Tate McRae “Sports Car” released

 

Sports Car Tate McRae

Writer(s): Tate McRae, Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder, Grant Boutin (see lyrics here) Released: January 24, 2025 First Charted: February 5, 2025 Peak: 16 BB, 11 RR, 11 A40, 3 UK, 9 CN, 8 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK, 1.92 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 77.13 video, 697.91 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter and dancer Tate McRae was born in Canada in 2003. In 2016, she was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. She charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 with “You Broke Me First” (#16). She released her first album, I Used to Think I Could Fly, in 2022. Her next album, 2023’s Think Later, gave McRae her biggest hit yet with “Greedy” (#3, Billboard Hot 100). Her next album, 2025’s So Close to What, sent three songs into Billboard’s top 40. The most successful was “Sports Car” (#16), a “blunt message here is that there are few greater pleasure enhancers than a fat wallet, particularly if you can uh-uh in its spoils.” PF “Her minimalist sex song of tire squeaks, engine revs, and ASMR-whispered findom demands.” PF It “might be the most emblematic of her skill set as a modern hitmaker: a slick, combustible banger that translates to both top 40 radio and a choreo-heavy arena show. McRae stays comfortable with her flirtatious cooing in the opening chorus, then drops the hammer: a whisper chorus, both audacious and undeniable.” BB’25 “Sports Car” shares the “hyper-sexual” RS’25 quality of the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song),” released two decades earlier. “Sports Car” also “has a whisper chorus…and plenty of her own horny lines – most memorably ‘So good it hurts / Thinkin’ ’bout what we did before this verse.’ Sonically, it echoes Y2K pop like Nelly Furtado and Britney Spears, but with a fresh update.” RS’25 Resources: BB’25 Billboard (12/11/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025: Staff Picks” PF Pitchfork.com (12/1/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” RS’25 Rolling Stone (12/4/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” Related Links: First posted 1/19/2026.

Today in Music (1965): The Rolling Stones No. 2 released

No. 2/Now! The Rolling Stones

Released: 1/15/1965 (#2); 2/2/1965 (Now!) Peak: 5 US, 110 UK, -- CN, 2 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.7 US, -- UK, 2.05 world (includes US and UK), 3.05 EAS Genre: classic rock

Tracks (No. 2): Click on a song title for more details. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love [3:00] Down Home Girl [4:13] You Can’t Catch Me [3:40] Time Is on My Side [2:50] What a Shame [3:06] Grown Up Wrong [2:04] Down the Road a Piece [2:56] Under the Boardwalk [2:45] I Can’t Be Satisfied [3:26] Pain in My Heart [2:12] Off the Hook [2:35] Susie Q [1:59] Total Running Time: 36:58 Tracks (Now!): Click on a song title for more details. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love [3:00] Down Home Girl [4:13] You Can’t Catch Me [3:40] Heart of Stone [2:49] What a Shame [3:06] Mona (I Need You Baby) [3:33] Down the Road a Piece [2:56] Off the Hook [2:35] Pain in My Heart [2:12] Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’) [2:09] Little Red Rooster [3:06] Surprise, Surprise [2:31] Total Running Time: 35:58 The Players: Mick Jagger (vocals, tambourine, harmonica) Keith Richards (guitar, backing vocals) Brian Jones (guitar, backing vocals, harmonica, tambourine, maracas) Bill Wyman (bass, backing vocals) Charlie Watts (drums) Ian Stewart (keyboards)

Rating (No. 2/Now!): 3.940 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Awards (No. 2/Now!): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album The U.S.-only album Now! pulls seven songs from The U.K. album (No. 2 (songs noted above). "Mona" was first released on the U.K. album The Rolling Stones while “Heart of Stone” and “Little Red Rooster” were originally released only as singles in the U.K. At the onset of 1965, the Rolling Stones released their sophomore U.K. effort, an album simply called No. 2. “Recorded sporadically in the UK and US during 1964,” WK-2 the album “followed its predecessor's tendency to largely feature R&B covers…[but also added] compositions from the still-developing Mick Jagger/Keith Richard songwriting team.” WK-2 “While Eric Easton was co-credited as producer alongside Andrew Loog Oldham on The Rolling Stones' debut album, Oldham takes full production duties for …No. 2.” WK-2 “In the usual British Invasion tradition,” RU American albums were “patched together from a variety of sources.” RU The result is that Now! is the Stones’ “best early R&B-oriented effort. Most of the Stones' early albums suffer from three or four very weak cuts; Now! is almost uniformly strong start-to-finish.” RU While four of the songs on No. 2 first saw release on the U.S.-only 12 x 5, seven of the songs from No. 2 show up on Now!, “the third US album…released…by their initial American distributor, London Records.” WK-N No. 2’s only remaining cut, the Stones’ “version of Muddy Waters' ‘I Can't Be Satisfied,’ which…features some killer slide playing by Brian Jones,” BE “wasn't released in America until 1973.” BE The No. 2 cuts that show up on Now! are “all solid numbers.” BE Among the carry-overs are “covers of Down Home Girl [and] Otis Redding's Pain in My Heart.” RU Sitting alongside those songs are “Barbara Lynn's Oh Baby” RU and “Bo Diddley's vibrating Mona,” RU which originally appeared on the UK album The Rolling Stones, but had been replaced by the single ‘Not Fade Away’ on the US counterpart England's Newest Hit Makers. They “are all among the group's best R&B interpretations” (Unterbeger). “The best gem is Little Red Rooster, a pure blues with wonderful slide guitar from Brian Jones (and a #1 single in Britain, although it was only an album track in the U.S.).” RU Also of note was the song "Surprise, Surprise [which] would not officially appear in the UK for several years.” WK-N “Four of the songs on…Now! were penned by the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard (who dropped the "s" from his surname until 1978).” WK-N “As songwriters, [they] are still struggling, but they come up with one of their first winners (and an American Top 20 hit) with the yearning, soulful Heart of Stone.” RU “Due to the preference towards the American albums, ABKCO Records has overlooked both The Rolling Stones and…No. 2 for CD release in 1986 and during its remastering series in 2002. Consequently, the album has been out of print for many years.” WK-2 The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Everybody Needs Somebody to Love The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Bert Berns, Solomon Burke, Jerry Wexler Released: No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Down Home Girl The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Jerry Leiber, Artie Butler Released: No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

You Can’t Catch Me The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Chuck Berry Released: No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Heart of Stone The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Released: 12/19/1964 (US single), Now! (1965) Peak: 19 BB Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

What a Shame The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Released: 12/19/1964 (B-side of “Heart of Stone”), No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Down the Road Apiece The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Don Raye Released: No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

I Can’t Be Satisfied The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Muddy Waters Released: No. 2 (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Pain in My Heart The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Allen Toussaint Released: No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Off the Hook The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Released: 11/13/1964 (B-side of “Little Red Rooster”), No. 2 (1965), Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’) The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Barbara Lynn Ozen Released: Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Little Red Rooster The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): ? Released: 11/13/1964 (UK single), Now! (1965) Peak: 1 UK Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Surprise, Surprise The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Released: Now! (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: A

Resources/References: BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide (review of No. 2) RU Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide (review of Now!) WK-2 Wikipedia.org (review of No. 2) WK-N Wikipedia.org (review of Now!) Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/30/2009; last updated 12/10/2025.

   

Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars hit #1 with “Die with a Smile”

Die with a Smile Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars

Writer(s): Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Andrew Watt (see lyrics here) Released: August 16, 2024 First Charted: August 28, 2024 Peak: 15 BB, 18 BA, 12 DG, 13 ST, 12 RR, 2 AC, 110 A40, 2 UK 16 CN, 2 AU, 24 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.2 UK, 3.91 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2601.43 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: With thirteen #1 Hot 100 hits between them since 2008, a collaboration between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars was a no brainer. The “soft rock-leaning” WK “Die with a Smile” didn’t disappoint; it gave Gaga her sixth chart-topper and was the ninth for Mars. Interestingly though, it took 20 weeks to reach the top in an era when songs often debut in the pole position. The song is about “a powerful longing to be with a loved one, highlighting the urgency and depth of their love in the face of uncertainty and potential endings.” WK Mars invited Gaga to the studio where he had started the track. She said she was blown away by what she heard. The duo finished writing and recording it the same day. WK Gaga said they were inspired by collaborations between Carole King and James Taylor, wanting harmonies that had a ‘70s vibe to them. WK Clash magazine’s Robin Murray said the song displays “undoubted chemistry” and “simple exuberant fun.” WK Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos said it “puts the duo’s soaing vocals on full display.” WK Songfacts.com says “the two bounce off each other’s vocals with all the chemistry of a well-matched tennis pair.” SF “Smile” became the longest-reigning daily number-one song (2oo non-consecutive days) in the history of Spotify WK and was the fastest song in Spotify history to reach both one billion (96 days) and two billion streams. WK It topped the charts in over 30 countries, including the United States and Canada. WK It was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year and won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/15/2025.