits in some format and those that might be new to you (or a secret handshake among us if they are known to you). I’ve also created a new Spotify playlist with all of this year’s favorites.
The Top Tier
Adele, “Can I Get It”
AJR, “Way Less Sad” – In America’s time of early summer optimism, it briefly seemed like this song might be “so six months ago.” For better and worse, it turned out to be an appropriate summation of the year. This song is a radio memory. I spent a lot of time this year with successful small-market CHRs. On those stations, “Way Less Sad” was a power, if not quite as anthemic as “Bang.”
Ari Lennox, “Pressure”
BBNO$, “Edamame” – What I want from a TikTok record: bouncy, focused, funny.
Charli XCX, “Good Ones”
Dua Lipa, “Levitating”—It was in my second-tier last year. But if any song qualifies for two consecutive years, it’s this one.
Dua Lipa, “Love Again”
Elle King & Miranda Lambert, “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” – Also among WIXX’s top five songs of the year.
Elton John & Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart”
Girl in Red, “I’ll Make You Mine” — There are at least three songs and 88 playlists on Spotify titled “Do You Listen to Girl in Red?”
Hiss Golden Messenger, “Sanctuary”
Jazmine Sullivan, “Pack Up Your Feelings”
John Mayer, “Last Train Home”
Jonas Brothers, “Who’s in Your Head”
Joylon Petch, “Dreams” — It seems like last year’s TikTok phenomenon, but this faithful dance remake of the resurgent Fleetwood Mac hit was No. 1 in Australia for much of 2021
Jungle, “Talk About It”
Justin Bieber, “Anyone” — In large markets, it was a blip between three other singles. Like the AJR single, it was a power in small markets. Depending on what he’s got in the pipeline, it could actually make sense for radio to go back to this song after “Ghost.”
Kenny Chesney, “Knowing You” — Like “All the Pretty Girls,” another Chesney favorite, it harkens back to a time before his own hits. The best George Strait homage of recent times.
Lil Nas X, “That’s What I Want”
The Maine, “Sticky” — Exhibit “A” for CHR songs that make it halfway up the Alternative chart, stall there for being “too pop,” and then never make it to CHR where they belong because they weren’t bigger alt hits.
Majestic & Boney M, “Rasputin” — The 1979 original is one of the all-time great oddball moments in pop music history (and a harbinger of mastermind Frank Farian’s return with Milli Vanilli). The only thing odder was having it resurface this year as a UK hit. (Apparently, even after Milli Vanilli and Måneskin, this was still too much of a Euroddity for America.)
Måneskin, “Beggin’” — My favorite version of this song is still the 2000s U.K. hit remix of the Four Seasons original that spurred Madcon’s rap remake and this version in turn. I particularly love that the underrated Four Seasons mastermind Bob Gaudio has now had two hits in as many years (following Surf Mesa’s reworking of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”) that were both very “of-their-time” reworkings of songs from 1967.
Milky Chance, “Colorado”
Murlocs, “Francesca” — I’ve made more of an effort to start “listening to my mail” in recent years, and I’m glad I heard this one that came to me through a promo blast. Moody Australian band that decided to make an uptempo ‘80s-inflected single, although their ‘80s touchstone choice was an odd one.
Olivia Rodrigo, “Good 4 U”
Rauw Alejandro, “Todo De Ti” – The Latin pop equivalent of Post Malone’s “Circles” — a pop song from an artist with “Urbano” credentials. And my place memory for this one is definitely Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits.
Silk Sonic, “Leave the Door Open”
Turnstile, “Blackout” — A potentially important record for rock radio that instead hovers just under the top 40 on the Active Rock chart now.
Walk the Moon, “Can You Handle My Love”
Radio Songs (Or Those That Almost Were)
Acraze f/Cherish, “Do It to It”
The Anxiety, “Meet Me at Our Spot”
Ariana Grande, “34 + 35”
Ava Max, “My Head and My Heart”
Bakar, “The Mission” — After a year of relative topicality in pop music, one of the few bigger statements this year
Camila Cabello, “Don’t Go Yet”
Cardi B, “Up”
Dan + Shay, “Glad You Exist”
Doja Cat, “Kiss Me More”
Doja Cat, “You Right”
Ed Sheeran, “Bad Habits”
88rising & BIBI, “The Weekend”
Eric Church, “Heart on Fire”
Ghost, “Hunter’s Moon” – It’s frustrating to me when CHR hits get stuck at Alternative. So what to make of this generation’s Kiss, making Top 40 songs for the Active Rock chart.
Glass Animals, “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)” — a record that pop radio could use now, but dwelling in the shadows of “Heat Waves,” the song that it could have used six months ago.
Imagine Dragons, “Follow You”
Jessia, “I’m Not Pretty”
Jon Batiste, “I Need You”
Justin Bieber, “Peaches”
Kacey Musgraves, “Justified”
Kali Uchis, “Telepatia”
Kane Brown, “One Mississippi”
Kelsea Ballerini & Kenny Chesney, “Half of My Hometown”
Latto, “Big Energy”
Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby”
Lizzo, “Rumors”
Maroon 5, “Lost”
Masked Wolf, “Astronaut in the Ocean”
Masked Wolf, “Say So”
Neiked x Mae Muller x Polo G, “Better Days”
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, “Can’t Let Go”
Riton x Nightcrawlers, “Friday”
Saweetie, “Fast (Motion)”
Taylor Swift, “Message in a Bottle”
Volbeat, “Wait a Minute My Girl” – See Ghost. A teen-punk record that happens to be by an Active mainstay.
Willow, “Transparentsoul”
Wizkid, “Essence”
Did You Hear … ?
Abba, “Keep an Eye on Dan” – I wanted to like Voyage better, and I’m still glad it gave them a personal late-career grace note. This one is the sequel to “S.O.S.,” both musically and lyrically.
Amy Shark, “Worst Day of My Life”
Arkells f/K. Flay, “You Can Get It” – Arkells and Beaches have been reliable Canadian presences for years. They easily bridge Alternative’s pop and rock sides in a way that clearly bedevils the format here.
Beaches, “Let’s Go”
Beaches, “Blow Up”
Breagy Isabel, “Girlfriend”
Brittney Spencer, “Sober & Skinny”
Capital Cities, “Vowels”
Caroline Polachek, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings”
Corey Taylor, “Samantha’s Gone” – Enough of an Active Rock hit that I could have put it in the first pile.
Diana Ross, “Thank You” – In the late ’80s, with her radio career already winding down, Ross became one of the first pop stars whose personal imperiousness became public knowledge. The infractions seem relatively minor now. And in 2021, she did something few pop stars have done — release a song thanking the audience for their career. A top-15 airplay hit in the UK, thanks to the power of BBC Radio 2.
Don Amero, “My Poor Mama”
Donny Osmond, “Who”
Durand Jones & the Indications, “Witchoo”
Elvis Costello, “Magnificent Hurt”
Foo Fighters, “Love Dies Young”
Foo Fighters, “Making a Fire”
Green Day, “Pollyanna”
Haim, “Cherry Flavored Stomach Ache”
Harry Styles, “Treat People With Kindness” — Gets to be on the list this year thanks to SiriusXM Hits 1, even though it would have qualified for 2019 or 2020.
HIXTAPE: Midland & Marty Stuart, “Break Your Own Damn Heart”
Jack White, “Taking Me Back”
January Jane, “I Can’t Go for That”
Jerry Cantrell, “Brighten”
JJ Wilde, “Off the Rails”
JJ Wilde & Billy Raffoul, “Born to Die”
Johnny Marr, “Spirit Power & Soul”
Jungle, “Truth”
Kah-Lo, “Fire”
Kasim Sulton, “Fastcar” — He missed the 2021 opportunity to come back in a band called Dystopia, though.
Kim Petras, “Future Starts Now”
Ladyhawke, “Think of You”
Lights, “Prodigal Daughter”
Lil Huddy, “The Eulogy of You and Me”
Mackenzie Porter, “Pickup”
Maroon 5 f/Stevie Nicks, “Remedy”
Methyl Ethel, “Neon Cheap”
Middle Kids, “Stacking Chairs”
Miley Cyrus, “Nothing Else Matters”
Mykki Blanco, “Free Ride”
Monowhales, “He Said/She Said (I Wait)”
Myra Granberg, “Lose My Mind”
Nathan Evans, “The Wellerman (Remix)”—A 1975 National Lampoon bit about sea shanties as the next big trend becomes perverse reality, but this UK hit would still have been a great radio record here.
Niall Horan & Anne-Marie, “Everywhere” — The Fleetwood Mac song; this year’s BBC charity remake.
Noa Kirel, “Please Don’t Suck”
Olivia Rodrigo, “Brutal”
Pandas & People, “Don’t Stop Movin’”
Pink & Willow Sage Hart, “Cover Me in Sunshine” — In theory, there is nothing I wanted less than an update of Helen Reddy’s “You and Me Against the World,” not the type of mother/daughter record radio needs. But after a decade of making some of our best radio records, Pink struggled publicly, not only with keeping a pop-chart foothold, but with what to say in a world where “so what/I’m still a rock star” wasn’t enough of a strategy. “All I Know So Far” was the official year’s policy statement, but this one was the true blast of optimism. In Australia, it was one of the year’s biggest records.
Prince, “Hot Summer”
Rufus Du Sol, “On My Knees”
Said the Whale, “Honey Lungs”
Saint Motel, “It’s All Happening”
Samantha Fish, “Better Be Lonely”
SUPER-Hi & Neeka, “Following the Sun” — This one has a radio memory, too, thanks to the listening to Europe’s NRJ chain that I did for a story this year.
Swedish House Mafia, “It Gets Better”
Taylor Janzen, “Something Better”
Texas, “Mr. Haze” — At least a few people who read this column will want to know that the Scottish band Texas is still making records and released an interpolation of Donna Summer’s “Love’s Unkind.” Also, their late-‘90s “Summer Son” is exactly the song that I wished Abba would come up with this year.
Wet Leg, “Chaise Longue”
Wolf Alice, “How Can I Make It OK?”
Zak Abel, “Be Kind”