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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | Dave’s Music Database:Top 50 Songs of 2025 |
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 2%:
Resources/Related Links:
First posted 1/21/2026. |
 | The SubwayChappell Roan |
Writer(s): Chappell Roan, Dan Nigro (see lyrics here) Released: July 31, 2025 First Charted: August 13, 2025 Peak: 3 BB, 29 A40, 11 UK, 4 CN, 4 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.2 UK, 0.78 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 37.35 video, 256.16 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details.
|
About the Song:Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, known professionally as Chappell Roan, established herself as “pop’s most charismatic enigma” US in 2024 with top-five singles “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Pink Pony Club” on the Billboard Hot 100. The next year, she landed two more top-five hits with “The Giver” and “The Subway.” The latter became her highest-charting single in the U.S., reaching #3. Roan had perfomed the “emotionally devastating song” RS’25 live for more than a year before releasing it as a stand-alone single. RS’25 She was reluctant to release a studio version because she thought it “thrived best in a raw, stage-lit context.” SF The song “spotlights her lyrical potency” US as it “turns an everyday run-in with an ex on the subway into a full-blown emotional spiral.” SF “The writing excels at balancing the moment’s melodrama…with pure comedy” BB’25 on this “sumptuous single” BB’25 in which Roan is “trying to banish the memory of an ex.” BB’25 “The familiar dream-pop production” BB’25 blends “Cocteau Twins melodies and melancholic tinges.” RS’25 It has also been described as “a throwback to the ‘90s jangle-pop of The Cranberries and The Sundays.” US “Roan’s singular vocal performance” BB’25 “aches with heartbreak about a moment that might – or might not have - been meant to be.” US “The Subway” was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year. Resources:
Related Links:
First posted 1/18/2026. |
|
| Dave’s Music Database:Top 50 Songs of 2024 |
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%:
Resources/Related Links:
First posted 12/26/2024; last updated 1/21/2026. |
 | Good Luck, Babe!Chappell Roan |
Writer(s): Chappell Roan, Justin Tranter, Dan Nigro (see lyrics here) Released: April 5, 2024 First Charted: April 17, 2024 Peak: 4 BB, 11 RR, 17 AC, 9 A40, 2 UK, 4 CN, 4 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.6 UK, 4.32 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 83.30 video, 1087.71 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
|
About the Song:Singer/songwriter Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz in 1998 in Willard, Missouri. Soon after uploading her song “Die Young” to YouTube in 2014, she was signed to Atlantic Records. She released the EP School Nights in 2017 and the single “Pink Pony Club” in 2020, the same year she was dropped by Atlantic. She started releasing songs independently in 2022 and the next year released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. The album went platinum and reached #2 in the U.S., charting six hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the top 20 hit “Hot to Go!” However, most of that success came after the release of Roan’s freestanding single, “Good Luck, Babe!” became her first chart hit. The song reached the top 10 in multiple countries and went to #1 in Ireland and Poland. It received Grammy nominations for Song and Record of the Year. She said she wanted “to write a big anthemic pop song.” WK While she recorded a demo of the song during the making of the Princess album, it didn’t feel right yet so it was shelved until a few months later. The final result has been described as “soft rock with ‘80s new wave synths” WK and has been compared to Kate Bush and Cyndi Lauper. WK NPR’s Sheldon Pearce called it the best pop song of the year. WK Rolling Stone, NME, and The Guardian all named it the top song of 2024. Songfacts.com called the song “a breakup anthem with a twist.” SF Roan sings about a lesbian woman trying to deny her feelings for Roan and women in general. WK She said, “I needed to write a song about a common situation…within queer releationships – where someone is struggling to coming to terms with themselves. It’s a song about wishing well to someone who is avoidant of their true feelings.” SF Billboard’s Hannah Jocelyn celebrated “the song’s overt LGBTQ themes [that] represented a breakthrough for not just Roan’s career, but also a wider movement of young LGBTQ pop artists.” WK Resources:Related Links:
First posted 1/3/2025. |
