Lady Gaga “Abracdabra” released

Abracadabra Lady Gaga

Writer(s): Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Henry Walter, Susan Janet Ballion, Peter Edward Clarke, Steven Severin,John McGeoch (see lyrics here) Released: February 3, 2025 First Charted: February 12, 2025 Peak: 13 BB, 27 AC, 6 A40, 3 UK, 12 CN, 12 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 0.83 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 268.70 video, 693.33 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Billboard magazine proclaimed that Lady Gaga has “one of the strongest pop catalogs of the last 15 years.” BB’25 It really stretches back a bit farther to 2009 when she established herself as a new dance-pop star with “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.” She also gifted the music world with “Bad Romance,” “Born This Way,” “Shallow,” and “Die with a Smile.” Even amongst such gems, however, 2025’s “Abracadabra” is “one of Gaga’s best-ever singles.” PF Rolling Stone called it “2025’s most inescapable earworm.” RS’25 The “gothic fantasia” BB’25 of this “sleazy, slinky club banger” BB’25 is “a psychedelically weird acid-techno rager that’s so nasty, so potent, that it makes ‘Bad Romance’ sound like Kidz Bop.” PF “The synthesizers fade in and out like a slow-strobing disco light on a foggy dance floor.” RS’25 “Gaga managed to channel the mysticism of Stevie Nicks while remaining true to her singular unconventionality as she sang of devils, angels, self-doubt, love, death and, essentially the meaning of life, in under four minutes.” US She told Rolling Stone “I wanted to traverse old ground while breaking new ground, which I think is hard to do… Maybe the last four or so albums I’ve made, I moved away from that and tried some different things, but this was a return to those Gothic dreams.”RS’25 She told Elle magazine that the song was about “facing the challenge of life and the challenge of the night and finding the magic in it all.” SF She also said, “the song is about dealing with that challenge to yourself and very often the world around us can reflect it back to us as well. I wanted to explore the question, ‘What does it feel like to thrive and not just be surviving all the time?’” SF The song received Grammy nominations for Song and Record of the Year. Resources: BB’25 Billboard (12/11/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025: Staff Picks” PF Pitchfork.com (12/1/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” RS’25 Rolling Stone (12/4/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” SF Songfacts US USAtoday.com (12/17/2025). 10 best songs of 2025, ranked” by Melissa Ruggieri Related Links: First posted 1/19/2026.

Billie Eilish “What Was I Made For?” released

What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish

Writer(s): Billie Eilish O'Connell, Finneas O'Connell (see lyrics here) Released: July 13, 2023 First Charted: July 29, 2023 Peak: 14 BB, 30 AC, 5 A40, 11 UK, 13 CN, 13 AU, 18 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK, 2.70 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 231.10 video, 1069.35 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Entering 2023, Billie Eilish already had a resume most artists could never hope to emulate. The singer/songwriter was born in Los Angeles, California, in 2001. Her debut album, 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and its #1 single “Bad Guy” thrust her into the spotlight. She became the first woman to win the “Big Four” at the Grammys – Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. She released “Everything I Wanted” in late 2019. It was another top-10 hit and won another Grammy for Record of the Year. The following year she wrote “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song. In 2021, she released her second album, Happier Than Ever. It produced three top-10 hits in the United States and topped the charts in 25 countries. This brings us to 2023 when Eilish contributed “What Was I Made For?” to the soundtrack for Barbie. Released in July, the movie made more than a billion dollars, putting it in the top 20 of all time. Her song reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnered her another pair of Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year, winning the latter. Greta Gerwig, the movie’s director, showed Eilish a rough cut of the film. Billie and her brother then wrote “What Was I Made For?” The focus was on the movie’s concept of Barbie being cast out of her utopian existence and into the real world and suffering an existential crisis. SF Eilish said, “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that.” WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/3/2024; last updated 10/16/2024.

Keb’ Mo’ “This is My Home” released

This Is My Home Keb’ Mo’ with Jaci Velasquez

Writer(s): Kevin Moore, John Lewis Parker (see lyrics here) Released: May 31, 2019 First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.14 video, 2.92 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blues singer/songwriter and guitarist Kevin Roosevelt Moore (stage name “Keb’ Mo’”) was born in South Los Angeles, California, on October 3, 1951. He began his musical career playing steel drums in a calypso band before playing blues in various backup bands in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He released his first album, Rainmaker, in 1980 but it was fourteen more years before he put out a follow-up. It was at that point that his career as a solo artist really took off. To date, he has won four Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album and a Grammy for Best American Album. The latter award was for his 2019 album, Oklahoma, which featured the track “This Is My Home.” The song “considers the immigrant experience” AM by telling “a trio of stories about people searching for a better life.” AM He said, Americans need “a reminder that…the longest most of us have been here is 400 years…So we’re all immigrants.” AM “When people start getting down on immigrants, it makes me want to tell a story about Americans who I really respect.” AM The song was inspired by Lupe, his housekeeper in L.A., and the people she introduced him to as well as Mohammed, an Iranian taxi driver who was very kind to Keb’ Mo’ when he didn’t have his wallet. He explained that he opted for a stripped-down arrangement featuring just steel guitar, accordion, and backing vocals from Jack Velasquez. He said, “the point was to not overshadow the story.” AM He also said, “I wanted the guitar to sound a little more exotic, more like world music, tribal, just different, like something from a foreign land.” AM Resources: AM AllMusic.com (5/31/2019). “Keb’ Mo’ Tells the Story Behind His All-American New Track, ‘This Is My Home’” by Chris Steffen Related Links: First posted 3/13/2025.

Bruce Springsteen “American Skin (41 Shots)” premiered live in concert

American Skin (41 Shots) Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Released: April 24, 2001 (live version) and January 14, 2014 (studio version) Recorded: June 4, 2000 (live version) Peak: 1 DF Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.6 video, 8.86 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: On the morning of February 4, 1999, Arnadou Diallo was shot 41 times by four New York City plainclothes officers. The 23-year-old student from Guinea was unarmed; the offices claimed they thought he was a rape suspect and going for a weapon when he reached in his pocket for his wallet. Controversy about issues such as police brutality and racial profiling erupted after the four officers were acquitted on February 25, 2000, for second-degree murder. “Bruce Springsteen’s defining quality…as America’s rock icon is the way he integrates his towering rock and roll energies and innate musicality with his humanitarian vision and passion for life. Sometimes the passion boils over into a cold fury at injustice.” SS Like many, he “felt the shooting was an egregious over-reaction by the police, who killed an innocent man.” SF He wrote “American Skin (41 Shots)” as a protest in response to the incident. “The genius of the song is in moving from the specific details of a young man’s life and the fateful night to the overarching theme of racism and the tragedies that still occur on urban streets.” SS The song “is also balanced with compassion for the cop who must make lightning-swift decisions that can mean life or death. When one officer realizes the horrifying mistake and kneels over the inert body, it’s an unforgettable and moving image.” SS Springsteen premiered the song in concert on June 4, 2000 in Atlanta during his 1999-2000 reunion tour with the E Street Band. The song was recorded live for the band’s Live in New York City album, released in 2001. The song was also featured on The Essential Bruce Springsteen compilation. Springsteen commented in the liner notes that he felt the song was amongst the best he’d ever written and deserved a proper studio recording. He did, in fact, record it in the studio in April 2001 and released it as a rare radio promo-only single. A studio version also appeared on Springsteen’s 2014 album High Hopes, a collection of covers, outtakes, and re-recordings. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) honored Springsteen for the song while the New York City Police Department and the Police Benevolent Association protested against the song with some cops refusing to work security at Springsteen’s shows. He said the song was “not anti-police, but anti-tragedy.” SF Living Colour and Jackson Browne have both performed the song live. Mary J. Blige recorded a studio version of the song with rapper Kendrick Lamar. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bruce Springsteen SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 256-7. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/16/2022; last updated 2/25/2024.

Robert Cray “Smoking Gun” charted

Smoking Gun Robert Cray

Writer(s): Robert Cray, Bruce Bomberg, Richard Cousins (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 29, 1986 Peak: 22 US, 34 CB, 28 GR, 32 RR, 2 AR, 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 6.6 video, 8.05 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blues singer and guitarist Robert Cray was born in 1953 in Columbus, Georgia. He released his first album in 1980, but didn’t really catch on until his fourth album, 1986’s Strong Persuader. It went double platinum and reached #13 on the Billboard album chart, thanks largely to Cray’s only Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Smoking Gun.” The song was the biggest blues hit on the pop charts since B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” in 1969. SS Not only did “Smoking Gun” give Cray pop success, but he found a home at album rock radio where it reached #2 and gave him his first of nine entries on that chart. Cray came along “just when the blues were in desperate need of a new hero in the 1980s.” SS He didn’t fit “the world-weary, almost down-and-out aura that so many of the genre’s performers possess.” AMG He had “good looks, a soulful voice, a distinctive songwriting style, and among the best guitar chops of his generation.” SS Author Tony Russell called him “one of the most important figures” in modern blues…”He steered the music into new territory, pointing out a direction that others could follow.” SS To that end, “Smoking Gun” “ushered in the contemporary blues era with its respectful nod to blues tradition while imparting the genre with an underlying airiness.” AMG Its “arresting, up-tempo groove enliven[s] the otherwise depressing infidelity theme.” AMG It is “a totally compelling blues-rock story song about a man so consumed with jealousy and paranoia that it leads him to disaster.” SS In “the long tradition of great blues creations from the perspective of a psychologically disturbed protagonist” SS we never find out if the girlfriend is actually cheating on him. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert Cray AMG All Music Guide SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 142-3. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/25/2022; last updated 12/26/2022.