Congratulations! You made
it to the end of 2017. Do you remember all of the songs that hit the Billboard
charts this year? Of course you don’t, neither do I, that would be impossible.
Luckily, the folks at Billboard make our job a little easier by giving us the
Top 100 songs of the entire year (technically only through November 25 though),
and I make your job a little easier by ranking my top 20 favorites out of those
100, so that all you really need to remember 2017 by is these 20 songs.
While 2017 was a big year
for Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Post Malone and Lil Uzi Vert, you won’t find
any of them on this year’s rankings. But you will find some seriously great
music, as well as some songs you might hate. But in the timeless words of the
great 50 Cent, if they hate, let ‘em hate, and watch the money pile up! Here’s
the list, with links to Youtube videos in the titles and a full Spotify playlist at the bottom for those who prefer listening to reading or viewing. Now it’s time to roll on into 2018!
Believe it or not, this is
the inaugural appearance for Kendrick Lamar on this list. That is due to both
his failure to hit the Billboard year-end charts with many of his previous
singles, and also my lack of enthusiasm for the songs he was able to chart with
in the past. “Humble” is simple, it features a piano beat, and it’s easy to
quote (and misquote). That gives it just enough juice to sneak onto list at
#20. Maybe we’ll see more Kendrick in the future if he can recreate his success
with “Humble.” Biyombo!
This song came out way
back in September 2016, but it only hit the charts in what Billboard considers
2017, so it qualified for this year’s list. Rae Sremmurd got lucky that this
song became the soundtrack to the Mannequin Challenge, but they say you make
your own luck, and “Black Beatles” has something about it that makes it hard to
hate. I doubt they know much about the real Beatles, other than that they were almost as big a deal as Rae Sremmurd, but the Mike Will beat and Gucci Mane saying “skrippers”
were enough to land it at #19.
No one will ever top Kid Creole, or Outkast, but this is probably the #3 song about a Caroline I’ve
heard. It’s delightfully lo-fi and honestly, pretty innocent compared to most
hip-hop that came out in 2017. The video matches and actually enhances those
themes and makes it impossible not to like Aminé. I really hope we see more of
them in the future because they deserve success.
I never thought I’d see
Childish Gambino on this list but he’s earned it, not just as a Lifetime
Achievement award (cough, Kendrick Lamar, cough) but also because “Redbone” is
a legitimately great song. I’m not sure what genre it really falls into but
that’s OK, it’s a pleasant listen for many moods. It really refuses to be
categorized, I guess. I hear it was also used in the movie “Get Out” but I
didn’t see that so I can’t really comment on its usage there. The beat will
stand the test of time no matter what though.
Talk about an old song-
this one came out in June 2016 but somehow snuck onto the 2017 Billboard
year-end chart so I’m allowed to include and you’re now reading about it in
2018 (or late 2017). It was the best song on 25 in my opinion, so I was
thrilled to hear it getting airplay. it reminded me a bit of “Set Fire To The
Rain” from 21, which was the best song on that album as well. I guess I have a
type of Favorite Adele Song...Wall Of Sound.
After an extremely lo-fi
video and then 2 songs with no video, we head back to the world of massive
budgets and visual fantasies with Katy Perry. I know this song and video are
meant to be subtlely political but all that was lost on me. I just thought the
song sounded great, a quintessential mellowed-out Katy Perry party jam, and the
video made me want to visit that awesome theme park. I guess I like running on
hamster wheels, watching 3D movies with my nuclear family, and pretending I
have no problems! Cool!
This was a song that
sounded good that was released in 2017. I never gave a second thought, but I
also never thought for a second that it wouldn’t make this list. It’s too up my
alley to do anything else. Poppy EDM beat, catchy vocals, 3 and a half minutes
long, chorus, 2 verses, and a bridge, what more can you ask for in a pop song?
Number 14 is a perfect landing spot for it. The end of the video is a major
bummer, though. I hope Zedd’s OK so he can keep pumping out songs like this for
the rest of the decade.
This is the first of 2
Calvin Harris songs on this list, both from his fantastic album Funk Wav
Bounces Vol. 1. Following his breakup with Taylor Swift (but quite possible
un-influenced by it, I admit), Calvin decided to fully merge the EDM, pop, and
and hip-hop worlds by inviting basically every major rapper to feature on his
album in some capacity. This one features the bizarre trio of Pharrell, Katy
Perry, and Big Sean, but not surprisingly, it works, because Calvin’s funk
beats keep the whole thing tied together.
Look, I have a lot of
opinions about the Chainsmokers, and the critical reception their debut
full-length album got when it was released this year. It’s way too much to
include in a one-paragraph writeup of one song. All I can say is that, like
“Stay,” I don’t think “Paris” will necessarily be a song I seek out in the
future, but when I wanted to listen to music in 2017, and it came on, I thought
it sounded a lot nicer than most everything else, and that’s how you get to
#12. It’s a nice-sounding song that shouldn’t, couldn’t POSSIBLY offend
anyone...right?
This was not the best Kygo song of the year, but it was the best one that apparently got any radio play.
Yes, I assume that like any track sung by Selena Gomez, it’s about Justin
Bieber, but I acknowledge that we don’t necessarily know that for sure.
Nevertheless, somebody in her life has clearly wronged her, and when Kygo pairs
those vocal effects with one of his typically playful and intoxicating beats,
the end result is a song that stands up no matter how many times you hear it,
which I admit was a lot for me this year. I do question if she’s ever had a
whiskey neat before, though. Nasty stuff, really.
Did Portugal. The Man
singlehandedly bring back pop-radio-viable alternative music in 2017 with this
song? It’s too early to say, but I certainly hope so. I’ve missed hearing this
genre, although to be fair it houses an enormous range of sounds. And I can’t
imagine that they ever imagined they’d get as much success as they did with
“Feel It Still.” For a band to wallow in relative obscurity, unknown to all but
their own fans, for ten years, and then blast onto the scene like this is
almost unheard-of. “Feel It Still” was the underdog hit of the year, which
helped make me a huge fan. I hope it’s a sign of things to come in 2018.
“Slide” was the lead
single that announced Calvin Harris’ return to our eardrums in 2017. To be
honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I thought at first, but after a couple listens
I decided I was on board with the new sound (same as the old sound, really).
Having Frank Ocean on vocals really helps, too. Funk/disco will never go out of
style, I’ve decided. And thank goodness for that.
If I made these rankings
solely based on music videos, I’d probably have no choice to put “Havana” at
number 1, considering it was one of the few videos this year to last longer
than the song and actually attempt to tell a story, even if it was a little
half-baked. But instead, I’ll put it here at #8, which has often been reserved
for surprisingly electric pure pop perfection. With its timely Cuban theme and
obligatory Young Thug verse, Camila Cabello grabs the #8 spot this year with
both hands and doesn’t let go. “Havana” is probably the catchiest song of 2017.
If we were doing the
rankings based on music videos, well...this one would be #2 I guess, given what
I just said above. But anytime you go abroad to film on-location somewhere
unusual, I have to give major points. Even if the video is completely, totally
incongruous with the music backing it up. But it’s fun to watch, which is all
that really matters. And the Caribbean beat is perfect, even though it was
inescapable this year. My only complaint is that French Montana seems
almost...awkward in this video? Everyone else looks a lot more comfortable than
him dancing on a dirt road in Uganda. Not sure what that says...
Look, Maroon 5 messed up
royally with their latest album title, Red Pill Blues. And people hate them
enough already. But the fact is, Adam Levine’s been ubiquitously soundtracking
our lives for the last 15 years straight, which is an astonishing run for
anyone, let alone a band that seems to have 10 times more haters than diehard
fans. I’ll always count myself as a fan, though, even though I have no idea
what the rest of the band does at this point other than collect royalty checks.
This song is undeniably catchy, though, and the rest of the album is
surprisingly solid, too, so I guess Maroon 5 are sticking around for another
few years, like it or not.
5. Drake-
"Passionfruit":
I hate Drake for thinking
that he’s better than everyone else and not putting his music on Youtube. I
hate his pretentiousness and occasional mealy-mouthed emotional warbling. But I
have to respect his ability to make an absolutely incredible song once every
few years. “Passionfruit” just never got old this year. It came out early in
the year and, even though it was never intended to be a single, was the obvious
standout song on his album and thus just kept climbing the charts. It’s one of
those songs that fits every mood- somber, reflective, focused, jamming,
everything except hardcore raging really. But I don’t do much of that anymore
so it fits every mood i need it to. And thus, it lands at #5.
I have to be honest, I
never thought DJ Khaled would have another hit at this point in his career. But
after getting stranded on his boat and recording the whole thing on Snapchat,
his career had a most unlikely revival. He was able to get Rihanna on this song
and the rest is history. I wasn’t sure if “Wild Thoughts” deserved such a high
spot, but then I remembered it had references to the 1969 New York Jets, Usain
Bolt, and Waterboy Bobby Boucher, and I had no choice to give it #4. Rihanna
claims spots like these as her birthright at this point.
Anyone who knows me knows I love Clean Bandit as if they were my own children, so I acknowledge that
“Rockabye” being ranked so high smacks of bias. I don’t really have much of a
rebuttal for that, but I do think it deserves to be ranked #3 on its merits. Getting Sean Paul to rap earnestly
about “daily struggle” is fantastic tongue-in-cheek genius, and Anne-Marie’s
vocals soar over the whole thing perfectly. My only gripe is that there’s not
enough violin and cello, and so I have a bad feeling that their second album,
whenever it finally drops, will be disappointingly electronic, and lose a bit
of the classical/pop blend that made Clean Bandit so enchanting in the first
place. But that’s splitting hairs- “Rockabye” was one of the best pop songs of
2017, bar none.
OK, I am a little
frustrated that all these songs that debuted in fall 2016 had to wait until
2017 to be included in this chart. “24K Magic” is a 2016 song, as was
“Rockabye” and several others on this list. But, rules are rules, and Bruno had
to wait his turn to be featured. Now it’s time. “24K Magic” is a perfect pop
song. It reminds me of “Happy” by Pharrell; how can you ever get sick of it?
It’s Vegas excess with a dash of old-school funky flair and falsetto. You look
at Bruno Mars having fun and all you want to do is have fun with him, which
makes “24K Magic” not just the best party song of the year, but one of the best
in recent memory. No one does it quite like him.
Well, we’ve arrived at #1,
and really, the Chainsmokers and Coldplay were the leaders in the clubhouse for
most of the year. “Something Just Like This” represents a best-case scenario
for what could happen if these two acts teamed up. It mixes playful lyrics,
heartstring-tugging chords and melodies, and just enough oomph to get you going
no matter what you’re doing. Many may disagree, but to me 2017 will be defined
by “Something Just Like This”. It may be the last real hurrah for both of these
acts (I know the haters will salivate at that thought) but if it is, they went
out with quite a bang.
And there you have it, the
top 20 best songs of 2017 (Billboard Hot 100 edition). It’s been a wild ride of
a year, and I have a feeling 2018 will be even more so, but I was glad to have
a soundtrack that kept me sane and grounded, and these 20 songs made up a
sizable percentage of that soundtrack. Music is a constant, and as long as pop
music is a constant in my life, this list will be a constant in yours. Happy
New Year! See you in 2018.
