A Special Hits-1 Post: The Top 45 Songs of 2013

Finally, it's the moment you've all been madly refreshing this page waiting for, here's the Top 45 Songs of 2013.  As you could probably gather from a lot of my comments here lately, 2013 was something of a letdown for pop music compared to 2012, so keep that in mind.  I'll try to have the negativity end there, as this should generally be one of the happier posts that I get to make each year.  Those who have been following my weekly "Editor's Picks" list might not be too shocked by anything that appears here, but as a reminder, those lists are just the 5 songs that I want to hear most at a given time.  Now that all songs up for consideration have been around for long enough, it's a little bit easier to identify the winners with the "shiny new toy" aspect having worn off.

Once again, I'm going to dive into the "rules" of these rankings to make clear what songs are, and are not, eligible for consideration.

• 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 or various special shows Hits-1 had throughout the year, but not the countdown, it was discarded.
• Second, no songs that appeared on the Top 45 rankings for a previous year were considered for this list.  Here is a list of the songs that were most significant in 2013 that are not eligible for this reason:
• Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight
• Lumineers - Ho Hey
• Maroon 5 - Daylight
• Ke$ha - Die Young
• Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks
• Third, songs that first debuted on the countdown very late in the year (mid-December or later, basically) are being deferred for consideration until 2014.  The following songs are not eligible for this list, nor were they considered for my previously-released "Bottom 5 Songs of 2013"
• Justin Timberlake - Drink You Away
• Sara Bareilles - Brave (truly absurd that this one debuted as late as it did)
• Passenger - Let Her Go
• Midnight Red - Hell Yeah
• Bruno Mars - Young Girls
• Katy Perry Ft. Juicy J - Dark Horse
• A Great Big World - Say Something

OK.  I think we're ready now.

45) Britt Nicole - Gold - Just making the cut is Christian pop artist Britt Nicole's first mainstream single about self-worth.  I won't soon forget how she was actually asked to explain the meaning of one of the most transparent songs ever written in an interview.

44) Redfoo - Bring Out the Bottles - This was axed from the countdown in March, but I still have "It's gon, it's gon' be poppin'" stuck in my head.  I pretty much couldn't stand LMFAO, but it seems that uncle Redfoo did himself a service by breaking away from nephew SkyBlu, as Break Out the Bottles turned out shockingly melodious in places (with some help from our good friend Auto-Tune).

43) The Wanted - We Own The Night - A catchy instrumental melody headlines The Wanted's best song yet.

42) DJ Pauly D Ft. Jay Sean - Back to Love - Yeah, that Pauly D.  While some credit here obviously goes to Jay Sean, I was pretty surprised to hear a tune this harmonious from Pauly D, especially after the more-hilarious-than-good Beat Dat Beat.

41) Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster - This song serves as yet another reminder that Rihanna's fantastic voice can sometimes be used to produce music that isn't complete crap.

40) Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber - Pitbull definitely winds up on my naughty list more so than in my good graces, but toss in a harmonica and a solid chorus contributed by Ke$ha and boom, something that doesn't suck.

39) Katy Perry - Roar - The most worthwhile song off of the supremely disappointing Prism.

38) Mariah Carey - #Beautiful - With a solid contribution from Miguel, Mariah Carey's voice shines through in this unique R&B hit.

37) Drop City Yacht Club - Crickets - This solid smooth jam is the first ever single for new artist Drop City Yacht Club, and I hope to hear more from them in the coming years.  More like "Hold On City Yacht Club", amirite?  Oh c'mon......nothing?.....nothing?  What's that I hear chirping?

OK, I'll stop.

36) Daft Punk - Get Lucky - It was something of a competition between this song and Blurred Lines for song of the summer, and even if Get Lucky fell short in that particular popularity contest, at least it can hang its hat on being the superior tune.

35) Demi Lovato - Heart Attack - Demi Lovato is spectacular at hitting the high notes, and perhaps never better than at the beginning of the last chorus of Heart Attack.

34) Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like - It's nothing if not consistent.  Also, based on its relative performance on the charts, this is living proof that Canada does exist, and it's voting for Hits-1 music.

33) Avril Lavigne - Here's to Never Growing Up - I feel like there's a pretty narrow quality range for songs that Avril Lavigne puts on the countdown.

32) Avril Lavigne - Rock and Roll - I feel like there's a pretty narrow quality range for songs that Avril Lavigne puts on the countdown.

31) Paper Route - You and I - As of this writing, the music video still doesn't have 125,000 views on YouTube.  Odd that it appeared on a countdown professing to play the biggest songs in North America....maybe there's a segment of North America that doesn't have YouTube?  Nonetheless, this is exactly the type of song that makes the Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown more interesting, because you probably don't get songs like this anywhere else and I'm glad I had the opportunity to hear You and I.

30) JTX - Summer Lover - I'd ding JTX more for his lyrics if his songs weren't so much fun.  Summer Lover fits right in with the rest of his energetic music.

29) Paramore - Still Into You - Paramore's re-entry into the countdown universe was a highly upbeat jam.  I thought the tempo was used pretty well throughout the song to support the meaning behind the words.

28) Lorde - Royals - This was a surprisingly mature and sophisticated take on the music industry for a pop artist, let alone a 16-year old pop artist.  That, combined with some catchy pacing makes Royals one of the standout songs of the year

27) Twenty One Pilots - Holding On To You - One of the more unique songs to grace the countdown in 2013, Holding On To You is mostly high-pitched pseudo-rap and seems a little like what Eminem would sound like with some more musical accompaniment.  

26) Captial Cities - Safe and Sound - This song was almost great, but that damn trumpet that doesn't fit with the rest of the song is just overwhelming.  Safe and Sound was released all the way back in 2011, so it took its sweet time hitting the mainstream.

25) Lady Gaga Ft. R Kelly - Do What U Want - Some of Lady Gaga's earlier work, such as Lovegame and Paparazzi, had absurdly catchy pacing and Do What U Want brought the focus back to that aspect of her music, even if it wasn't successful to the same level.

24) Jesse McCartney - Back Together - Jack-of-all-trades McCartney decided to focus on music again and released this single this year.   He is also apparently going to tour with The Backstreet Boys (makes sense) and DJ Pauly D (....what?).

23) Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night - Hayley Williams doesn't have one of the stronger female voices in pop music but she's certainly talented and Zedd does a great job with her in a song that was apparently written the day before it was recorded.

22) Pink Ft. Nate Reuss - Just Give Me A Reason - I looked back on this song a lot more fondly than I did when it was getting regular airplay.  It's fun to contrast this song's lyrics with those of True Love....Reuss clearly helped out a lot here.  It's a nice duet.

21) Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc - Wake Me Up - One of the more popular songs of the year utilized an effective mix of electronic dance and a folksy acoustic guitar melody.  So I guess that's possible after all.

20) OneRepublic - Counting Stars - I'm probably repeating myself for those who have read other recent entries, but I'm shocked that I have a song by OneRepublic on my Top 45.  Counting Stars was surprisingly energetic, and it's nice to see something interesting from a band that's sounded pretty damn lifeless for years.

19) fun. - Carry On - Of the three songs that fun. has put onto the countdown, Carry On probably has the most lasting value.  It's close between it and Some Nights, but the latter was beaten to death so ruthlessly that I might not even be able to judge that impartially.

18) Jason Derulo - The Other Side - Probably the best I've heard from Jason Derulo...he took things a step further with that hook, whereas in prior songs he may have fallen flat.

17) Krewella - Alive - So...many....high notes.  I'm not head-over-heels in love with the intense electronic portion that succeeds each chorus, but the vocal (albeit modified) performance is great.

16) MKTO - Classic - I was really disappointed when I saw MKTO perform this song live (well, on television).  The vocals were pretty far off of the album-quality version that airs on Hits-1.  Still, I'm ranking that album-quality version, and there's few songs I've heard this year with better chemistry between the singing and accompanying music.

15) Ellie Goulding - Burn - I was relieved that this song made it onto the countdown just in the nick of time to qualify for these rankings.  You'll notice that there's not much here from the latter portion of the year, and Burn was certainly one of the songs working towards slowing the complete landslide of pop music in late 2013.

14) Karmin - Acapella - "We hit that Olive Garden....my Little Italayyy."  One of the weirdest songs you'll ever hear, Acapella stood out for its infectious beat.  Just ignore the part where Amy Heidemann does it "in falsetto".

13) Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath - This is Kelly Clarkson's finest work in a fine career.  Catch My Breath is a fantastic, uplifting song.  I love the melody of the verses and she does a great job of hitting all the right notes on the chorus.

12) Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop - This song, pretty much without question, had the hook of the year.

11) Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child - Let's just say this makes up for the unfathomably boring Save The World from a couple years back.

10) Bonnie McKee - American Girl - This is truly my #1 guilty pleasure of 2013.  I'm not proud of it, but there was a stretch of time during the year where this is the song I most wanted Hits-1 to spin.

9) Zedd Ft. Foxes - Clarity - Probably the decision for which I'm most likely to catch flak.  First off, I'll state that although it took a long time, I finally started to hear the "obnoxious" in this song late in the year that many around me believed was always there, but that was probably after I'd heard the thing (without exaggeration) about 150 times.  I may have soured on it a little bit after all that overplay, but I can't ignore that Clarity is (or was) great.  Foxes didn't even have a Wikipedia page when Clarity debuted on the countdown.  You've come a long way, baby.

8) Ke$ha - C'mon - This represents some of Ke$ha's best work and trumps the predecessor Die Young.  The chorus trumps pretty much everything she's done since Tik Tok.

7) Muse - Madness - This isn't Muse's greatest song, but they're so much more talented than the vast majority of other artists that appear on the countdown that even a second-rate effort from them is going to rank pretty highly.  Fun fact: it was the theme song for the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

6) Imagine Dragons - Demons - I might have guessed that Coldplay was behind Demons if I just heard it once with no prior information.  The catchy melody belies lyrics that are surprisingly deep for Top 40 music, and Dan Reynolds's performance is outstanding.

5) Hunter Hayes - I Want Crazy - The country singing Hayes scored big with this remarkably lively song.  It's certainly errs more towards the side of pop than traditional country, but aside from any perceived notion that Hayes sold out, there's really nothing not to like about this song -- the tempo, instrumentals, vocal performance, everything is done exceptionally well.

4) The Script Ft. will.i.am - Hall Of Fame - No, that isn't a typo, I meant to type will.i.am there.  Somehow, the universe found a song and role in which he actually could deliver a solid performance.  The use of the piano is excellent in this upbeat, superb song.  Prior to this song, The Script had already been on a tear, churning out quality tune after quality tune.  Pardon the terrible writing, but this song cements The Script in the Hall of Fame of countdown artists.

3) Train Ft. Ashley Monroe - Bruises - Preliminarily tabbed as the #1 of the year, Bruises was dinged a bit for mediocre (not bad) lyrics.  Despite that, Bruises packs sentimentality and one of the top melodies of the year into the near-best 4 minutes you could spend this year listening to a pop station.  It's hard to put into words just how excellent country singer Ashley Monroe is in this song.  I don't know what led to Train teaming up with her, but the chemistry between her and Pat Monahan is near perfect.

2) The 1975 - Chocolate - 2013 breakout band The 1975 put their first ever song onto the countdown in the form of Chocolate, which has the most addicting instrumental melody since M83 - Midnight City.  I've heard the songwriting described as everything from awful to brilliant.  I lean closer to the latter camp, but certainly not all the way.  Chocolate is about the difference between how we perceive our own actions and how others perceive them.  The song specifically references police evasion and drug use, but it's kind of interesting to extrapolate that.  There's a lot of stuff we all do that might seem a little messed up, but to our own weird selves, these might just "smell like chocolate".

1) Passion Pit - Take A Walk - First, a little housekeeping...I'm aware this song came out in 2012, but I was unable to rank it last year because it didn't debut on the countdown until 2013.  The superlatively great Take A Walk was, without question, the best-written song of the year to grace the Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown with its presence.  The song employs an upbeat melody, but really it's all about immigration to the United States and dealing with the associated hardships with being a newcomer to a capitalist society.  Take A Walk was not the most addicting song to hit the countdown this year (to wit, it never ranked #1 on my Editor's Picks list), but it certainly was the best.