65. BAD ROMANCE- Lady Gaga (916,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 1

YEAR: 2009

 

Another WTF moment? It opened the decade as the first chart topper of the 2010’s, little did we know then it would be her (to date) last solo UK No 1. Now we can view it as the height of Gagamania in the UK at least and probably her most recalled and beloved track from a time when RedOne was the producer on everyone’s lips. Total sales are now 1.3 million.

 

 

Gaga at her peak was unstoppable, and I still go back to The Fame (/Monster) a fair bit. Bad Romance is a 10/10, it's pure pop perfection, but I think I'd pick Alejandro as my absolute fave by her :wub:

Edited October 17, 20204 yr by M4NGO

'Crazy In Love' is... a curious inclusion here for numerous reasons (not least because the basis for calling it a solo song seems very shaky to me but I remember the arguments that ensued when I said this about 'Stan' so we'll not get into that again :lol:) - a great song and all but definitely did not realise it was apparently such a strong catalogue seller. I wonder if there may be more songs like that still to come then?

Well at least Crazy In Love has made up for the poor sales climate of 2003 to have a more respectable total now. Oops at it being Beyonce's biggest seller of the decade though :')

Bad Romance is ICONIC. One of the best songs ever!

 

I wasn’t sure it would make the list here as I didn’t quite know the 2009 sales it got but so happy to see it made it in here. A brilliant genius masterpiece and one of the most universally loved tracks on this site too!

Also re Beyoncé are nearly all those 912k sales of streams?

 

That’s huge if so especially as it never charted! What a streamer it’s turned out to be. It did always have low sales for what seemed a massive cultural smash but ally of songs released in that time also had that and they never had the huge stream boost what Crazy In Love got.

64. TAKE ME HOME- Jess Glynne (922,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 6

YEAR: 2015

 

The official Children In Need single for the year, Glynne reflected “I'm so pleased and nervous that it's finally out. This is a song about the need to have someone who cares when you are at your most vulnerable. It's an emotional song for me and I have to admit it brought me to tears filming the video, not because I was sad but because I was so grateful that I had someone to get me out of the dark hole I was in”

 

 

63. I REALLY LIKE YOU- Carly Rae Jepsen (922,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 3

YEAR: 2015

 

Third album time for Jepsen saw her return with this track which was about “that time in a relationship when it's too soon to say 'I love you,' but you're well past, 'I like you' and you're at the 'I really, really like you' stage. The promo features Tom Hanks and Justin Bieber who of course helped propel her into international fame in the first place.

 

 

I definitely didn’t expect Carly on here with that song! I definitely underestimated how big that was I thought it was on like half of those sales :lol:

 

Take Me Home is top tier Jess! A song of hers what fully deserved a #1 peak. A bit salty it never even went top 5 but still great sales!

A mention of Justin Bieber has me interested to see what the male equivalent of this thread would look like. That said I'm sure Ed Sheeran and Drake would take up about 60% of it.

Carly Rae Jepsen deserves better than for 'I Really Like You' to be one of the only songs the mainstream remembers from her. ('Call Me Maybe' also isn't exactly her best song but it is at least a lot better than that x)

'I Really Like You' is one of the best pop songs of the decade, full stop, and Tom Hanks is brilliant in the video. Carly is definitely one of the most under-rated pop girls.

 

'Take Me Home' is pretty good too, I love when she switches to the higher octave in the middle eight - easliy one of Jess's best.

62. BORN THIS WAY- Lady Gaga (936,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 3

YEAR: 2011

 

In a way there is no way that this could have matched up to the hype and anticipation that this track got. A first single from the second Gaga proper was a BIG deal in 2011, this was written in the UK whilst on tour and of course drew many comparisons to Madonna’s “Express Yourself” which we won’t dwell on. Gaga herself said “I want to write my this-is-who-the-f***-I-am anthem, but I don't want it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue because I think, especially in today's music, everything gets kind of washy sometimes and the message gets hidden in the lyrical play.”

 

It only made No 3 in the UK (despite leading midweek) but she only had herself to blame as it was released on a Friday here and so had sales split across its first week (with the BRITS helping both Jessie J and Adele to push past her in week 2).

 

 

It seems wrong that 'Born This Way' is higher up the list than 'Bad Romance'.

 

Am I right in thinking that BTW would have been an easy number one if not released on a Friday?

61. S & M- Rihanna (954,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 3

YEAR: 2011

 

Rihanna is back with more smut! This rather famously got a remix which included vocals from Britney Spears but it was charting before that mix so I included it here. The chart show rather memorably called the song “Come On” and played a badly censored version of the track and the OCC used the title as well at the time though it is now titled correctly- the things we censored back in the day eh! The music video featured Perez Hilton and was banned or censored in several countries and was the subject of a lawsuit by David LaChapelle who claimed it copied ideas from his photography which was settled out of court.

 

 

I think 'Born This Way' release day was the most hyped I've EVER been for a new single to drop. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint and I spammed it for the entire day. It has held up well for me too. Still salty that its release day screwed it over in the U.K. and prevented a #1 -_- but at least it got there in the U.S. after 'Bad Romance' missed out.

It seems wrong that 'Born This Way' is higher up the list than 'Bad Romance'.

 

Am I right in thinking that BTW would have been an easy number one if not released on a Friday?

 

Indeed it would have based on the first 7 days of its sales

Born This Way not making #1 honestly shocked me at the time because Gaga was the biggest act on the planet and it seemed so assured. Not that I was too disappointed as I never warmed to the single at all, and still don't

 

S&M was a moment. Rihanna seemed unable to do wrong back then, heavily censored as it was, I'm sure she was still the only person at the time who could have made something that explicit a hit. Rather like Miley, it all seems quite tame in hindsight.

I know it won't be featured on the countdown but any idea how much "Happiness" by Alexis Jordan has sold? Definitely one of my favourite songs of the whole decade.

I know it won't be featured on the countdown but any idea how much "Happiness" by Alexis Jordan has sold? Definitely one of my favourite songs of the whole decade.

Well it is yet to go to platinum so less than 600k :(