Best #1 Single of the Year: 2015

Cafe Society
1

It’s that time of year again. (Technically, there’s one more chart week before the end of 2015, but from the way the numbers are trending it’s unlikely that next week’s #1 is going to be different than this week’s. In the event it turns out I’m jumping the gun, we’ll make up for it in the 2016 poll.)

If there’s one thing that defines the state of pop music in 2015, it’s “retro”. The lion’s share of songs to chart highly this year were those directly evoking older styles of music, be it funk or disco, soul, old-school hip-hop, or '80s pop. This year also marked what might in the long term turn out to be a pretty significant change in the way the Hot 100 works. Up until this year, the sales-tracking week was Monday-Sunday and the airplay-tracking week was Wednesday-Tuesday, in line with the fact that record labels in the US traditionally released new records on Tuesdays. This year, the US record industry started putting out new releases on Friday (which the rest of the world has been doing for some time), and Billboard has adjusted its schedule appropriately - sales are now tracked Friday-Thursday, and airplay from Monday-Sunday. In the long run, this is probably going to make it a lot easier for international artists to chart in the US (and indeed, since the week it went into effect, no American act has made it to #1).

All that being said, we have nine #1s for 2015, including the carryover from 2014 - a relatively small number, abetted by the fact that one of those songs is tied as the second-longest number-one run of all time, and another is only a few weeks shy of the same.

What’s your favorite?

Best #1 single polls: 1955-56 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s All-time

Best of the Rest of the Top 40: 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s All-Time (Tiebreaker)

2

This has not been a good year for #1 singles. Any year in which Kesha is not allowed to release any new music is certain to be lousy.

The lone exception on this list is “Uptown Funk,” making it a very easy pick for me. The other songs are all quite lackluster, including Adele’s entry.

3

Too bad Major Lazer’s “Lean On” didn’t make it to #1. That was my favorite song of the year.

Oh well, “Uptown Funk” is a great song and blows the other choices away.

4

I don’t know if I’m confessing or bragging, but I don’t recognize any of them by name.

I’ll go fetch up some youtube pages and give them a listen.

5

It peaked at #4 on the Hot 100. The year-end chart comes out on Wednesday, so we may just see it turn up on the Best of the Rest poll - we’ll just have to wait and see.

I went with “The Hills” myself - it’s an incredibly dark and angsty song, one of the darkest contemporary R&B numbers we’ve seen for years in an age when R&B is all bitches-and-bling-and-doin’-shots-at-the-club. Granted, the song is still about those things, but rather that celebrating them, the singer is in this catatonic state where he’s drank and drugged and screwed himself into numbness and he doesn’t even feel the high anymore. “When I’m fucked up, that’s the real me” is the line that sells it for me.

Also, I was pretty sure “Uptown Funk” was gonna run away with this one and wanted to give the Weeknd at least a little love

6

I fucking loathe Uptown Funk. Unfunky bollocks - like a bad pub band ten minutes before closing time - with a shameful piss-stained drunken uncle on vocals. Ghastly.

Mind you, I’m the one who just voted for Justin Bieber in this poll. It’s catchy and got a good beat, OK?

7

I went with “Uptown Funk.” As much as it kind of annoys me, mostly through its ubiquity, Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean?” is pretty infectious. “Cheerleader” I just absolutely hate.

8

The Weeknd has the best one, with Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth, Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars, then Adele closing out.

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and the other entries over suck.

9

Mmm, which TeeSwizzle song did I prefer (nobody else other than The Weeknd grabs me but not as much) - I think Blank Space…

10

I love OMI’s slow burning smash “Cheerleader”.

11

“Blank Space” by a country mile. I have heard that a million times, and I am still not tired of it.

Regards,
Shodan

12

I’ve been listening to the radio a lot this year, and the only one of these songs I’ve heard is “Hello” which I detest.

I think my favorite song of the year is “S.O.B.” by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.

13

Slow burning is one way to put it - it was released in 2011. After “Red Red Wine”, this might be the longest time between a song being recorded and it topping the Hot 100.

14

I agree (or it at least is running neck-and-neck with Macklemore’s “Downtown”).

15

I’ll second “Downtown” as being the best song that didn’t make it to #1 this year. (It peaked at #12, but made it to #1 in Australia, Mexico, Croatia, and Slovakia, of all places. Maybe eastern Europeans really like their mopeds.) It’s probably the closest thing to a bona fide masterpiece that the hip-hop genre has produced in the past few decades.

16

I haven’t heard any of these, but my favorite song this year has got to be “Here” by Alessia Cara. It cracked the top 20.

17

OK, I listened to them all on YouTube. Voted for Adele’s “Hello”. Pipes on that one, and nice song (I like ballads); not too schmaltzy in the “pop diva” sense because she’s expressive enough for it not to sound like screeching. Good changeups.

Omi’s “Cheerleader” a decently close second. I liked the horns and piano and drums, the voice is nice, and it’s catchy and playful.

Worst of the lot were Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” and Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean”. I’d leave the room or change the radio station or (did) close the browser window on those.

Turns out I had heard Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” somewhere, just didn’t know it by name or performer’s name. The rest are all 100% new to me.

details you don’t care about: [spoiler]taylor swift blank space — catchy; vapid; poppy-hiccuppy
listenable but no urge to relisten;

ronson uptown funk —70s-discoesque; boomp-thud; rapid saturation would annoy the fuck out of me to hear repeatedly got to 3:50 before i had to close the window

wiz khalifah see you again - setup: ballad, nice long phrases; changeup aha rap is evolving —retaining the poetry but bringing back instrumentation, singing;
don’t crave it but listenable and would react well to rehearing — good structure

taylor swift bad blood —catchy again and hey i have heard this one; squeeky voice doesn’t wear well but the song is decent; lyrics are secondary to the rhythm; semi-memorable

omi cheerleader — horns! and piano! nice drums too; catchy and playful; first one i’d look forward to it coming up on the rotation & hearing it again

weeknd can’t feel my face —synth and drama; morph to dance stuff a lot less interesting (more click-snap than boomp-thud but still formulaic); i’d get tired of this if i heard it several times per week but tolerable

justin bieber what do you mean — catchy intro ticktock motif; vapid lyrics and autotune nasality; annoying; another one i’d quickly hate if replayed; made it to 2:45 then killed it

weeknd the hills — autotune + whiny voice when low in range, forgettable except for being the ‘fucked two bitches before i saw you’ song, that’s what i’d remember; nice bridge section 2:29 floaty vocals. overall: meh; same slow lazy mechanical poprhythm from top40 shit way overdone

adele hello — ooh nice voice; ballad with piano; long lines with actual expression and build towards the line’s climax etc; mm she’s got range; mildly formulaic in the ‘diva’ mold during the loud high refrains but the voice, piano interludes, and expressiveness keep it interesting. second song on the list i’d be happy to hear again. [/spoiler]

18

Uptown Funk in a landslide so far. Can’t Feel My Face is a good one, too, but not the best.

19

I voted for Bad Blood, mostly because the four-year old granddaughter shouts out the “hey” line from her car seat in the back of the car. Out of tune, and out of tempo, but “Hey!” It’s so cute.

20

C’mon people, “Blank Space”!