Male artists might have dominated the top ten of the year-end Billboard Hot 100, but the ladies hold eight of the ten positions in the rest of the top 20.
At #18 is Chappell Roan with ‘Good Luck, Babe!,’ a song I slot just behind Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Espresso’ on my own Song of the Year lineup. And coming in at #19, with the first of two tracks in the top 20, is SZA.
The next songs on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 are a pair of bangers: Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather‘ at #15 and Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Please Please Please‘ at #16.
At #17 is the second single from Doja Cat’s 2023 album Scarlet. ‘Agora Hills’ is a sexy love song named for Agoura Hills, the city where Doja grew up. The intentional misspelling is a nod to agoraphilia, the love of public life and crowds, as the song references going public with a love affair.
The week of January 5, 1985, saw two repeats atop the Billboard Hot 100: Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin‘ and Duran Duran’s ‘The Wild Boys.’
At #3 was a song decidedly less emblematic of the 1980s: The Honeydrippers’ cover of the 1959 hit ‘Sea of Love.’
The Honeydrippers was the brainchild of Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, who formed the group in 1981 to play some of his best-loved songs from the 50s. Band members rotated in and out, and included Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
Throwing back to the week of January 4, 1974, we find Elton John atop the Billboard Hot 100 with a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’
John held the top spot for two weeks with the psychedelic classic, which is two more than the original version spent at #1 — it was never released as a single.
Continuing my look at the Billboard Hot 100 songs of 2024…
Taylor Swift shows up at #12, but it’s not a song from her latest album, but rather ‘Cruel Summer,’ the Lover track that reached #1 four years after its album release. At #13 is Tate McRae’s ‘Greedy,’ a decent showing for an artist I’m still not sure is a real person.
That brings us to #14 and the next song I haven’t yet featured — ‘Like That’ by Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar.
Meet Me In Montauk 