Ed Sheeran: Top 50 Songs

Ed Sheeran Top 50 Songs

Singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran was born on 2/17/1991 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. He released his debut album, Plus (+) in 2011. His songs “Thinking Out Loud,” “Shape of You,” and “Perfect” are featured in the Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era, 2000-2019. His albums Multiply (X) and Divide (÷) will both be featured in the upcoming Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Albums of the 21st Century. For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Awards:

Top 50 Songs Dave’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. DMDB Top 1%: 1. Shape of You (2017) 2. Thinking Out Loud (2014) 3. Perfect (with Beyoncé, 2017) 4. Love Yourself (written by Sheeran, performed by Justin Bieber) DMDB Top 2%: 5. I Don’t Care (with Justin Bieber, 2019) 6. Bad Habits (2021) DMDB Top 5%: 7. Photograph (2014) 8. The A Team (2011) 9. Castle on the Hill (2017) 10. Shivers (2021) DMDB Top 10%: 11. Don’t (2014) 12. Sing (2014) 13. Beautiful People (with Khalid, 2019) 14. River (with Eminem, 2017) 15. Lego House (2011) 16. Bam Bam (with Camila Cabello, 2022) 17. I See Fire (2013) 18. Everything Has Changed (with Taylor Swift, 2012) 19. Galway Girl (2017) DMDB Top 20%: 20. Happier (2017) 21. Afterglow (2020) 22. Merry Christmas (with Elton John, 2021) 23. End Game (with Taylor Swift & Future, 2017) 24. South of the Border (with Camila Cabello & Cardi B, 2019) 25. Give Me Love (2011) 26. Dive (2017) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 27. Cross Me (with Chance the Rapper & PnB Rock, 2019) 28. One (2014) 29. Supermarket Flowers (2017) 30. Lay It All on Me (with Rudimental, 2015) 31. Those Kinda Nights (with Eminem, 2020) 32. Peru (with Fireboy DML, 2022) 33. How Would You Feel (Paean) (2017) 34. New Man (2017) 35. What Do I Know? (2017) 36. Barcelona (2017) 37. Eraser (2017) 38. Hearts Don’t Break Around Here (2017) 39. Blow (with Chris Stapleton, 2019) 40. Make It Rain (2014) 41. Take Me Back to London (with Stormzy, 2019) 42. Eyes Closed (2023) 43. Own It (with Stormzy & Burna Boy, 2019) 44. Remember the Name (with Eminem & 50 Cent, 2019) 45. Afire Love (2014) 46. The Joker and the Queen (with Taylor Swift, 2021) 47. Candle in the Wind (2014) 48. Bloodstream (with Rudimental, 2014) 49. Antisocial (with Travis Scott, 2019) 50. Overpass Graffiti (2021) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Ed Sheeran Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 5/7/2023.

3/10/2017: Ed Sheeran’s Divide hit #1 in UK for first of 20 weeks

Divide (÷) Ed Sheeran

Released: March 3, 2017 Charted: March 10, 2017 Peak: 12 US, 120 UK, 19 CN, 127 AU Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 3.71 UK, 13.28 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Eraser (3/25/17, 90 US, 14 UK, 36 CN 31 AU, UK sales: 0.2 million) Castle on the Hill (1/6/17, 6 US, 7 AAA, 2 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU, worldwide sales: 3.9 million) Dive (3/25/17, 49 US, 8 UK, 19 CN, 5 AU, UK sales: 0.2 million) Shape of You (1/6/17, 112 US, 124 AC, 112 A40, 114 UK, 116 CN, 115 AU, worldwide sales: 17.03 million) Perfect (remix with Beyonce, 3/25/17, 16 US, 122 AC, 19 A40, 16 UK, 16 CN, 18 AU, worldwide sales: 13.5 million) Galway Girl (3/17/17, 53 US, 2 UK, 16 CN, 2 AU, worldwide sales: 2.546 million) Happier (3/25/17, 59 US, 6 UK, 22 CN, 16 AU, UK sales: 0.4 million) New Man (3/25/17, 72 US, 5 UK, 21 CN, 20 AU, UK sales: 0.4 million) Hearts Don’t Break Around Here (3/25/17, 93 US, 15 UK, 42 CN, 32 AU, UK sales: 0.2 million) What Do I Know? (3/25/17, 83 US, 9 UK, 26 CN, 24 AU, UK sales: 0.4 million) How Would You Feel (Paean) (2/17/17, 41 US, 2 UK, 19 CN, 2 AU, worldwide sales: 0.51 million) Supermarket Flowers (3/25/17, 75 US, 8 UK, 31 CN, 19 AU, UK sales: 0.4 million) Total Running Time: 46:14

Rating: 3.607 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: With his sophomore album, X, Sheeran soared to new heights any pop star would envy. In his native UK, every song from the album either charted or sold 200,000 copies. With Divide (÷), a Grammy winner for Pop Vocal Album, Sheeran replicated that feat in the UK, but also pulled it off in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. All 16 songs from the deluxe edition hit the top 20 in the UK. Sheeran set a record by landing 9 songs in the top 10 simultaneously when the album debuted. WK His dominance on the UK chart was so prevalent, the Official Charts Company changed their rules for streaming songs to hit the charts. WK “Sheeran long ago perfected his rapping busker schtick, which frees him to fulfill his destiny as an adult alternative troubadour.” AMG He blends “acoustic sensitive-guy vibes with digital-age craft” RS to help “make over pop’s sound.” RS “Like its predecessors, …[it] is colorful and lithe, casually hopscotching from style to style without ever drawing attention to its range.” AMGIt all helps to make this “his easiest album to enjoy.” AMG Rolling Stone’s Maura Johnston noted that on Divide “Ed is still showcasing pop savvy.” WK Rosie O’Connor of The Independent praised it as “astonishing for its sheer ambition alone.” WK NME’s Jordan Bassett said the album “somehow adheres to his perfect pop template while also being quietly weird.” WK Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press said the album would “definitely multiple [Sheeran’s] bank account.” WK His biggest hit from X was “Thinking Out Loud,” a ballad which hit #2 on the US charts and would, for most artists, be their career song. Sheeran, however, topped that feat in the US with two #1 hits from Divide: the “beat-heavy, body-focused track” RS Shape of You and Perfect, “a lushly arranged love song that evokes golden-age pop.” RS The former was one of two lead singles to support the album. Castle on the Hill was released simultaneously. “Castle” “balances jittery guitars and a massive chorus” RS as it “strives for a Glastonbury-ready rock grandeur à la U2, Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons.” RS Galway Girl was the official follow-up single to the one-two punch of “Shape” and “Castle.” Sheeran puts “his own spin on the Irish drinking song to the present-day pop world in a modern-day jig that recalls a synthesis of Justin Timberlake meets the Pogues.” RS The song “pays tribute to a fiddle-playing Irish lass who isn’t above chowing down on Doritos when bringing a guy home – and it even brings some Emerald Isle-inspired bounce into the mix.” RS “Dive finds Sheeran easing into old-fashioned Memphis soul.” AMG “The deceptively breezy alt-acoustic New Man is an acidic rebuke of an ex’s new boyfriend’s faults.” RS “The album closer, Supermarket Flowers, is a wispy ballad Sheeran wrote as a tribute to his late grandmother, a retelling of the aftermath of her funeral from the perspective of his mother.” RS

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide RS Rolling Stone WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/7/2019; last updated 4/30/2022.

Ed Sheeran debuted at #1 with “Shape of You”

Shape of You Ed Sheeran

Writer(s): Ed Sheeran, Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid, Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, Kevin Briggs (see lyrics here) Released: January 6, 2017 First Charted: January 28, 2017 Peak: 112 US, 112 BA, 110 DG, 14 ST, 19 RR, 124 AC, 112 A40, 114 UK, 116 CN, 115 AU, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 12.54 US, 4.99 UK, 41.5 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 5.0 radio, 6511.2 video, 3552.21 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Shape of You” emerged from a writing session with Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid. They set the song aside, thinking it didn’t fit Sheeran, and wrote two more songs. SF Wanting an R&B feel for the song, he added an interpolation of TLC’s 1999 #1 hit “No Scrubs.” WK When Sheeran listened to the song again at the end of the session, he wondered if it might be a good fit for Rihanna. SF When Sheeran met with the Atlantic UK label executives, he played what he thought was the completed album – and then played “Shape of You.” The execs not only thought he should keep the song instead of giving it away, but even thought it should be the single. SF As Sheeran said, “it took…the guys I wrote it with probably about a month or two to convince me that should even be on the album, and probably took them another month to convince me that it should be a single.” SF Sheeran decided to put it out as a single, but simultaneously released “Castle on the Hill,” since he said, they “were kind of opposing ends of the album.” SF “Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill” – debuted at numbers 1 and 2 respectively on the UK chart, making him the first artist to accomplish the feat. WK The pair also debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first time an artist had done that in the U.S. SF “Shape” launched at #1, giving Sheeran his first U.S. chart-topper. The song stayed on top for 12 non-consecutive weeks and stayed in the top 10 for a record-setting 33 weeks. WK The song proved a success worldwide, reaching the pinnacle of the charts in 44 countries. WK It also amassed 1.32 billion streams on Spotify by September 2017, making it the service’s most-streamed song of all time. WK It also set a record for the most streams in a single day when, in its first 24 hours, the song was played 6.8 million times. SF Once the album was released, Sheeran broke his own record with over 10 million streams in 24 hours. SF On YouTube, it became the third most-watched music video ever with over 3 billion views. WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 7/25/2023.