Dr. Luke: Top 50 Songs

Dr. Luke Top 50 Songs

American songwriter and record producer born Lukasz Gottwald in Providence, RI on 9/26/1973. Often worked with Max Martin. Wrote and produced singles for Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, and Ke$ha; the latter alleged sexual assault and abuse by Gottwald. 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 These are the top 50 songs co-written and/or produced by Dr. Luke. 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. The song’s chart peaks in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) are listed after the year of the song’s release. DMDB Top 1%: 1. Ke$ha “Tik Tok” (2009) #1 US, 4 UK 2. Katy Perry “Roar” (2013) #1 US, 1 UK 3. Katy Perry with Snoop Dogg “California Gurls” (2010) #1 US, 1 UK 4. Katy Perry “I Kissed a Girl” (2008) #1 US, 1 UK 5. Katy Perry with Juicy J “Dark Horse” (2013) #1 US, 4 UK 6. Miley Cyrus “Party in the U.S.A.” (2009) #2 US, 11 UK 7. Flo Rida & Ke$ha “Right Round” (2009) #1 US, 1 UK 8. Maroon 5 “Sugar” (2014) #2 US, 7 UK 9. Pitbull & Ke$ha “Timber” (2013) #1 US, 1 UK 10. Kelly Clarkson “Since U Been Gone” (2004) #2 US, 5 UK 11. Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball” (2013) #1 US, 1 UK 12. Taio Cruz “Dynamite” (2010) #2 US, 1 UK DMDB Top 2%: 13. Katy Perry “Hot N Cold” (2008) #3 US, 4 UK 14. Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” (2007) #1 US, 2 UK 15. Katy Perry & Kanye West “E.T.” (2010) #1 US, 3 UK 16. Doja Cat “Say So” (2019) #1 US, 2 UK 17. Katy Perry “Teenage Dream” (2010) #1 US, 2 UK DMDB Top 5%: 18. Katy Perry “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (2010) #1 US, 9 UK 19. Flo Rida “Good Feeling” (2011) #3 US, 1 UK 20. Doja Cat & SZA “Kiss Me More” (2021) #3 US, 3 UK 21. Kelly Clarkson “My Life Would Suck Without You” (2009) #1 US, 1 UK 22. Doja Cat “Woman” (2021) #7 US, 13 UK 23. Katy Perry “Wide Awake” (2012) #2 US, 9 UK 24. Jessie J & B.o.B. “Price Tag” (2011) #23 US, 1 UK 25. Katy Perry “Part of Me” (2012) #1 US, 1 UK 26. Doja Cat “Need to Know” (2021) #8 US, 11 UK 27. Pink “U + Ur Hand” (2006) #9 US, 10 UK 28. Ke$ha “We R Who We R” (2010) #1 US, 1 UK 29. Britney Spears “Circus” (2008) #3 US, 13 UK 30. Doja Cat & The Weeknd “You Right” (2021) #11 US, 9 UK 31. Pink “Who Knew” (2006) #9 US, 5 UK 32. Kelly Clarkson “Behind These Hazel Eyes” (2004) #6 US, 9 UK 33. Katy Perry “The One That Got Away” (2010) <#3 US, 18 UK DMDB Top 10%: 34. Nicki Minaj “Super Freaky Girl” (2022) #1 US, 10 UK 35. Latto “Big Energy” (2021) #3 US, 21 UK 36. Rihanna “Where Have You Been” (2010) #5 US, 6 UK 37. Pitbull & Ne-Yo “Time of Our Lives” (2014) #9 US, 51 UK 38. Saweetie & Doja Cat “Best Friend” (2021) #14 US, 35 UK 39. Jessie J “Domino” (2011) #6 US, 1 UK 40. Rock City with Adam Levine “Locked Away” (2015) #6 US, 2 UK 41. Britney Spears with Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha “Till the World Ends” (2011) #3 US, 21 UK 42. Ke$ha “Die Young” (2012) #2 US, 7 UK 43. Ke$ha “Blow” (2010) #7 US, 7 UK 44. Ke$ha “Take It Off” (2010) #8 US, 15 UK DMDB Top 20%: 45. Britney Spears “Hold It Against Me” (2011) #1 US, 6 UK 46. Nicki Minaj with Drake, Lil Wayne, & Chris Brown “Only” (2014) #12 US, 35 UK 47. Avril Lavigne “Keep Holding On” (2006) #17 US, -- UK 48. Katy Perry “Unconditionally” (2013) #14 US, 25 UK 49. Karmin “Brokenhearted” (2012) #16 US, 6 UK 50. Rihanna “You Da One” (2011) #14 US, 16 UK Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Dr. Luke Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 7/27/2023; last updated 8/9/2023.

Katy Perry hits #1 with “Roar”

Roar Katy Perry

Writer(s): Katy Perry, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Henry Walter (see lyrics here) Released: August 10, 2013 First Charted: August 11, 2013 Peak: 12 US, 14 BA, 14 DG, 11 ST, 15 RR, 115 AC, 15 A40, 12 UK, 15 CN, 19 AU, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 2.4 UK, 16.1 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.14 radio, 3254.4 video, 980.24 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: For the lead single for her Prism album, Katy Perry and her songwriting team crafted a message of empowerment, which many saw as a commentary on her failed marriage to Russell Brand. She told BBC Radio 1 “I wrote it because I was sick of keeping all these feelings inside me and not speaking up for myself.” SF Fellow co-writer Bonnie McKee described it as a “pick yourself up and dust yourself off and keep going” song. WK Max Martin, another of the songwriters, talked about seeing a video of the staff from a children’s hospital singing the song. “A song finds its way outside the studio and comes to really mean something to people. It’s not every time that I’m proud of a tune, but I am when it comes to a song like ‘Roar.’” SF Musically, the song “features elements of arena rock” WK while the lyrics reference Muhammad Ali, Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” and the “eye of the tiger” phrase from the 1982 movie Rocky III. The movie’s main character, Rocky Balboa, used the phrase as “a mantra of courage and determination.” SF The movie’s theme song, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, topped the U.S. charts for six weeks. MTV’s James Montgomery called it “one of the more perfect pop songs to come down the pipeline in quite a while.” WK There was controversy over the song’s similarities to Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.” McKee said she’d never heard the song and noted it was written before “Brave” even came out. SF Bareilles said “People got really excited about being angry about something…Katy is an old friend and I had no beef with her.” SF “If I’m not mad, I don’t know why anybody else is upset.” WK “Roar” hit #1 in 15 countries, SF including the U.S., where it was her eighth #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was only the eleventh song to debut at #1 on the Canadian Hot 100 WK and Australia’s best-selling song of 2013. SF. It was certified for more than ten million sales in the U.S., making her the first act with three songs in that range. WK Perry became the first artist in history to have two videos garner one billion views on Vevo. WK It garnered Peoples’ Choice Awards for Favorite Music Video and Favorite Song. Perry opened her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show with the song and also performed it at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. The video cast Perry as a kind of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. The presence of exotic animals earned criticism from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Spokeswoman Merrilee Burke said that just having them on set exposed the animals to unnecessary stress. SF Perry responded with a letter from the American Humane Society affirming “that no animal was harmed in the making of this music video.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Katy Perry DMDB encyclopedia entry for Max Martin SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 7/27/2023.