Continuing my look at the top songs of 2025…
Rounding out the top ten of the year-end Billboard Hot 100 is Chappell Roan with ‘Pink Pony Club.’ Roan is one of only two solo women in the top ten (the other is Billie Eilish).
In the 11th spot is Morgan Wallen with with one of four songs he landed in the year-end top 20. ‘Love Somebody’ was the second single from his fourth studio album, I’m the Problem. It was his third #1 hit and his first to debut atop the Hot 100.
Leon Thomas sits at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Mutt,’ a song I covered in the Song of the Summer write-up. This one’s been on the chart for 40 weeks. It still has three months left on the chart based on the new rules, unless it drops below #25 before then.
It wouldn’t be the modern Hot 100 if Morgan Wallen wasn’t somewhere in the top ten, and this week he’s at #9 with ‘I Got Better,’ the sixth single from his smash album I’m the Problem.
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.
We round out the latest edition of ‘What the Kids are Listening To’ with one more track by Morgan Wallen — his third this week. Wallen is at #14 this week with ‘Just in Case,’ right behind Billie Eilish at $13 with ‘Birds of a Feather.’
‘Just in Case’ is the fourth single from Wallen’s album I’m the Problem (which drops today), and it’s less of a banger than the first three. This one is a heartsick ballad more in line with the pre-Wallen country landscape, but it demonstrates that he can score a hit in that space as well.
Morgan Wallen holds both the seventh and eighth slots in this week’s Billboard Hot 100. And spoiler alert: this isn’t the last time you’ll hear from him this week.
‘I Ain’t Comin’ Back’ is a promotional single from Wallen’s upcoming album, not to be confused with the four proper singles he has released. If you think five singles dropping in advance of a new album is too many, consider that the album has 37 tracks.
Meet Me In Montauk 