The Top 50 Songs of 2012

Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Songs of 2012

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 39 year-end lists (see sources at bottom of page). Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here. DMDB Top 1%: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz “Thrift Shop” Psy “Gangnam Style” The Lumineers “Ho Hey” Bruno Mars “Locked Out of Heaven” Imagine Dragons “Radioactive” Passenger “Let Her Go” Florida Georgia Line with Nelly “Cruise” Pink with Nate Ruess “Just Give Me a Reason” Rihanna “Diamonds” DMDB Top 2%: Maroon 5 “One More Night” Maroon 5 with Wiz Khalifa “Payphone” Taylor Swift “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” Bruno Mars “When I Was Your Man” Imagine Dragons “Demons” Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble” Adele “Skyfall” Mumford & Sons “I Will Wait” Rihanna with Mikky Ekko “Stay” DMDB Top 5%: Nicki Minaj “Starships” Icona Pop with Charli XCX “I Love It” Fun. “Some Nights” Flo Rida “Whistle” will.i.am. with Britney Spears “Scream & Shout” The Neighbourhood “Sweater Weather” Frank Ocean “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You” Phillip Phillips “Home” Bruno Mars “Treasure” Jason Mraz “I Won’t Give Up” Katy Perry “Wide Awake” Miguel “Adorn” Alicia Keys “Girl on Fire” Swedish House Mafiar with John Martin “Don’t You Worry Child” Lana Del Ray with Cedric Gervais “Summertime Sadness” Katy Perry “Part of Me” V.I.C. “Wobble” Capital Cities “Safe and Sound” Pink “Blow Me One Last Kiss” Muse “Madness” Train “Drive By” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with Mary Lambert “Same Love” Justin Bieber “Boyfriend” Emeli Sandé “Next to Me” Taylor Swift “22” Alabama Shakes “Hold On” Disclosure with Sam Smith “Latch” Usher “Climax” The Lumineers “Stubborn Love” Kanye West with Big Sean, Pusha T, & 2 Chainz “Mercy” Kongos “Come with Me Now” Imagine Dragons “On Top of the World” Resources/Related Links: Amazon – best sellers Amazon – critics’ picks AOL Radio Blog Billboard: Hot 100 Billboard: Digital Songs Billboard: Radio Songs Billboard: Adult Contemporary Billboard: Country Billboard: R&B/Hip-Hop Billboard: Rock Billboard: Critics’ picks CNN Complex Consequence of Sound Dummy Mag Entertainment Weekly Esquire Fuse Guardian Huffington Post iTunes Mashable MTV New York Times NPR Paste Pitchfork PopMatters Pretty Much Amazing Refinery 29 Rolling Stone Rolling Stone – readers’ poll Rob Sheffield (of Rolling Stone Spin Spinner Spotify UK’s official charts VH1 First posted 1/2/2013; last updated 1/18/2023.

Grammy Nominations 2013

image from grammy.com

The nominations for the 2013 Grammy Awards were announced in conjunction with a live CBS broadcast in Nashville, Tennessee, which featured performances from Maroon 5, The Who, Fun., Hunter Hayes, The Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, and Luke Bryan. Taylor Swift and LL Cool J hosted. The Grammys will be awarded February 10, 2013. Here were the nominations for the biggest categories:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

• The Black Keys El Camino
• Fun. Some Nights
• Mumford & Sons Babel
• Frank Ocean Channel Orange
• Jack White Blunderbuss

RECORD OF THE YEAR: (goes to the performers)

• The Black Keys “Lonely Boy”
• Kelly Clarkson “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
• Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe “We Are Young”
• Gotye featuring Kimbra “Somebody That I Used to Know”
• Frank Ocean “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You”
• Taylor Swift “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Somebody That I Used to Know

SONG OF THE YEAR: (goes to the songwriters)

• Kelly Clarkson “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
• Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe “We Are Young”
• Carly Rae Jepsen “Call Me Maybe”
• Miguel “Adorn”
• Ed Sheeran “The A Team”

We Are Young

BEST NEW ARTIST:

• Alabama Shakes
• Fun.
• Hunter Hayes
• The Lumineers
• Frank Ocean

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Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, fun., Jay-Z, and Kanye West each scored six nominations. The Black Keys landed five and member Dan Auerbach also got one as producer. Miguel and Chick Corea each nabbed five noms. Among other artists scoring more than one nomination are Kelly Clarkson (4), Taylor Swift (3), Gotye (3), Jack White (3), Bruce Springsteen (3), Hunter Hayes (3), Alabama Shakes (3), Carly Rae Jepsen (2), Maroon 5 (2), Coldplay (2), Muse (2), and the Lumineers (2).

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Resources and Related Links:

• Grammy.com (full list of nominations)
• Wikipedia.org 2013 Grammy Awards

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Fun.’s “We Are Young” hit #1

We Are Young Fun. with Janelle Monáe

Writer(s): Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, Jeffrey Bhasker (see lyrics here) Released: September 20, 2011 First Charted: December 17, 2011 Peak: 16 US, 14 RR, 12 AC, 13 A40, 2 AA, 12 MR, 11 UK, 11 CN, 13 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 1.8 UK, 14.16 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1237.81 video, 1081.28 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: While they won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2013, Fun. had been around since 2008, releasing their debut in 2009 and the follow-up, Some Nights, which garnered them their Grammy, in 2012. The song that put them on the map was “We Are Young,” a mix of power pop and alternative rock with an indie spirit which “captures the moments of youthful exuberance that come with a memorable night out.” SF Lead singer Nate Ruess said the lyrics were inspired by “my worst drinking night of all time.” SF This song and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” were hailed for returning rock to the pop charts. Rolling Stone’s Steve Knopper touted the song’s “sprightly pop-novelty feel” WK while his compatriot, Jody Rosen, described it as “rollickingly catchy” and “emo self-deprecation that leavens the bombast.” WK About.com’s Bill Lamb said the song “carries a hook in the chorus that is likely to stop many listeners dead in their tracks.” WK All Music Guide’s Tim Sendra notes Ruess “provides a very human core that grounds things even as the music builds to ornate crescendos.” AMG Interestingly, the song didn’t become a hit until after landing a Chevrolet ad in Super Bowl XLVI and getting covered for American TV show, Glee. PJ Bloom, the latter’s music supervisor, noted, “Glee doesn’t break bands, we celebrate existing pop success – that’s our core model.” WK He changed his mind after hearing the song once, later calling it one of the “pinnacle song moments of the entire series.” WK The song was propelled to the top of the pop charts, logging seven weeks of digital sales of more than 300,000 – the first to do so. WK It was the first song since Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” to log seven weeks with 120 million radio impressions WK and was the most listened to song on Facebook in 2012. SF It was also featured in another ad in Super Bowl XLVII – this time a Spanish language version of the song for Taco Bell. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Fun. DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Janelle Monáe AMG All Music Guide review by Tim Sendra SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Last updated 2/24/2024.