DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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 | Dave’s Music Database:Top 50 Songs of 2014 |
These are the top 50 songs of 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. Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here.
DMDB Top 1%:
Resources/Related Links:
First posted 12/31/2014; last updated 1/18/2023. |
 | All of MeJohn Legend |
Writer(s): John Stephens/ Toby Gad (see lyrics here) Released: August 12, 2013 First Charted: September 21, 2013 Peak: 13 US, 15 RR, 17 BA, 110 AC, 14 A40, 13 RB, 2 UK, 15 CN, 13 AU, 10 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 14.0 US, 2.16 UK, 17.33 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1580.0 video, 2079.05 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:“All of Me” took 30 weeks to hit the top of the pop charts, the third-longest climb to the top after Los Del Rio’s “Macarena” and Lonestar’s “Amazed.” A major factor was Legend’s performance of the song at the Grammys in January 2014. As Legend told Billboard, “By all rights, I shouldn’t have gotten that slot to perform by myself…but producer Ken Ehrlich believed in the song and thought it was special enough to deserve its own slot.” SF The song sent him not only to #1 in the U.S., but in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. Rolling Stone’s Jon Dolan called the song a “mountainous piano crusher” WK and Exclaim!’s Ryan Patrick praised what he called “Legend’s current commercially friendly, sentimental sound.” WK Legend premiered the song in June 2013 on Oprah Winfrey’s prime-time television show Oprah’s Next Chapter. It was the third single from his Love in the Future album. Previous singles “Who Do We Think We Are” and “Made to Love” failed to chart. In fact, Legend’s last song to hit the pop charts had been in 2008 with “Green Light,” one of only two Legend songs to hit the top 40. The other was “Ordinary People” in 2005. In fact, in a ten-year career, Legend had only hit the Hot 100 four times, leading to the suspicion that he’d be a respected name in the music industry, but one who never had a major hit. Legend co-wrote this piano-driven ballad with songwriter Toby Gad (Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy”). She suggested to Legend that he write a song as a dedication to model Chrissy Teigen, his then-fiancee and later wife, in the vein of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman.” SF As he told BBC News about Teigen, “She’s definitely affected my songwriting.” SF The two met in 2007 on the set of his video for “Stereo” and married in 2013 in September 14. The black-and-white video, shot just days before the couple’s wedding in Italy, features the two making love and finishes with footage from their actual wedding. Legend sang the song to her during the wedding. Resources:
Last updated 7/21/2023. |
 | Louis ArmstrongTop 50 Songs |
Jazz great Louis Armstrong is easily one of the most important American musical figures of all time. He ranks in the top ten of the DMDB’s Top 100 Music Makers of the Pre-Rock Era list. The renouned singer and trumpet player was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 4, 1901 and died of heart failure on July 6, 1971. By 1918 he was protégé of King Oliver and when Armstrong went to Chicago to join Olivier’s band, it was at the dawn of a new jazz age. By 1926, “Satchmo” formed his own band and recorded songs which helped create a new international audience for jazz. For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. |
Awards:
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Top 50 SongsDave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.
2. What a Wonderful World (1967) 3. Hello, Dolly! (1964) 4. Stardust (1931) * 5. West End Blues (1928) 6. St. Louis Blues (1930) * 7. All of Me (1932) 8. When the Saints Go Marching In (1939) 9. Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1937) * 10. Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1929) *
11. I Got Rhythm (1932) *
21. Heebie Jeebies (1926)
31. A Kiss to Build a Dream On (1951)
41. Blueberry Hill (1956) * * In the event of multiple versions of a song, the DMDB typically recognizes only the highest ranked version. These songs, while all recorded by Armstrong, were recorded by other artists who had higher ranked versions. Resources and Related Links:
First posted 8/4/2012; last updated 6/5/2022. |
 | All of MeLouis Armstrong |
Writer(s): Seymour Simons, Gerald Marks (see lyrics here) First Charted: February 20, 1932 Peak: 12 US, 14 GA (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.27 video, -- streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:Detroit songwriters Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons wrote this jazz standard in 1931. The pair met when Marks was playing with a band at a summer resort in Lake Michigan. Simons, who’d written the hit “Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” a few years earlier, was impressed with a new song Marks played on the piano between sets and, with Marks’ blessing, added lyrics to it. SF The song featured a broken-hearted narrator who can’t imagine how to move on from his ex, singing, “You took the part that once was my heart, so why not take all of me?” SF Marks and Simons couldn’t get anyone to publish the song, but offered it to vaudeville star Belle Baker who’d introduced “Blue Skies” in 1926. SF She performed it onstage at the Motor City’s Fisher Theatre. JS The song became a hit when the national press picked up on a story that Baker, who’d just lost her husband, broke down crying while performing the song. JS She then performed it on the radio in New York, SF thus introducing it to a wider audience. On December 1 of that year, Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra recorded the song with Mildred Bailey on vocals. Their version went to #1 and was quickly followed by another chart-topping version by Louis Armstrong – the highest ranked version in Dave’s Music Database. Others to chart with the song included Ben Selvin (#19, 1932), Count Basie (#14, 1943), Frank Sinatra (#21, 1948), Johnny Ray (#12, 1952), PM and Willie Nelson (#3 country, 1978). Eric Clapton, Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, Paul McCartney, and Sarah Vaughn also recorded the song. SF It was featured in the movies Careless Lady (1932), Meet Danny Wilson (1952), and All of Me (1984). Critic Ted Gioia says the definitive version is by Billie Holiday in 1941: “She staked a claim of ownership that no one has managed to dislodge in subsequent years.” WK Legendary Columbia producer John Hammond, who discovered Holiday, was listening to her version when he died in 1987. SF Resources:
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Last updated 3/20/2023. |
