Carly Rae Jepsen (8) - Week of July 21, 2012

We have a new record for weeks at #1!  I guess I have to qualify this and say that it’s a 2009 and forward record, because I didn’t follow this countdown before then and don’t really have a way to check.  But no one else is keeping track either, so….NEW RECORD!  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• The Wanted - Glad You Came
• Gavin DeGraw - Sweeter (DTHNOBx2)

The Countdown:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1) [Eighth Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#5)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

5. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#3)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#6)

7. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#34)

8. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#8)

9. Flo Rida- Whistle (#7)

10. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#12)

11. Usher- Scream (#11)

12. Alex Clare- Too Close (#14)

13. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#9)

14. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#18)

15. Chiddy Bang feat. Icona Pop- Mind Your Manners (#19)

16. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#24)

17. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#13)

18. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#15)

19. Rihanna - Where Have You Been (#21)

20. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#16)

21. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#17)

22. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#10)

23. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#23)

24. One Direction- One Thing (#20) 

25. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#22)

26. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#27)

27. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#26)

28. Sammy Adams- Only One (#25)

29. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (DEBUT)

30. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#33)

31. Breathe Carolina- Hit and Run (#28)

32. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#31)

33. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#29)

34. Andy Grammer- Fine By Me (#32)

35. Pitbull- Back in Time (#43)

36. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (DEBUT)

37. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch- Ass Back Home (#37)

38. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#36)

39. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#35)

40. The Cab- La La (#38)

41. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#39)

42. Hot Chelle Rae- Honestly (#42)

43. Calvin Harris- Feel So Close (#45)

44. Train- Drive By (#30)

45. B.o.B- So Good (#41)

Biggest DDDDDDRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!!!....of the week: Train – Drive By (-14)

Biggest Jump of the Week: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful (+27)

If my enthusiasm level didn’t make this clear already, we had a pretty good week. We’re saying good-bye to two mediocrities and welcoming in one decent song and one powerhouse.  Long-time Hit-Bound veteran Train – 50 Ways to Say Goodbye debuted this week.  The chorus is pure Train-y goodness, but for some reason they decided to make mariachi trumpets prevalent throughout most of the song.  I am not sure why they wanted it to sound like a Mexican folk song, but I don’t think I like the direction they took.  My prediction is that this one is going to be pretty borderline for my Top 45 of the year list.  Then again, the two DTHNOBs this week have pretty much zero chance of making that list, so it’s an improvement.

The other new entrant is awesome.  Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen both have hit #1 on this countdown with deserving, highly upbeat songs.  It’s not the least bit of a shock that when they teamed up, the fit was absolutely perfect (as my friend Ray put it).  Their song, Good Time, will put you in a good mood and captures the best of both artists.  This one has a pretty good shot at a #1 bid in the future, and I’ll be here to root it on.

Poor Maroon 5 – Payphone.  If it hit its peak at any other time during the year, it would have been #1 by now.  Being stuck behind Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe is pretty bad timing.

Time for fun. feat. Janelle Monae – We Are Young to go away.  I want to remember this song fondly, I really do.  I know that at its core, it’s pretty good.  But it’s being beaten to death and has no more business in the Top 10.  A similar thing happened last year with Adele – Rolling in the Deep. 

Aside from the entrants and exits, the week was pretty uneventful.  Linkin Park – Burn It Down crept into the Top 10, but it’s hardly on the verge of a breakthrough, as it’s been bouncing around the lower (number-wise) teens for weeks.  The All-American Rejects – Walk Over Me is still on the countdown somehow, and I’d be shocked, except for the fact that it’s a shock it’s even here in the first place.  All about the brand name, I guess.

One blurb I do have….the new entrants seems to be making their debut unusually high on the countdown lately.  We haven’t seen a debut in the 40s since B.O.B. Ft. Taylor Swift – Both of Us regrettably hopped on at #43 on May 19^th.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2. Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

3. Maroon 5 – Payphone

4. Ellie Goulding – Lights

5. Karmin - Brokenhearted

Carly Rae Jepsen (7) - Week of July 14, 2012

We’re starting to see some signs of an imminent shake-up at the top.  Flo Rida guest hosted this week’s countdown, so guess what happened to his song’s ranking????  As is always the case when Spyder Harrison takes the weekend off, the show is far less enjoyable to listen to.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)
• Katy Perry - Part of Me

The Countdown:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1) [Seventh Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#7)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#6)

5. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#3)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#4)

7. Flo Rida- Whistle (#18)

8. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#21)

9. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#10)

10. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#9)

11. Usher- Scream (#14)

12. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#15)

13. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#12)

14. Alex Clare- Too Close (#17)

15. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#13)

16. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#11)

17. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#24)

18. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#25)

19. Chiddy Bang feat. Icona Pop- Mind Your Manners (#22)

20. One Direction- One Thing (#19)

21. Rihanna - Where Have You Been (DEBUT)

22. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#27)

23. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#16)

24. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#39)

25. Sammy Adams- Only One (#20)

26. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#27)

27. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#26)

28. Breathe Carolina- Hit and Run (#29)

29. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#30)

30. Train- Drive By (#31)

31. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#23)

32. Andy Grammer- Fine By Me (#37)

33. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#32)

34. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#5)

35. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#8)

36. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#41)

37. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch- Ass Back Home (#36)

38. The Cab- La La (#45)

39. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#38)

40. The Wanted- Glad You Came (#40)

41. B.o.B- So Good (#44)

42. Hot Chelle Rae- Honestly (#43)

43. Pitbull- Back in Time (#34)

44. Gavin DeGraw- Sweeter (RE-ENTRY)

45. Calvin Harris- Feel So Close (#42)

Biggest DDDDRRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!....of the week: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful (-29)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

The completely unnecessary resurrection of the mediocre Gavin DeGraw – Sweeter means that we’re left with just one new entrant this week.  Unfortunately, they don’t come much worse than Rihanna – Where Have You Been.  The song starts off decently enough….honestly, the first minute pretty good.  Then things get weird and terrible.  Rihanna follows up that minute with strange techno sounds that don’t really fit all that well.  The rest of the song is mostly just a few repeats of the lyrics of the first minute, accompanied by techno beats that get stranger and less pleasant as it goes along.  But you don’t need me to tell you any of this.  You’re probably going to get exposed to this song so much over the next few months (evidenced in part by its debut all the way up at #21) that you can form your own opinion of whether the song is just plain regular awful, or superlatively so.  I’m in the latter camp.  And here we thought We Found Love was repetitive.  Yeesh.

Predictably, Flo Rida – Whistle is a new entrant to the Top 10, but less predictable was the rise of Ellie Goulding – Lights.  That one’s growing on me a bit, and it’s doing significantly better than I thought it would.  Katy Perry – Wide Awake is the next song to have a go at the Top 5, and this one I really don’t get.  It’s almost like she can put out whatever music she wants and it’ll do well on the countdown.  Wide Awake is decent-ish, but definitely not Top 5 material.

I am still looking for a week here where we’re going to have 4+ new songs, as one gets the impression we aren’t far away from that.  There’s plenty of music on this list that’s super tenured.  And super not-played-that-often-anymore.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

2) Maroon 5 – Payphone

3) Usher – Scream

4) Karmin – Brokenhearted

5) Ellie Goulding – Lights

Carly Rae Jepsen (6) - Week of July 7, 2012

The nice thing about only one song entering the countdown is that even if the pool of possible new entrants is mostly crap, sometimes you can get lucky and have a net gain.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• Gavin DeGraw - Sweeter

The Countdown:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1) [Sixth Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#3)

4. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#6)

5. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#5)

6. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

7. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#7)

8. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#20)

9. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#9)

10. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#12)

11. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#11)

12. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#10)

13. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#19)

14. Usher- Scream (#14)

15. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#13)

16. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#22)

17. Alex Clare- Too Close (#15)

18. Flo Rida- Whistle (#26)

19. One Direction- One Thing (#17) 

20. Sammy Adams- Only One (#18)

21. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#31)

22. Chiddy Bang feat. Icona Pop- Mind Your Manners (#16)

23. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#21)

24. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (32)

25. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (27)

26. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#28)

27. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#23)

28. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#24)

29. Breathe Carolina- Hit and Run (#25)

30. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#30)

31. Train- Drive By (#40)

32. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#34)

33. Kelly Clarkson- Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) (#36)

34. Pitbull- Back in Time (#8)

35. Katy Perry- Part of Me (#38)

36. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch- Ass Back Home (#37)

37. Andy Grammer- Fine By Me (#29)

38. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#39)

39. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (DEBUT)

40. The Wanted- Glad You Came (#41)

41. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#45)

42. Calvin Harris- Feel So Close (#44)

43. Hot Chelle Rae- Honestly (#43)

44. B.o.B- So Good (#42)

45. The Cab- La La (#35)

Biggest DDDDDDRRROOOOPPPPP!!!!....of the week: Pitbull – Back in Time (-26)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Nicki Minaj – Starships (+12)

There just aren’t that many songs that debut in a given year, so saying that it’s been awhile since we’ve even seen a Top-45 song of 2012 debut is pretty depressing.  Fortunately, help came from an unexpected source and we got just that in Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss).  Going straight from high school to the NBA, it’s a real winner with outside #1 potential.  I was a fan of Raise Your Glass, at least for awhile, but this one is better. 

So Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe is officially to 2012 what Katy Perry – Last Friday Night was to 2011 and Ke$ha – Tik Tok was to 2010, the deserving #1 that lasts 6+ weeks at the top of the countdown.  Is it the best song that’s come out in the past few months?  I certainly don’t think so.  But it’s a good song that gets everything right.  It most certainly has mass appeal, and since it’s pop music we’re talking about, that’s the name of the game.  It’s pleasant when the most popular song on the continent is something you want to hear, rather than something that makes you want to gouge your eyes out.

Based on the music rotation during this week, I think we’re in trouble this upcoming weekend.  We’ll probably see a lot of turnover.  Particularly alarming is that Rihanna has a grotesque piece of horse dung in store for our eardrums in the coming months.

I want to clarify something regarding the below Editor’s Picks.  I do not think that Blow Me (One Last Kiss) is the best song on the countdown.  It’s just that it’s been so long since we’ve seen something interesting, and I’ve been slowly getting sick of the ones that have appeared on this list week after week.  So the new blood is the song that I currently want to hear most.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

2) Maroon 5 – Payphone

3) Usher – Scream

4) Rita Ora – How We Do (Party)

5) Karmin -- Brokenhearted

Carly Rae Jepsen (5) - Week of June 30, 2012

In which the wheels completely come off.  The Golden Age is over, and we (probably) haven’t seen a debut from a Top-45-of-the-Year song in over a month.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week:

• Lucas Prada Ft. Lenny B - First Night of My Life
• M83 - Midnight City
• The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
• David Guetta Ft. Nicki Minaj - Turn Me On

Ouch.  That’s difficult to replace.  

The Countdown: 

1. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1) [Fifth Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#3)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#9)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

5. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#5)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#2)

7. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#7)

8. Pitbull- Back in Time (#10)

9. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#8)

10. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#14)

11. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#20)

12. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#12)

13. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#14)

14. Usher- Scream (#17)

15. Alex Clare- Too Close (#11)

16. Chiddy Bang feat. Icona Pop- Mind Your Manners (#15)

17. One Direction- One Thing (#27) [Biggest Rise]

18. Sammy Adams- Only One (#26)

19. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#19)

20. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#6)

21. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#13)

22. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#22)

23. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#29)

24. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#25)

25. Breathe Carolina- Hit and Run (#31)

26. Flo Rida- Whistle (DEBUT)

27. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (DEBUT)

28. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#21)

29. Andy Grammer- Fine By Me (#18)

30. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#32)

31. Ellie Goulding- Lights (DEBUT)

32. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (DEBUT)

33. Gavin DeGraw- Sweeter (#22)

34. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#28)

35. The Cab- La La (#16) [Biggest Drop]

36. Kelly Clarkson- Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) (#33)

37. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch- Ass Back Home (#36)

38. Katy Perry- Part of Me (#35)

39. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#23)

40. Train- Drive By (#24)

41. The Wanted- Glad You Came (#37)

42. B.o.B- So Good (#43)

43. Hot Chelle Rae- Honestly (#40)

44. Calvin Harris- Feel So Close (#39)

45. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#38)

Biggest DDDRRRRROOOOOPPPPP!!!!!!!......of the week: The Cab – La La (-19)

Biggest Jump of the Week: One Direction – One Thing (+10)

Unfortunately, the new entrants don’t even make a reasonable effort to replace the dearly departed.  All four new entrants are worse than all four DTHNOBs.  We’ll kick it off with Flo Rida – Whistle, which takes over for Madonna – Like a Prayer for least subtle song ever on its subject matter.  The song itself is reasonably catchy but it’s not one that you’re going to want to hear three weeks from now.  Typically, I’ve heard all new entrants at least once before their countdown debut, and I only give just one extra token listen to each on YouTube before writing a mini-recap here.  However, for We Are the In Crowd – Kiss Me Again, I made a special exception to the one-listen-only part.  I YouTubed it zero times.  There’s no way I’m subjecting myself to something so breathtakingly disinteresting by my own choosing.

I would call Ellie Goulding – Lights the most unique new entrant.  Admittedly, at first, I thought it had a fair amount of potential to be a good new song that this countdown sorely needs, but a few extra listens made me think otherwise.  Still, it’s the best of this weak crew.  Calvin Harris Ft. Ne-Yo – Let’s Go is (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) a song that isn’t noticeably good or bad when you first hear it, which, when combined with a pop music station that plays the same 40-ish songs on repeat all week, is a song that you never want to hear again after about a fortnight, because there’s nothing to hook you into it.  Calvin Harris, please stop making music, you insufferable David Guetta wannabe.

If you asked me last week to predict this week’s Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOPPP!!!!! and Biggest Jump, I probably would have gotten both right.  One Thing is definitely destined for a reasonable run in the low teens / high single digits at least.  Meanwhile, I’m not sure how La La lasted so long in the teens, but it’s been a nice run for a pretty good song.

There’s two saving graces to this week’s countdown.  For one, look at those top 5 songs.  Karmin – Brokenhearted replacing fun. Ft. Janelle Monae – We Are Young has cemented this as the best Top 5 since probably around 2009 when I started listening to this countdown show.  Though not as top-heavy as the Owl City – Fireflies / Miley Cyrus – Party in the U.S.A. top 5 from years ago, I’d say it’s in the conversation of the best we’ve ever had.  Mostly because there’s usually at least one bad song mucking it up.

The second saving grace is that there’s one hell of a good song on Hit-Bound in Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time.  Please hurry to your countdown debut.  Please.

We had an excellent 4-month run on the countdown, and fittingly, it ends with the first half of the year, on June 30^th.  We’re probably stuck in crapville for a little while, as the sub-par recent new entrants run their course and the good songs that debuted in February and March get beaten to death more than necessary.  Here’s hoping for a rebound in the coming weeks.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Maroon 5 – Payphone

2) Rita Ora – How We Do (Party)

3) Karmin – Brokenhearted

4) Imagine Dragons – It’s Time

5) Usher - Scream