Dave’s Faves: #1 Songs in the 2020s

Dave’s Faves: #1’s: 2020-2029

September 18, 1982. I can peg my fascination with music charts to that date. After listening to a local radio station’s countdown of the hits of the summer, I decided to make my own list of favorites (see original list here). I ended up revising it every few days, eventually developing my own charts which I maintained into the ‘90s. I’ve also projected before and after those lists to create speculative lists of #1 songs for eras not covered by those original charts. You can check out those links here, but this page is focused on the #1 songs that might have been for me in the 2010s. Click here to see other Dave’s Faves song lists. 2020: Feb. 1: Alanis Morissette “Reasons I Drink” (4) Feb. 29: Indigo Girls “Shit Kickin’” (2) March 14: Sting “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (4) April 11: Fish “Weltschmerz” (3) May 2: Eric Bazilian “Help!” (5) June 6: Indigo Girls “Country Radio” (4) July 4: Glass Animals “Heat Waves” (3) July 25: Chris Cornell “Patience” (3) Aug. 15: Fish “Garden of Remembrance” (5) Sept. 12: Fish “This Party’s Over” (5) Oct. 17: Bruce Springsteen “Letter to You” (1) Oct. 24: John Mitchell “A Gentleman’s Excuse Me” (3) Nov. 14: Crowded House “Whatever You Want” (3) Dec. 5: Del Amitri “Close Your Eyes and Think of England” (4) 2021: Jan. 8: Olivia Rodrigo “Drivers License” (7) Feb. 27: Post Malone “Only Wanna Be with You” (6) April 10: Dennis DeYoung “Isle of Misanthrope” (3) May 1: Eric Bazilian “Back in the 80s” (5) June 5: Styx “Crash of the Crown” (4) July 3: Jon Batiste “Freedom” (3) July 24: Walker Hayes “Fancy Like” (4) Aug. 21: Angel Olsen “Safety Dance” (3) Sept. 11: Chris Stapleton “Nothing Else Matters” (4) Oct. 2: John Mellencamp & Bruce Springsteen “Wasted Days” (5) Nov. 6: Tears for Fears “The Tipping Point” (4) Dec. 4: Kacey Musgraves “Fix You” (3) Dec. 25: Tears for Fears “No Small Thing” (4) 2022: Jan. 22: Tears for Fears “Break the Man” (3) Feb. 22: Keb’ Mo’ “Lean on Me” (4) Mar. 12: Tears for Fears “Long Long Long Time” (3) Mar. 31: Lyle Lovett “12th of June” (5) May 7: Bonnie Raitt “Just Like That” (5) June 11: Alan Parsons with Tommy Shaw “Uroboros” (3) July 2: Michael Franti & Spearhead “Life Is Amazing” (3) July 23: Weezer “Records” (3) Aug. 13: Noah Kahan “Stick Season” (3) Sept. 3: Michael Franti & Spearhead “No Makeup” (1) Sept. 10: Hardy with Lainey Wilson “Wait in the Truck” (1) Sept. 17: Death Cab for Cutie “Pepper” (2) Oct. 1: Beck “Old Man” (4) Oct. 29: Simple Minds “The Walls Came Down” (2) Nov. 12: Willie Nelson with Lucinda Williams “Live Forever” (6) Dec. 24: Jelly Roll “Need a Favor” (4) 2023: Jan. 14: The New Pornographers “Really Really Light” (3) Feb. 24: The National “Tropic Morning News” (4) Mar. 4: Beck “Thinking About You” (3) Mar. 25: The Revivalists “Kid” (2) Apr. 8: Joy Oladokun & Noah Kahan “We’re All Gonna Die” (3) Apr. 29: Jenny Lewis “Psychos” (2) May 13: Ben Folds “Exhausting Lover” (2) May 27: John Mellencamp “Hey God” (1) June 3: Joy Oladokun “Taking Things for Granted” (1) June 10: The National & Taylor Swift “The Alcott” (1) June 17: John Mellencamp “The Eyes of Portland” (2) July 1: Hozier “Francesca” (2) July 15: Noah Kahan “Dial Drunk” (2) July 29: Fall Out Boy “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (2) Aug. 12: Foo Fighters with Alanis Morissette “Mandinka” (2) Aug. 26: The Gaslight Anthem with Bruce Springsteen “History Books” (3) Sept. 16: Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves “I Remember Everything” (2) Sept. 30: Blink-182 “One More Time” (3) Oct. 21: Bruce Springsteen “Addicted to Romance” (2) Nov. 4: The Beatles “Now and Then” (4) Dec. 2: Trevor Horn & Steve Hogarth “Drive” (4) 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 First posted 12/30/2023.

John Mellencamp released Strictly a One-Eyed Jack

Strictly a One-Eyed Jack John Mellencamp

Released: January 21, 2022 Peak: 196 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: rock/Americana

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release) I Always Lie to Strangers [3:36] Driving in the Rain [3:25] I Am a Man That Worries [4:33] Streets of Galilee [2:49] Sweet Honey Brown [5:18] Did You Say Such a Thing (with Bruce Springsteen) [3:39] (1/21/22, --) Gone So Soon [3:31] Wasted Days (with Bruce Springsteen) [4:31] (9/29/21, --) Simply a One-Eyed Jack [4:41] Chasing Rainbows [3:27] (12/10/21, --) Lie to Me A Life Full of Rain (with Bruce Springsteen) [5:27] All songs written by John Mellencamp. Total Running Time: 48:37 The Players: John Mellencamp (vocals, acoustic guitar) Andy York (guitar, etc.) Mike Wanchic (electric guitar, backing vocals) Troye Kinnett (piano, accordina, organ, harmonica) John Gunnell (bass) Dane Clark (drums, percussion) Merritt Lear (violin, backing vocals) Miriam Sturm (violin) Joey Tartell (trumpet) Bruce Springsteen (electric guitar, vocals)

Rating: 3.606 out of 5.00 (average of 8 ratings)

About the Album: John Mellencamp wrote most of the songs for his 25th album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, before the Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic hit, he shut down recording sessions for a year, resuming in March 2021. However, at least one song (Driving in the Rain) was inspired by the pandemic. The phrase is one Mellencamp’s grandfather used to warn John about him living dangerously. WK Mellecamp approached the songs as if they all came from the voice of one character, saying, “It was the same messenger delivering these songs to me. And I realized that this is one guy’s story. And I felt it was important to make sure that this guy was represented properly.” FB He says, “When I was a kid, I used to try to control the song. I’d write a verse and I’d go, ‘Oh, I can’t go there.’ But in the last 10 years, I let the songs go where they wanna go, not where I want them to go.” FB “You can’t control art. True art is when you let the art go where it wants to go.” FB “For those willing to go on the dark journey with Mellencamp the album is a masterpiece.” FB The album is “stark, gritty, raw, unflinching, elegiac, profound and brutally honest.” FB The opening track, I Always Lie to Strangers, is written from “the point of view of someone who admits their constant deceit” FB while Lie to Me addresses “how, as a society, we are so used to being lied to we accept that is just the way it is.” FB Chasing Rainbows, which was released as the second single, “offers the message that money does not lead to happiness and advises people to recognize their blessings.” WK The song features guest musician Merritt Lear harmonizing on the chorus with Mellencamp. WK “The jazz elegy of the mournful Gone So Soon [hits] as hard emotionally as anything Mellencamp has done.” FB The song, “with its late-night jazz club arrangement…is about a relationship ending.” WK He says, “Well, the cigarettes are starting to pay off…I sounded like Louis Armstrong.” FB The album is notable for its first-time collaborations between Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen. In April 2021, John invited Bruce to his recording studio in Belmont, Indiana, where they worked together on three songs for the album. Wasted Days, a full-fledged duet between the pair, was released as the first single. Did You Say Such a Thing, featured guitar and backing vocals from Springsteen while A Life of Rain featured Bruce just on guitar. “Wasted Days” is sung from the perspective of a man who realizes his days are numbered. He asks questions such as, “How many summers still remain?” Mellencamp’s guitarist, Andy York, said, “Ultimately your takeaway from that song is you need to squeeze every bit of happiness and life out of every day and not waste days.” WK

Resources and Related Links: FB Forbes (1/16/2022). “Sunday Conversation: John Mellencamp on Songwriting, Springsteen and Why He Is ‘The Luckiest Man’” by Steve Baltin WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages:

John Mellencamp dueted with Bruce Springsteen on “Wasted Days”

Wasted Days John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): John Mellencamp (see lyrics here) Released: September 29, 2021 First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.50 video, 3.24 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Wasted Days” is the lead single from John Mellencamp’s 25th studio album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. More significantly, it marks the first collaboration between him and Bruce Springsteen. The two both launched their careers in the 1970s with their brands of heartland rock. Each experienced major commercial success in the 1980s with multi-platinum selling albums and multiple top-10 hits. On “Wasted Days,” the “veteran purveyors of blue-collar rock” SF “offer up a jangly, acoustic tune dripping with nostalgia. The country rock-tinged track sees Mellencamp and Springsteen taking turns with lead vocal duties.” UCR “The song’s lush musical arrangement, including mandolin, accordion, drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitars…add warmth and vulnerability.” UCR Lyrically, the “hearty acoustic stroll” SF is all about vulnerability. It is “bleak and mournful” NPR in its reflection on “making the most of the years, months and minutes we've got left.” NPR “as the singers grapple with lives lived well past middle age.” NPR Mellencamp asks “existential questions such as ‘How many summers still remain/ How many days are lost in vain/ Who’s counting out these last dramatic years/ How many minutes do we have here?’” UD The song is one of three on which the pair collaborated for the new Mellencamp album. Bruce went to Bloomington, Indiana, to record with him. He said, “I love John a lot. he’s a great songwriter and I have become very close [with him] and had a lot of fun with him.” UD Thom Zimny, who has frequently worked with Springsteen, shot the video for the song in New Jersey in early September 2021. SF Resources: NPR NPR (9/29/2021). “John Mellencamp & Bruce Springsteen, ‘Wasted Days’” by Stephen Thompson SF Songfacts UD Udiscovermusic (9/29/2021). “John Mellencamp Recruits Bruce Springsteen for Acoustic Anthem ‘Wasted Days’” by Will Schube UCR Ultimate Classic Rock (9/29/2021). “Hear John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen Duet ‘Wasted Days’” by Corey Irwin Related Links: First posted 2/1/2022; last updated 2/24/2024.