Monday, December 31, 2007

The Top 50 Songs of 2007

Dave’s Music Database:

Top 50 Songs of 2007

These are the top 50 songs for the year based on their overall performance in Dave’s Music Database, which is determined by combining chart data, sales figures, streaming, video views, and aggregates from year-end lists and charts.

Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here.

    DMDB Top 1%:

  1. Rihanna with Jay-Z “Umbrella
  2. Flo Rida & T-Pain “Low
  3. Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love
  4. Alicia Keys “No One
  5. Kanye West with Daft Punk “Stronger
  6. Soulja Boy Tell’em “Crank That (Soulja Boy)
  7. M.I.A. “Paper Planes

    DMDB Top 2%:

  8. Kid Rock “All Summer Long”
  9. Sara Bareilles “Love Song”
  10. Rihanna “Don’t Stop the Music”

  11. Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend”
  12. Timbaland with Keri Hilson & D.O.E. “The Way I Are”
  13. Cupid “Cupid Shuffle”
  14. Chris Brown “Forever”
  15. Foo Fighters “The Pretender”

    DMDB Top 5%:

  16. Colbie Caillat “Bubbly”
  17. Sean Kingston “Beautiful Girls”
  18. Maroon 5 “Makes Me Wonder”
  19. Finger Eleven “Paralyzer”
  20. Akon “Don’t Matter”

  21. The White Stripes “Icky Thump”
  22. T-Pain with Yung Joc “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”
  23. Linkin Park “What I’ve Done”
  24. Chris Brown “With You”
  25. MGMT “Time to Pretend”
  26. Feist “1234”
  27. Timbaland with Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake “Give It to Me”
  28. Mike “Grace Kelly”
  29. Beyoncé with Shakira “Beautiful Liar”
  30. Chris Brown with T-Pain “Kiss Kiss”

  31. LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends”
  32. Seether “Fake It”
  33. Mims “This Is Why I’m Hot”
  34. Sugarland “Stay”
  35. Michael Bublé “ “Everything”
  36. MGMT “Kids”
  37. Da Shop Boyz “Party Like a Rock Star”
  38. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Please Read the Letter”
  39. Kaiser Chiefs “Ruby”
  40. Brandi Carlile “The Story”

  41. Paramore “Misery Business”
  42. Linkin Park “Shadow of the Day”
  43. Bruce Springsteen “Radio Nowhere
  44. One Republic “Stop and Stare”
  45. Jack Johnson “If I Had Eyes”
  46. Fall Out Boy “Thnks fr the Mmrs”
  47. Silverchair “Straight Lines”
  48. Marc Ronson with Amy Winehouse “Valerie”
  49. Rihanna with Ne-Yo “Hate That I Love You”
  50. Foo Fighters “Long Road to Ruin”

Resources/Related Links:


First posted 1/4/2024.

2007: Top 25 Albums

First posted 1/8/2021.

Dave’s Music Database:

Top Albums of 2007

Based on a combination of year-end lists and overall status in Dave’s Music Database, these are the top 25 albums of 2007:

  1. Radiohead In Rainbows
  2. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
  3. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Raising Sand
  4. Rihanna Good Girl Gone Bad
  5. Bruce Springsteen Magic
  6. Kanye West Graduation
  7. High School Musical 2 (TV soundtrack)
  8. M.I.A. Kala
  9. Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
  10. Alicia Keys As I Am

  11. Arcade Fire Neon Bible
  12. Eagles Long Road Out of Eden
  13. Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
  14. Norah Jones Not Too Late
  15. Burial Untrue
  16. The White Stripes Icky Thump
  17. The National Boxer
  18. Leona Lewis Spirit
  19. Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
  20. Britney Spears Blackout

  21. Michael Bublé Call Me Irresponsible
  22. Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight
  23. Mika Life in Cartoon Motion
  24. Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
  25. Josh Groban Noel

Resources and Related Links:

Don Tyler: Top 1000+ Songs, 1900-1955

The Top 1000+ Songs
from 1900 to 1955

According to Don Tyler

Author Don Tyler published Hit Parade 1920-1955 in 1985. It featured more than 800 songs, organized by year and listed by song title with the songwriters indicated. In 2007, he expanded the work in Hit Songs, 1900-1955 – this time with over 1200 titles. Between the two works, he cited more than 1400 titles. They are listed here in alphabetical order by song titles followed by the songwriters, the highest-ranked version of the song in Dave’s Music Database, and the year of its release.

Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations.

A

SONG

WRITER(S),
m = music, w = words

Performer with
Highest Rated Version

Year

A – You’re Adorable (The Alphabet Song)Sid Lippman, Buddy Kaye, Fred WisePerry Como & the Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres Orchestra1949
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Resources/Related Links:


First posted 12/3/2022.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

50 years ago: The Music Man opened on Broadway

The Music Man

Meredith Willson (music & lyrics)

The Musical

Opened on Broadway: December 19, 1957


Number of Performances: 1375


Opened at London’s West End: March 16, 1961


Number of Performances: 395

Cast Album


Charted: February 24, 1958


Peak: 112 US


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Genre: show tunes


Soundtrack


Charted: August 11, 1962


Peak: 2 US, 14 UK


Sales (in millions): 0.5 US


Genre: show tunes


Songs on Cast Album:

  1. Main Title/ Rock Island
  2. Iowa Stubborn
  3. Ya Got Trouble
  4. Piano Lesson
  5. If You Don’t Mind My Saying So s
  6. Goodnight, My Someone
  7. Ya Got Trouble s
  8. Seventy Six Trombones
  9. Sincere
  10. The Sadder But Wiser Girl for Me
  11. Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little
  12. Goodnight Ladies c
  13. Marian the Librarian
  14. My White Knight c
  15. Being in Love s
  16. Gary, Indiana s
  17. The Wells Fargo Wagon
  18. It’s You c
  19. Shipoopi *
  20. Lida Rose/ Will I Ever Tell You?
  21. Gary, Indiana
  22. Till There Was You
  23. Goodnight, My Someone s
  24. Seventy Six Trombones s
  25. Finale c
* Track comes right before “Till There Was You” on soundtrack.
c indicates song that appears only on cast album.
s indicates song that appears only on soundtrack.


Singles/Hit Songs:

As was common in the pre-rock era and early days of rock and roll, songs from musicals were often recorded by artists not associated with the musical and released as singles. Here are some of the most notable hit singles resulting from the show:

  • “Till There Was You” – Anita Bryant (#30, 1959), Valjean (#100, 1962)

Rating:

4.478 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings for cast album and soundtrack combined)


Awards (Cast Album and Soundtrack): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Show:

“The original Broadway cast of Meredith Willson’s most successful musical was headed by Robert Preston, who played the part of Harold Hill, a conman” R-C “intent on swindling the good people of River City, IA, by selling them on a fictitious boys' band.” R-S

“Willson concentrates on percussive effects and rapid-fire spiels for Preston, though the musical standout is Barbara Cook as Marian the Librarian. Highlights of this perennial hit show include Seventy-Six Trombones and Till There Was You.” R-S

“Coming along in the summer of 1962, four and a half years after the Broadway opening, the film version of The Music Man appeared in an era when Hollywood was more likely to be faithful to stage musicals, rather than dramatically altering them, as had been the practice in the past. R-S

The movie version “found Robert Preston re-creating his starring role as conman Professor Harold Hill…and some minor roles were also filled by the Broadway originals. More important, Meredith Willson’s score was rendered intact, the only change being a revision of the song My White Knight into Being in Love.” R-S

“The major casting change was the substitution of Shirley Jones, who had a box-office track record, for Barbara Cook, who did not, in the role of Marian the librarian. Cook may have been preferable, but Jones handled the part well, too.” R-S

“Musically, the big change had to do with scale; the Broadway pit orchestra and original cast were replaced by a vast Hollywood orchestra and chorus, and musical director Ray Heindorf made the most of the larger effects on songs like ‘Seventy Six Trombones’.” R-S

“Still, the music fan who already owned a copy of the original Broadway cast recording didn’t really need to plump for the original motion picture soundtrack, which didn’t keep the album from racing up the charts…as the film became one of the year’s top grossers. But it remains true; unless you are a Shirley Jones fan or want to hear future Andy Griffith Show co-star and film director Ronnie Howard sing Gary, Indiana with a lisp, stick to the Broadway version.” R-S

Resources and Related Links:


First posted 5/19/2011; last updated 12/23/2021.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

50 years ago: Sam Cooke “You Send Me” hit #1

You Send Me

Sam Cooke

Writer(s): Charles “L.C.” Cooke (see lyrics here)


Released: September 7, 1957


First Charted: October 14, 1957


Peak: 13 US, 12 BS, 11 DJ, 2 HP, 13 CB, 14 HR, 16 RB, 29 UK, 12 CN, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 5.0 radio, 9.5 video, 125.63 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

In many ways, Sam Cooke was “the most important Black musician of the late fifties and early sixties.” AH “Without him it’s doubtful…we would have the genre of soul as we know it today.” AH As a teenager in Chicago in the 1940s, he performed in gospel groups. Eventually he became the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers, a group dating back to 1926, and became “one of gospel music’s greatest stars.” SS

By 1956, producer Bumps Blackwell was convinced that Cooke needed to go solo as a secular artist. His first recording session in New Orleans produced the ballad “Lovable.” It was released under the name Dale Cook so as to not tarnish his image as a gospel singer, but fans quickly figured out who it really was. It sold 15,000 copies and failed to chart. SS

Cooke decided it was time to go all in with his own name and a new sound. He sent a six-song demo to Blackwell of himself accompanied only by a guitar. One of the songs was “You Send Me.” SS After they went into the studio to record it, Specialty record executive Art Rupe was “furious…declaring that instead of the exciting gospel-fired singer he’d been expecting, he was getting a bland white-style balladeer.” SS He was also “horrified” by the song featuring white backing vocalists. AH

Blackwell and Cooke left Specialty for Keen Records, a label started just four months earlier. “You Send Me” was released as a single. So that Specialty wouldn’t get any of the royalties, the songwriting credit was given to Cooke’s brother. A Detroit DJ named Casey Kasem (later the host of syndicated radio show American Top 40) helped break the song to mainstream white radio SS and it soared to #1. It became Cooke’s “most famous number and the one that is still most closely associated with him.” DJ


Resources:


Related Links:


First posted 8/6/2023.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Alicia Keys hit #1 with “No One”

No One

Alicia Keys

Writer(s): Alicia Keys, Kerry Brothers Jr., George M. Harry (see lyrics here)


Released: September 11, 2007


First Charted: September 8, 2007


Peak: 15 US, 114 BA, 12 DG, 16 RR, 9 AC, 9 A40, 110 RB, 6 UK, 2 CN, 3 AU, 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 1.2 UK, 13.61 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.8 radio, 745.2 video, 735.29 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Keys told Billboard magazine “This is one song that just wrote itself. A lot of the snogs didn’t happen like that. It was one of the last songs I wrote. I needed to say this. It’s full force, classical yet vintage, desperate yet triumphant. I want people to feel my soul.” BB She told MTV News Canada that the song is about “the way that so many things are around you all time to try to distract you” WK in relationships.

While Keys sometimes had a tendency “towards bloat, overstuffing her songs and albums with not particularly original ideas; she’s pared down her vision since, becoming both more disciplined and more eccentric.” DS With “No One,” however, she created “perhaps the most straightforward, even basic pop this decade has seen, are so obvious as to convert even the most chart-skeptical.” DS

Popjustice called it one of her best singles to date. WK Digital Spy’s Alex Fletcher called it a “simplistic yet beautiful, fluttering, piano-tinkling ballad.” WK Paste’s David Mead said it “showcases a new depth and width to the tone of her voice.” WK

It was the most-listened-to song on American radio in 2008 with 3.08 billion listeners, SF as evidenced by the song topping multiple Billboard pop and R&B-oriented charts. For the week ending December 29, 2007, Keys became the first artist in the history of the R&B/hip-hop charts to have songs at #1 and #2 (“Like You’ll Never See Me Again”) without help from any duet partners or featured artists. SF The song did well internationally as well, hitting #1 in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey. SF


Resources:


Last updated 8/6/2023.