The dog days are coming to an end, meaning it’s time to crown the annual Song of the Summer. Unfortunately, this has been a particularly barren year for new hits. Very few songs have moved in and out of the Top 20 so far in 2025, and the ones that have stuck aren’t very memorable.
According to Billboard’s official Song of the Summer chart, this year’s title winner is Alex Warren’s ‘Ordinary,’ which spent ten weeks atop the Hot 100. The song is aptly titled, as it’s the most basic and forgettable track to win the summer in forever.
This week I’ll feature some of the songs that hold runner-up status on the official Songs of the Summer chart. Then next week I’ll offer up a handful of tracks I think would have been better candidates, if only they’d found a wider audience.
Morgan Wallen holds the Song of the Summer title for both 2023 and 2024 (with ‘Last Night’ and the Post Malone collab ‘I Had Some Help,’ respectively), and he almost had the trifecta. His ‘What I Want,’ a duet with Tate McRae, holds the #2 spot on the official Billboard chart. It’s a distant #2, given ‘Ordinary’s dominance, but it’s still hard to argue against Wallen’s dominance of the season.
It’s especially hard to argue when Wallen also holds the #3 and #4 positions on the Song of the Summer chart with ‘Just in Case‘ and ‘I’m the Problem.’
She said, “You don’t want this heart, boy, it’s already broke”
Told me everything she touch just goes up in smoke
Only stay a couple nights, then she gon’ be gone
I said, “Baby, you should know that’s what I want”
[Post-Chorus]
That’s what I want, that’s what I want
That’s what I want, that’s what I want, that’s what I want
What I want
[Verse 1]
Nah, you ain’t gotta worry ’bout no trust issues with me
I got ’em too, I got ’em too
Nah, you ain’t gotta worry ’bout no exes that’s crazy
I got ’em too, you know I do
[Pre-Chorus]
If you’re in a hurry
Nah, you ain’t gonna hurt me tonight
And it won’t be the worst thing
If this is all it is, and in the middle of a kiss
[Chorus]
She said, “You don’t want this heart, boy, it’s already broke”
Told me everything she touch just goes up in smoke
Only stay a couple nights, then she gon’ be gone
I said, “Baby, you should know that’s what I want”
[Post-Chorus]
That’s what I want, that’s what I want (That’s what I want)
That’s what I want, that’s what I want, that’s what I want (That’s what I want)
That’s what I want (Oh)
[Verse 2]
There are no hard feelings if you only wanna act like lovers do
For a night or two (Oh, oh yeah)
And sometimes in the mornin’, go back to bein’ someone you never knew (Hey, yeah)
You never knew
[Pre-Chorus]
Baby, don’t you worry
You ain’t gonna hurt me tonight
It won’t be the worst thing
If this is how it is (I said), then he (She) kissed me again
[Chorus]
And said, “You don’t want this heart, boy, it’s already broke”
Told me everything she touch just goes up in smoke
Only stay a couple nights then she gon’ be gone
I said, “Baby, you should know that’s what I want” (What I want)
She said, “You don’t want this heart, no, it can’t be fixed” (Ah, yeah)
And I ain’t ready to try on a night like this
But if you still wanna stay, there ain’t nothin’ wrong (No, there’s nothin’ wrong)
I said, “Baby, you should know that’s what I want”
Meet Me In Montauk 
I find the chorus of “Ordinary” is catchier than Wallen’s song.
Meanwhile, I think it’s amusing that you will be featuring songs you would want to see as Songs of the Summer if only they had caught on and been more popular. The whole idea of a Song of the Summer is that it was a big hit over several weeks of summer so as to essentially become ubiquitous.
In a summer where nothing really did that, I’m going to offer up some songs that should have.