The Top 50 Songs of 2007

Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Songs of 2007

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%: Rihanna with Jay-Z “Umbrella” Flo Rida & T-Pain “Low” Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love” Alicia Keys “No One” Kanye West with Daft Punk “Stronger” Soulja Boy Tell’em “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” M.I.A. “Paper Planes” DMDB Top 2%: Kid Rock “All Summer Long” Sara Bareilles “Love Song” Rihanna “Don’t Stop the Music” Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” Timbaland with Keri Hilson & D.O.E. “The Way I Are” Cupid “Cupid Shuffle” Chris Brown “Forever” Foo Fighters “The Pretender” DMDB Top 5%: Colbie Caillat “Bubbly” Sean Kingston “Beautiful Girls” Maroon 5 “Makes Me Wonder” Finger Eleven “Paralyzer” Akon “Don’t Matter” The White Stripes “Icky Thump” T-Pain with Yung Joc “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” Linkin Park “What I’ve Done” Chris Brown “With You” MGMT “Time to Pretend” Feist “1234” Timbaland with Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake “Give It to Me” Mike “Grace Kelly” Beyoncé with Shakira “Beautiful Liar” Chris Brown with T-Pain “Kiss Kiss” LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends” Seether “Fake It” Mims “This Is Why I’m Hot” Sugarland “Stay” Michael Bublé “ “Everything” MGMT “Kids” Da Shop Boyz “Party Like a Rock Star” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Please Read the Letter” Kaiser Chiefs “Ruby” Brandi Carlile “The Story” Paramore “Misery Business” Linkin Park “Shadow of the Day” Bruce Springsteen “Radio Nowhere” One Republic “Stop and Stare” Jack Johnson “If I Had Eyes” Fall Out Boy “Thnks fr the Mmrs” Silverchair “Straight Lines” Marc Ronson with Amy Winehouse “Valerie” Rihanna with Ne-Yo “Hate That I Love You” Foo Fighters “Long Road to Ruin” Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Top Songs and Albums by Year lists Dave’s Music Database: Songs of the Decade lists First posted 1/4/2024.

 

Kanye West “Stronger” hit #1

Stronger Kanye West with Daft Punk

Writer(s): Kanye West, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Edwin Birdsong (see lyrics here) Released: July 31, 2007 First Charted: July 22, 2007 Peak: 11 US, 12 RR, 11 BA, 12 DG, 30 RB, 12 UK, 13 CN, 2 AU, 30 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 0.27 UK, 14.55 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.4 radio, 453.4 video, 1194.39 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In 2007, Kanye West was “the most interesting person in all of popular music. He knew it, too. If anything he knew it too well.” SG On the strength of his critical and commercial successes with his first two albums, College Dropout and Late Registration, he “had emerged as a new evolution of the A-list rap star – the middle-class striver who produces his own tracks, who’s more interested in fashion and tastemaker business than the sometimes-hermetic rap world, and whose insecurity and egomania often melted together into one enormous whole.” SG After touring stadiums as an opening act for U2 and the Rolling Stones, he “figured out that dense wordplay and meditations on internal conflict simply couldn’t work on that big a scale. Instead, Kanye wanted to make…songs that would sound enormous, songs that could trigger mass singalongs. ‘Stronger’ might represent the biggest, loudest, most successful example of the form.” SG The song is built on a sample of “French house duo Daft Punk’s almight 2001 track ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.’” SG His first exposure to the group was via the Busta Rhymes’ 2005 “Touch It” which sample Daft Punk’s “Technologic.” Kanye’s tour DJ, A-Trak, played more Daft Punk for Kanye, who decided he had to sample “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” A-Trak thought it “was a terrible idea, that the samle was too obvious. Kanye didn’t care.” SG Interestingly, Daft Punk built the song on a sample as well – of “Edwin Birdsong’s 1979 funk obscurity ‘Cola Bottle Baby.’” SG Birdsong and both members of Daft Punk get songwriting credits on “Stronger.” West “arguably did more with his Daft Punk sample than Daft punk did with their Edwin Birdsong sample” SG and “encouraged other hip-hop artists to incorporate house and electronica elements into their music.” WK Kanye also “did everything in his power to make the original track sound ever bigger and more cinematic,” SG reportedly remixing the song 75 times. WK Daft Punk were “delighted” WK with the results. West, however, did not “give that same obsessive attention to his ‘Stronger’ lyrics,” SG a song “about the resolve that comes when one is faced with adversity.” WK “Most of Kanye’s lines are about his own greatness” SG and some of the lyrics are “dumb…and “derivative”SG but also nonspecific enough “that people can use [them] as thei own anthems.” SG That’s why the song ultimately works “as a colossal anthem about personal empowerment.” SG Resources: SG Stereogum (3/31/2023). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/25/2023.

Kanye West's Graduation debuted at #1

Graduation Kanye West

Released: September 11, 2007 Charted: September 29, 2007 Peak: 11 US, 13 RB, 11 UK, 11 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 0.6 UK, 6.06 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rap

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Good Morning Champion (3/8/08, 99 RB) Stronger [with Daft Punk] (8/11/07, 1 US, 30 RB, 1 UK) I Wonder Good Life [with T-Pain] (9/22/07, 7 US, 3 RB, 23 UK) Can’t Tell Me Nothing (6/9/07, 80 US, 20 RB) Barry Bonds [with Lil’ Wayne] Drunk and Hot Girls [with Mos Def] Flashing Lights [with Dwele] (11/10/07, 29 US, 12 RB) Everything I Am [with DJ Premiere] The Glory Homecoming [with Chris Martin] (1/19/08, 69 US, 9 UK) Big Brother Total Running Time: 51:23

Rating: 3.960 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Kanye’s first album, The College Dropout “was one of the most anticipated debuts of the early 2000s.” AMG On Late Registration, his second release, he worked “extensively with multi-instrumentalist rock producer Jon Brion” AMG and people wondered If “Kanye’s hubristic tendencies would get the better of it.” AMG “With Graduation, there was Takashi Murakami’s artwork, a silly first-week sales competition with the decreasingly relevant 50 Cent, and chatter about synthesizers running wild. That was about it, but it all seemed loud and prevalent, due in part to a lack of high-profile rap albums released in 2007.” AMG “Graduation is neither as bold nor as scattered as The College Dropout, and it’s neither as extroverted nor as sonically rich as Late Registration. Kanye still makes up for his shortcomings as an MC and lyricist by remaining charmingly clumsy, frequently dealing nonsense through suspect rhyme schemes: ‘I never be picture-perfect Beyonce / Be light as Al B. or black as Chauncey / Remember him from Blackstreet, he was black as the street was / I never be laid-back as this beat was.’” AMG “The songs that are thematically distanced, introspective, and/or wary; there are many of them are, in turn, made more palatable than insufferable. That his humor remains a constant is a crucial aspect of the album, especially considering that most other MCs would sound embittered and hostile if they were handling similar subjects, like haters new and old, being a braggart with a persistent underdog complex, getting wrapped up in spending and flaunting, and the many hassles of being a hedonist.” AMG “Those who have admired Kanye as a sharp producer while detesting him as an inept MC might find the gleaming synth sprites, as heard most prominently throughout Flashing Lights and Stronger, to be one of the most glaring deal-breakers in hip-hop history. Though the synthesizer use marks a clear, conscious diversion from Kanye’s past productions, highlights like I Wonder, The Glory, and Everything I Am are deeply rooted in the Kanye of old, using nostalgia-inducing samples, elegant pianos and strings, and gospel choirs. So, no, he’s not dreaming of fronting A Flock of Seagulls or joining Daft Punk. He’s being his shrewd, occasionally foolish, and adventurous self.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG Andy Kellman, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 12/24/2008; last updated 4/30/2022.