My final candidate for this year’s alternate universe Song of the Summer is ‘Relationships,’ the lead single of Haim’s fourth studio album, I Quit.
Haim has never had a song reach the Billboard Hot 100 (with the exception of Taylor Swift’s ‘No Body No Crime,’ on which they featured). So this breezy single had no chance of cracking the actual Song of the Summer chart. It was also released in March, three months before the album dropped, so maybe it’s more a Song of the Spring.
I have my daughters to thank for my next Song of the Summer candidate. They recently introduced my wife and me to Audrey Hobert, a talented singer-songwriter whose debut album dropped last month.
Hobert is part of a recent crop of nepo baby artists, and is childhood friends with another of them, Gracie Abrams. After starting her career as a TV comedy writer (a job that made her father successful), she co-wrote songs with Abrams. That work led to her own record deal.
Men have seemingly surrendered the pop music landscape to women in recent years, but I do have one male artist among my personal picks for an alternate universe Song of the Summer.
Justin Bieber released his seventh studio album, Swag, on July 11 with no advance notice. His first full-length release in four years debuted at #2 on the albums chart while first single ‘Daisies’ mirrored that feat, debuting at #2 on the Hot 100. Nine weeks later it’s still in the top ten (just), but that wasn’t enough to land it on the official Songs of the Summer chart.
My #1 pick for the alternate universe Song of the Summer is Chappell Roan’s ‘The Subway.’ Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!‘ was in a tight race with Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Espresso’ as my personal pick for last year’s top summer song, and this year she claims the title.
Roan has been performing ‘The Subway’ live for more than a year but resisted releasing a recorded version at first because she had other singles on the runway and later because she thought it wouldn’t live up to the concert experience. She finally relented and dropped a studio recording on July 31.
Before I get to my alternate universe candidates for Song of the Summer, I want to share the song TikTok crowned with that title for both the U.S. and worldwide.
The winner is a 10-year-old dance pop track by English singer-songwriter Jess Glynne. ‘Hold My Hand’ was a #1 hit in the UK in 2015 while peaking at #86 on the Billboard Hot 100. So how did this seemingly forgotten song dominate this summer on TikTok?
Meet Me In Montauk 