Dave’s Faves: Songs of the Year

Dave’s Faves: Songs of the Year, 1900-2024

These are my personal favorite songs for each year from 1900 to present. Click here to see other Dave’s Faves song lists. 2024: Shaboozey “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” 2023: Noah Kahan & Post Malone “Dial Drunk” 2022: Lyle Lovett “12th of June” 2021: John Mellencamp with Bruce Springsteen “Wasted Days” 2020: Fish “This Party’s Over” 2019: Sheryl Crow with Johnny Cash “Redemption Day” 2018: Lady Gaga with Bradley Cooper “Shallow” 2017: Keala Settle with the Greatest Show Ensemble “This Is Me” 2016: Sturgill Simpson “In Bloom” 2015: Michael Franti & Spearhead with Sonna Rele “Once a Day” 2014: The War on Drugs “Under the Pressure” 2013: Charles Bradley “Changes” 2012: Willie Nelson with Lukas Nelson “Just Breathe” 2011: Gotye with Kimbra “Somebody That I Used to Know” 2010: Michael Franti & Spearhead “The Sound of Sunshine” 2009: Pearl Jam “Just Breathe” 2008: John Mellencamp “If I Die Sudden” 2007: Crowded House “Silent House” 2006: Dresden Dolls “Sing” 2005: Sandi Thom “I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker with Flowers in My Hair” 2004: Beck “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” 2003: Michael Franti & Spearhead “Everyone Deserves Music” 2002: Michael Andrews & Gary Jules “Mad World” 2001: Alan Jackson “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” 2000: Eminem with Dido “Stan” 1999: Bruce Springsteen “American Skin (41 Shots)” 1998: Lyle Lovett “Step Inside This House” 1997: Marillion “Estonia” 1996: K’s Choice “Not an Addict” 1995: Melissa Etheridge with Bruce Springsteen “Thunder Road (live)” 1994: Frente! “Bizarre Love Triangle” 1993: Israel Kamakawiwo’ole “Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” 1992: Shawn Colvin “I Don’t Know Why” 1991: Tori Amos “Me and a Gun” 1990: Toy Matinee “There Was a Little Boy” 1989: Indigo Girls “Closer to Fine” 1988: Kate Bush “This Woman’s Work” 1987: R.E.M. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” 1986: David + David “Welcome to the Boomtown” 1985: Marillion “Kayleigh” 1984: U2 “Bad” 1983: Marillion “Script for a Jester’s Tear” 1982: The Alan Parsons Project “Old and Wise” 1981: Squeeze “Tempted” 1980: Peter Gabriel “Biko” 1979: The Police “Message in a Bottle” 1978: Styx “Renegade” 1977: Styx “Come Sail Away” 1976: Eagles “Hotel California” 1975: Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” 1974: Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the Cradle” 1973: Eagles “Desperado” 1972: Lou Reed “Walk on the Wild Side” 1971: Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven” 1970: Derek & the Dominos “Layla” 1969: The Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” 1968: Otis Redding “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” 1967: The Beatles “A Day in the Life” 1966: Four Tops “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” 1965: The Rolling Stones “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” 1964: Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come 1963: The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” 1962: The Contours “Do You Love Me” 1961: Ben E. King “Stand by Me” 1960: Chubby Checker “The Twist” 1959: Wilbert Harrison “Kansas City” 1958: Harry Simeone Chorale “The Little Drummer Boy” 1957: Buddy Holly & the Crickets “That’ll Be the Day” 1956: Elvis Presley “Hound Dog” 1955: Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” 1954: Bill Haley & His Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock” 1953: Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart” 1952: Gene Kelly “Singin’ in the Rain” 1951: Bing Crosby “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” 1950: Nat “King” Cole “Mona Lisa” 1949: Gene Autry & the Pinafores “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” 1948: Art Mooney “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” 1947: Hank Williams “Move It on Over” 1946: Nat “King” Cole “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” 1945: Vaughn Monroe “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” 1944: Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” 1943: Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters “Jingle Bells” 1942: Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers & the John Scott Trotter Orchestra “White Christmas” 1941: Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke & the Four Modernaires “Chattanooga Choo Choo” 1940: Cliff Edwards “When You Wish Upon a Star” 1939: Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit” 1938: Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb & His Orchestra “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” 1937: Seven Dwarfs “Whistle While You Work” 1936: Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues (aka ‘Crossroads’)” 1935: Bing Crosby “Silent Night” 1934: Guy Lombardo “Winter Wonderland” 1933: Ethel Waters “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” 1932: Fred Astaire “Night and Day” 1931: Rudy Vallee “As Time Goes By” 1930: Ben Selvin “Happy Days Are Here Again” 1929: Nick Lucas “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” 1928: Helen Kane “I Wanna Be Loved by You” 1927: Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” 1926: Gene Austin “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” 1925: Louise Homer “America the Beautiful” 1924: Isham Jones “It Had to Be You” 1923: Isham Jones “Who’s Sorry Now” 1922: Ben Selvin “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” 1921: Marion Harris “I Ain’t Got Nobody” 1920: Al Jolson “Swanee” 1919: Orpheus Quartet “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (as “Bring Back My Bonnie to Me”) 1918: Ernestine Schumann-Heink “Danny Boy” 1917: American Quartet “Over There” 1916: Prince’s Orchestra “The Star Spangled Banner” 1915: John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” 1914: Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “The Aba Daba Honeymoon” 1913: Walter Van Brunt “And the Green Grass Grew All Around” 1912: American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” 1911: Arthur Clough & the Brunswick Quartet “Down by the Old Mill Stream” 1910: Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” 1909: Arthur Pryor’s Band “1812 Overture” 1908: Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” 1907: Frank Stanley “Auld Lang Syne” 1906: Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” 1905: Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” 1904: Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” 1903: Haydn Quartet “In the Good Old Summertime” 1902: Arthur Collins “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home” 1901: Harry MacDonough & Grace Spencer “Tell Me, Pretty Maiden” 1900: Vess Ossman “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Dave’s Faves: Song Lists” Dave’s Music Database: “Dave’s Faves: Albums/Works” Dave’s Music Database: “Dave’s Faves: Top 100 Acts” Dave’s Music Database: Other Best-of Song Lists Last updated 1/1/2025.

2016: Top 25 Albums

First posted 1/8/2021.

Dave’s Music Database: Top Albums of 2016

Based on a combination of year-end lists and overall status in Dave’s Music Database, these are the top 25 albums of 2016: Beyoncé Lemonade David Bowie Blackstar Drake Views Frank Ocean Blond Rihanna Anti Solange A Seat at the Table Sturgill Simpson A Sailor’s Guide to Earth Bruno Mars 24K Magic Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker The Weeknd Starboy A Tribe Called Quest We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service Chance the Rapper Coloring Book Miranda Lambert The Weight of These Wings Bon Iver 22, a Million The 1975 I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It Kane Brown Kane Brown Childish Gambino Awaken, My Love! Moana soundtrack Ariana Grande Dangerous Woman Post Malone Stoney Keith Urban Ripcord Lady Gaga Joanne Kendrick Lamar Untitled, Unmastered Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Other Year-End Album Awards”

Sturgill Simpson released A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

A Sailor’s Guide to Earth Sturgill Simpson

Released: April 16, 2016 Peak: 3 US, 11 CW, 43 UK, 31 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.22 US Genre: country

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) Breakers Roar Keep It Between the Lines (1/30/17, --) Sea Stories In Bloom (3/24/16, 48 CW) Brace for Impact (Live a Little) (3/3/16, 23 AA) All Around You Oh Sarah Call to Arms Total Running Time: 38:54

Rating: 4.153 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Sturgill Simpson’s debut album, 2013’s High Top Mountain, suggested his “retro sensibilities…seemed to be rooted solely in outlaw country; he swaggered like the second coming of Waylon Jennings, a man on a mission to restore muscle and drama to country music.” AMG Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, his 2014 sophomore release, “dragged ‘outlaw country’ into modern times with acid-tongued clarity and a world-weary sense of humor.” PF It “was a curve ball revealing just how unorthodox his rulebook was. Sturgill embraced indulgence, pushing new wave, psychedelia, and digital-age saturation, all in an attempt to add the cosmic back into American music.” AMG “Its perspective was so refreshing that other like-minded albums” PF such as Chris Stapleton’s Traveller took off as well. “While Simpson could have easily milked a few records out of that glum sound and guaranteed industry adulations for decades, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth represents a startling change in tone and presents a wealth of rewards for every creative risk.” PF It “is such a rearrangement of Simpson’s sonic universe that any previous categorization now seems out of date.” PF “Instead of…finding a voice in classic country – Simpson himself smirks at the notion that he is a modern Waylon Jennings…Simpson is doing something far more difficult.” PF On the previous album, he tackled a cover of the late-‘80s new wave hit “The Promise” by When in Rome. Here he performs a similarly astonishing “countrypolitan Nirvana cover” PF of In Bloom. This is “an old-fashioned concept album, one that tells a story.” AMG “Simpson draws from his time in the Navy, where he was stationed in Japan, and the record is framed as a sailor’s letter home to his wife and newborn son” PF “telling him how to become a man.” AMG “It’s a deeply personal album” PF “loosely based on a letter his grandfather wrote his grandmother” PF which “displays an artistic growth that defies any sort of easy label” PF “while establishing Simpson as the defining songwriter of his class.” PF Musically, he crafts songs “that veer closer to soul than country.” AMG Simpson is “equally attracted to the symphonic haze of progressive folk and the boundary-blurring soul of Muscle Shoals, using its thick swathes of horns and smears of slide guitar as binding agents.” AMG “The instrumentation on songs like Keep It Between the Lines – much of it provided by Sharon Jones’ backing bad, the Dap-King – is denser, bolder, and more rhythmic than anything Simpson has steered previously.” PF He also makes “room for more contemplative moments like the tender ballad Oh Sarah. On Sea Stories, Simpson shouts “‘Get high, play a little GoldenEye / That old 64!’ like he’s fondly remembering an old Cadillac—while taking a completely different journey.” PF “The result is a beautiful and earnest record.” PF

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Sturgill Simpson AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine PF Pitchfork WK Wikipedia First posted 4/29/2022.

Nirvana released “In Bloom”

In Bloom Nirvana

Writer(s): Kurt Cobain (see lyrics here) Released: November 30, 1992 First Charted: December 12, 1992 Peak: 5 AR, 28 UK, 73 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK, 0.2 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.131 radio, 135.8 video, -- streaming

Awards (Nirvana): Awards (Sturgill Simpson):

About the Song: Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain wrote “In Bloom” after their debut album, Bleach, was released on Sub Pop. The song was an attack on those outside the underground music community who started showing up at Nirvana’s shows, but didn’t understand the band’s message. WK Cobain said the song was an attack on “rednecks, macho men, and abusive people.” SF He told Melody Maker magazine, “I didn’t like the cheerleader type of girl or want to hang out with the jock boys. I chose to live the life of a recluse. I didn’t hang out with anyone else because I couldn’t handle their stupidity.” SF The band first recorded the song in April 1990 for what was then intended as their second album for Sub Pop. They even recorded a video for the song. When Nirvana signed to DGC Records, they started work on Nevermind in May 1991 and “In Bloom” was one of the first songs they revisited. It ended up as the fourth single from Nevermind, released over a year after the album first dropped. A new video for the song was shot which parodied variety shows from the 1960s, like The Ed Sullivan Show. The host introduces the band as “thoroughly all right and decent fellas” and mispronounces their name. A crowd of teenagers screams throughout the song and the band destroys the set and their instruments by the song’s conclusion. Two different versions were shot, one in which the band performed in dresses and another where they play in Beach Boys-style outfits. A third version combined elements of both videos and won Best Alternative Video at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. It was also named top music video by critics in Village Voice. WK Sturgill Simpson, a country artist, recorded the song for his 2016 A Sailor’s Guide to Earth album. A “swirl of strings and horns” SF made the song “completely unrecognizable.” SF Simpson said he was in seventh or eight grade when the album ame out and it “was like a bomb went off.” SF He explained that “In Bloom” “summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate – he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man. So I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.” SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Nirvana DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Sturgill Simpson SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 5/7/2020; last updated 9/22/2022.

When in Rome “The Promise” released

The Promise When in Rome

Writer(s): Clive Farrington, Andrew Mann, Michael Floreale (see lyrics here) Released: September 7, 1987 First Charted: September 3, 1988 Peak: 11 US, 15 CB, 10 RR, 45 AC, 1 CO, 58 UK, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 125.0 video, 122.42 streaming

The Promise Sturgill Simpson

Released: May 13, 2014 (album cut) First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 5.0 video, -- streaming

Awards (When in Rome): Click on award for more details.

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Awards (Sturgill Simpson):

About the Song: The British new wave group When in Rome formed in 1987. Singers Clive Farrington and Andrew Mann, formerly of Beau Leisure, decided to form a new group, recruiting keyboardist Michael Floreale. The group’s name was inspired by the phrase, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Farrington said it was a favorite phrase of his dad’s. SF The trio released the single “The Promise” in September that year as a 12”record and topped the Billboard dance chart. It hit the Billboard 100 a year after its initial release and reached #11. They never reached the top 40 again, effectively making them a one-hit wonder although the follow-single, “Heaven Knows,” did get to #95 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on the dance chart. Allmusic.com’s William Cooper called the song “a carbon copy of New Order’s radio-friendly dance-rock” AMG saying it “certainly deserved the success.” AMG The group converted a garden shed in the backyard of Farrington’s father’s house into a studio. They had so little space, they attached the keyboards vertically to the walls. WK1 Floreale was experimenting with the music which became “The Promise” when Clive came in and sang along. WK1 He wrote the first verse and Mann wrote the second verse. Clive had recently gone through a breakup, which Floreale believes was the inspiration for the song. WK1 More than 25 years later, “The Promise” underwent an unusual transformation. Despite its roots as a new wave dance hit from the 1980s, Sturgill Simpson slowed down the tempo to, as American Songwriter’s Jonathan Bernstein said, turn it “into a countrypolitan torch song that culminates in a cathartic release.” WK2 It was released as an album cut on Simpson’s sophomore album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for When in Rome DMDB encyclopedia entry for Sturgill Simpson AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts WK1 Wikipedia.org “entry for When in Rome’s “The Promise” WK2 Wikipedia.org “entry for Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music First posted 11/13/2023.