A Special Hits-1 Post -- The Top 45 Songs of 2012 as Ranked by Yours Truly

As promised, here's my Top 45 songs of this past year.  It's been a solid year of music on the Hits-1 Weekend Countdown, and I had much more difficult decisions to make this year than I did in 2011.  Those expecting to see a "Who's Who" of my "Editor's Picks" lists here probably could have guessed most of the songs on this list already, but there's a good deal of divergence from those weekly rankings.  The "Editor's Picks" list isn't really meant to be the songs that I think are the 5 best, but the songs that I most would like to hear played on Hits-1 at a given time.  Now that we're at year-end and most of these songs have lost their initial luster, it's a bit easier to get an accurate picture of things and separate the flavor-of-the-month songs from the keepers.

Before diving into it, I want to establish some of the "rules" of these rankings.  

• First, I am only considering songs that appeared on the Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown.  No songs were considered that never aired on Hits-1.  If a song appeared on HitBound or Hits and Misses with Pete Wentz, but not the countdown, it was not considered.
• Second, no songs that appeared on last year's Top 45 were considered for this list.  I think I did a pretty good job of deferring good songs that came out in late 2011 until this year's rankings (it helps that music in late 2011 was so terrible), but there is one song that would have made this year's list that is ineligible due to being ranked last year: One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful.  I did not foresee its widespread popularity, and certainly not 5-time #1 song honors (that song was largely unknown in the U.S. until around February).
• Third, songs that came out late in the year (December, basically) are being deferred for consideration until 2013.  The following songs may have had a shot at this list (a few certainly would have made it), but are not being considered.
• One Direction - Little Things
• Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child
• The Script Ft. will.i.am - Hall of Fame
• Phil Phillips - Home
• Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath
• Pink - Try
• The reasons for deferring songs into the next year are obvious and twofold.  First, the "shiny new toy" aspect of the recent new entrants makes it tough to really evaluate them.  Second, some songs will be "bigger" in the following year than they were in the year that they debuted.  What Makes You Beautiful is an excellent example.  Although it debuted in 2011, it was on the countdown for almost 10 months in 2012 and was #1 5 times.

Without further ado, let's dive right in.

45) Big Time Rush - Music Sounds Better With U - Just sneaking onto the Top 45 is one of the only good debuts from the month of January.  In a sea of Disney Channel-spawned stars, this Nickelodeon-born pop group has succeeded in making the Bottom 5 of my Top 45 two years in a row.

44) Gavin DeGraw - Not Over You - This one actually got dinged big time in my year-end look-back.  Not Over You uses the piano pretty well and is pretty good at delivering the message of how difficult it can be to move on from someone (relative to say, Cher Lloyd - Want U Back)

43) Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Yeah.  That song.  It's got a hook that outweighs just how dumb that spoken interlude is.

42) Cobra Starship - Fool Like Me - Lost in a sea of far inferior, but more popular Cobra Starship songs, this is the most enjoyable one they've produced.

41) Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm - These Bottom 5 songs should serve as a pretty accurate indicator of how many guilty pleasures will appear on this ranking.  It's just that most such guilty pleasure songs in 2012 had a pretty strong hook, and Pound the Alarm is no exception

40) Hot Chelle Rae - Honestly - After putting up with the annoying Tonight Tonight and I Like It Like That, I wrote off Hot Chelle Rae as a pretty sub-par, one-trick pony, but I Honestly had to reconsider that.

39) Bridgit Mendler - Ready or Not - It's all about the pacing.  Not a bad first-ever single for Bridgit Mendler

38) September - Party In My Head - This song is one party that I wasn't able to get out of my head for weeks this past summer.  It had a short countdown tenure, and given the repetitiveness, I'm thinking that's probably for the best.

37) Lucas Prata Ft. Lenny B - First Night of My Life - An exciting, upbeat song that's pretty good for getting excited for a night out.

36) David Guetta Ft. Nicki Minaj - Turn Me On - David Guetta has a propensity to work with a lot of artists that I don't like and turn the final product into something that I want to listen to.  As far as club-type songs go, this was one of the year's best.

35) The Cab - Intoxicated - The first song I ever heard by The Cab was, well, Bad.  By contrast, everything I've heard from them since has been not bad, and the main difference is that the pace of Bad just put me to sleep.  The pitch and pacing of Intoxicated perfectly match the song's theme.

34) Adele - Skyfall - Despite Adele winning the AP award for 2012 Entertainer of the Year, this is the only song that she actually came out with during 2012.  It was a good countdown song and a better James Bond theme.

33) Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen - Lights may have gotten all the glory for Ellie Goulding, but it's Anything Could Happen that's the better song.

32) Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean - I enjoyed these guys resurfacing.  It was a fun and very unexpected throwback to the late-90's/early 00's.

31) Lumineers - Ho Hey - This is a catchy little melody about a guy wondering where he went wrong as he laments the loss of the woman of his dreams to another man.  It's a bit sad, but pretty well-written.

30) Maroon 5 - Daylight - Maroon 5 has been around a long time, and only recently have they begun to do things a little bit differently (and for the better).  Daylight represents the best utilization of Adam Levine's voice that I've heard.

29) One Direction - One Thing - Just a quick plug here....I feel that One Direction was the MVP artist of the 2012 countdown.  They had 5 different songs appear on the countdown, all of them were at least average, and one of them was #1 5 times.  What Makes You Beautiful was on last year's Top 45, Little Things debuted too late, and Kiss You and Live While We're Young weren't good enough, so that leaves One Thing as the lone One Direction entry on this list, despite the MVP claim.

28) Train - Drive By - Train has a knack for delivering catchy melodies.  When Drive By debuted in January, I mashed that repeat button on YouTube like crazy.

27) The Cab - La La - My comment for this song basically matches that of Intoxicated.  I was pleasantly surprised when The Cab produced more up-tempo music.

26) Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side - Can you love a person for their faults?  Kelly Clarkson sure hopes so.

25) BoysLikeGirls - Be Your Everything - Haven't heard from BoysLikeGirls in awhile, but their lone entry onto the countdown this year was a successful one.  Love the vocals during the chorus.

24) fun. - Some Nights - People seem to interpret this song's lyrics a bajillion (really, spell-check?  You should understand that one) different ways, but it certainly seems that most people find something they like about it.  Opening is pretty Queen-esque

23) Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe - I strongly suspect this song will be at the top or near the top of most year-end song rankings, but there was plenty of better music out there.  That said, this was certainly the "song of the summer", and most people I know succumbed to its appeal.

22) David Guetta Ft. Usher - Without You - I will forever love and appreciate this song for being #1 3 times on the countdown in early 2012.  Why?  Because it kept the likes of Bruno Mars - It Will Rain, Flo Rida - Good Feeling, Rihanna Ft. Calvin Harris - We Found Love, Katy Perry - The One That Got Away and all the rest of the crapfest of rotating songs in the Top-5 back then from getting their grubby paws on the spot.  David Guetta can make bad artists look good.  When he teams up with Usher, you're going to get greatness.

21) Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight - Though it was only on the countdown for an unfortunate one week, Olly Murs deserves recognition for making it there at all for putting out a unique song that sounds like it was made in the 1950s.  Seriously, it's close between this and the fact that the Rolling Stones appeared on the countdown for most unlikely countdown event of the year.

20) Usher - Scream - Though Usher was only a little less subtle than Flo Rida was in writing Whistle regarding the song meaning, this was an excellent jam.  The song reaches a climax of its own at the final "Yeeaaahhhhh" before the last chorus.

19) Usher - Numb - I've done something the Hits-1 Weekend Countdown could never let itself accomplish: put two songs by the same artist adjacent to one-another.  Why it has such a goofy "rule" makes its weekly song rankings rigged, at least to a degree.

18) Taylor Swift - Eyes Open - I was a pretty big fan of The Hunger Games, and this was a perfect fit for the soundtrack, in addition to being pretty damn good in its own right.

17) Rita Ora - How We Do (Party) - If I didn't allow myself to like some songs like this, there's no way in hell I could do this week in and week out.  This tune was one of the catchiest of the summer, so I'm going to reward it by doing something the Hits-1 Weekend Countdown never did: rank it in the Top 20.

16) Jessie J - Domino Karmin - Brokenhearted - Gimme a break.  They're the same freaking song.  I just checked back to 2011's rankings as I typed this, and Domino was #16 on that list.  Weeeeeeeird.  I'm nothing if not consistent.

15) Jason Mraz - I Won't Give Up - I think this song takes the crown for being more undervalued by the Wutchuwant Crew than any other in 2012.  Jason Mraz, your prize is in the mail.  I Won't Give Up didn't spend much time on the countdown and never rose higher than #35, but it's excellent.  Shame on you, voters.

14) Enrique Iglesias Ft. Sammy Adams - Finally Found You - I'm as surprised as you are to see something produced by Enrique Iglesias ranked this highly.  Although I consider this Enrique Iglesias's best work, it's Sammy Adams who steals the show with that excellent, excellent interlude.

13) Childish Gambino - Heartbeat - I think that other than Ed Sheeran - The A Team, this was probably the song I did the biggest about-face on during 2012.  I didn't much care for Heartbeat at first, but the longer it was on the countdown, the more I liked it.  This is very rare.  We're talking about pop music.

12) Ke$ha - Die Young - Ke$ha has reportedly significantly reduced her use of Auto-Tune from her previously T-Pain-like levels.  Die Young is here to announce that there has been no subsequent dip in quality.

11) Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - Pink's break-up anthem helped carry the countdown through an rough period of deadweight new music in the middle of the summer.  Much appreciated.

Now we come to the Top 10.  I spent a lot of time listening to all of these songs as I completed these rankings.  It's kind of funny how the Top 10 played out.  Songs 6-10 are major flavor-of-the-month pop songs.  Songs 1-5 are truly excellent, and will be carried forward in memory as the best of the best of 2012.


10) Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G - Oath - Of all the guilty pleasures on this list, I think Oath is the one about which I'd be most sheepish about screaming "THIS.  IS.  EXCELLEEENNNNTTT!!!T!!!T!!!" from a mountaintop.  Lucky me, I don't have a mountaintop.  Just a blog.  So let me just say, OATH IS A FANTASTIC SONG!  Heh....come to think of it, a lot of people see the interwebs.  A mountaintop would have been far more private.

9) Pitbull Ft. Chris Brown - International Love - Tragically undervalued by countdown voters far and wide, International Love never became the Top-5 mainstay that I thought it would be.  It can have its redemption here, instead.  Think what you will about Chris Brown's character, but the dude can carry a tune.

8) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time - It's a struggle to not feel good while listening to this song.  I've heard criticisms of how simplistic it is, and I addressed those concerns earlier in the year, here.

7) Maroon 5 - Payphone - This was pretty damn infectious and represents a complete divergence away from the very old and very "meh" Maroon 5 ways.  I fully congratulate Maroon 5 for trying a newer and much more interesting sound this far into their career.

6) Outasight - Tonight Is the Night - This was weird.  I never really fully appreciated Tonight Is the Night, one of the best songs to debut in late 2011 until it had been gone for months.  The beat is excellent, and it always makes me think of New Years Eve 2011 for some reason.  Actually, nevermind.  That's because it was the song in the trailer for that gawdawful New Years Eve movie last year.  Oh well.  Still a sick song.

5) Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks - I wanted to defer this song until 2013, because it debuted in late November and I don't think I really had given it enough reps to fully appreciate it.  Originally ranked significantly lower on this list, I put it on repeat for awhile and found it slowly creeping up the rankings until it wound up here.  This song is fantastic, blending a catchy melody with a beautiful, yet haunting tale of moving on from the death of a loved one.

4) Ed Sheeran - The A Team - I think one commentor on the YouTube video for this song said something to the extent of, "Only Ed Sheeran could make a song about cocaine and prostitution sound this beautiful."  I didn't look upon this song closely enough at first, but when I eventually did, the fantastic songwriting ability of Ed Sheeran shone through.  The blithe, almost playful melody disguises a sad tale of a young woman's drug addiction and subsequent prostitution to fuel that drug addiction, all told with a series of creative metaphors.  The A Team is up for Song of the Year at the Grammys, and deservedly so.  Given the competition, it would be the rightful winner.

3) Gotye Ft. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used to Know - This song took the world by storm, and the bizarre music video has racked up a staggering 360 million+ hits to this day.  When I first heard this song debut on the countdown, it was a weird "WTF was that?" moment.  Further repetitions unleashed its weird addiction power, and the rest is history.  Somebody That I Used to Know is excellent, and I am sad to say that it never achieved that elusive #1 ranking on the Hits-1 Weekend Countdown.  Fortunately for Gotye, Billboard disagrees with the Wutchuwant Crew's failures.

2) Imagine Dragons - It's Time - Lead singer Dan Reynolds wrote this empowering song, and it was a big factor in propelling him out of depression.  Like a lot of other well-written songs, this song can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people.  Me?  I like to think it's just saying to be proud of who you are and embrace that, rather than attempting to compromise that due to the pressures/expectations of others.

1) M83 - Midnight City - For the longest time, I've been targeting Midnight City as the best countdown song of 2012, yet hoping that something better would come along to bounce it.  Didn't happen.  Midnight City has been #1 with a bullet pretty much since its debut in February.  Like I mentioned in the 'Year in Review" post, this song would not have cracked my Top 3 from last year.  Anyway, now that we're here, I suppose I should actually say something positive about the best of the best from the year, yes?  At its most obvious, Midnight City is likable for that simple, repeating, and damn addicting melody.  But having listened to it as many times as I have, there's plenty of layering of instrumentals (I include synthesized sounds in that category for ease) to appreciate, and all of them mesh together exceptionally well.  There's nothing incredibly deep about Midnight City, just some pretty good imagery and a great tune.  I can highly recommend the music video, which takes a little bit of a sci-fi take on the song.  Midnight City was the gateway for me to discover a few other excellent songs by M83, so I appreciate it for that as well (though this is irrelevant to its ranking).

We'll see what 2013 holds, but there's already a solid crop of songs (the 2013 deferrals listed above the rankings) to pick from heading into the year.  With 2011 being so damn disappointing, it's nice to see the countdown have such a strong rebound in 2012.  Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the new year.