fun. - Week of October 6, 2012

Cher Lloyd guest-hosted the countdown this weekend.  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.

• will.i.am - This Is Love
• Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart a Break
• Gym Class Heroes Ft. Ryan Tedder - The Fighter (DTHNOBx2)
• Cher Lloyd - Want U Back

The Countdown:

1. fun. - Some Nights (#3) [First Week at #1]

2. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#2)

3. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#1)

4. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#4)

5. PSY - Gangnam Style (#8)

6. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#9)

7. Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm (#10)

8. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#5)

9. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (#6)

10. Rudimental Ft. John Newman - Feel the Love (#12)

11. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#44)

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

13. One Direction - Live While We're Young (#17)

14. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#13)

15. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#14)

16. Timomatic - Set It Off (#22)

17. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (#11)

18. Usher - Numb (#24)

19. Ke$ha - Die Young (#31)

20. Flo Rida - Let It Roll (#32)

21. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#7)

22. Enrique Iglesias Ft. Sammy Adams - Finally Found You (#28)

23. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#15)

24. Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (#16)

25. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#37)

26. Karmin - Hello (#18)

27. Martin Solveig - The Night Out (#34)

28. BoysLikeGirls - Be Your Everything (#42)

29. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (#26)

30. OneRepublic - Feel Again (#25)

31. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (#29)

32. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#45)

33. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#33)

34. The Cab - Intoxicated (#21)

35. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#19)

36. Taio Cruz - Fast Car (DEBUT)

37. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#35)

38. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#30)

39. Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G - Oath (DEBUT)

40. Alex Clare - Too Close (RE-ENTRY)

41. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#38)

42. Allstar Weekend - Life As We Know It (#27)

43. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#43)

44. Jason Mraz - I Won't Give Up (RE-ENTRY)

45. Flo Rida- Whistle (#20)

Biggest DDDDRRRRROOOPPPP!!!!....of the week: Flo Rida – Whistle (-25)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Karmin – Brokenhearted (+33)

Only two new entrants this week, as we saw a welcome resurrection of Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up and a less welcome resurrection of Alex Clare – Too Close.  The latter is on the top 5 list of “most downloaded songs”, so it might be around for awhile.  The first new entrant, courtesy of our countdown guest-hostess, is Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G – Oath, and it’s excellent.  It’s a total chick song, and I’m forfeiting my man card (if I still even had one) by saying that, but damn, that chorus / interlude is good.  It helps also that I’m fond of the theme of holding on to good friends despite distance and changing lives.  I feel like most people appreciate that to some degree.  In a world where the follow-up song for a countdown artist’s first single is usually comparatively weak, it’s nice to see Oath completely blow Want U Back out of the water.

Remember the guy who gave us gems such as Break Your Heart, Dynamite, and Higher?  Well Taio Cruz is back on the countdown.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the song in question, Fast Car, is a disappointment compared to those three.  It’s not a bad song by any means, but I was really looking forward to seeing what Taio Cruz would do next, and I feel let down.  I think where the song went wrong would be the first couple of lines of the chorus when the beat slows to a halt.  It doesn’t fit, and it makes the chorus anticlimactic.

Blurbies

-- Imagine Dragons – It’s Time is all the way back up at #12, which is higher than it ever ascended before it first got kicked off the countdown.  I can’t think of any other songs that have pulled this off besides Bruno Mars – Just the Way You Are

-- PSY – Gangnam Style has a shot to tie Kelly Clarkson – Stronger for fastest ever ascent to #1 (from its debut weekend) should it hit #1 next weekend.

-- Rudimental Ft. John Newman – Feel the Love is one of the Top 10 songs on the continent.  Wow.  What a world we live in.  If you want to be a songwriter for a Top 10 song, you only need to write 21 unique words.  Depending on your feelings for the word “gotta”, none of them need to be more than 4 letters long.  Everyone, quit your jobs.

-- I don’t expect Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up to last very long post-resurrection.  I haven’t heard it much during non-countdown airtime, and I was pretty shocked to see it brought back on.  But I’m glad it was.

-- I’ve mentioned this before….I really do like fun. Ft. Janelle Monae – We Are Young, but how the Wutchuwant Crew hasn’t determined that this song is played out by now is beyond me.

-- Probably the thing I’m most excited about this week besides the debut of Oath, the surprising post-DTHNOB rise of It’s Time, and the DTHNOBbing of the indisputably terrible will.i.am - This Is Love is the fact that Flo Rida – Whistle got banished all the way down to the bottom of the countdown.  Good riddance.  DTHNOB, please.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G – Oath

2) Ke$ha – Die Young

3) Imagine Dragons – It’s Time

4) Usher – Numb

5) Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up