3. B.o.B – Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore)

1 week at #1 (entered 6^th June, #1 on week beginning 18^th July): 23-27-25-12-02-03-01-03-06-07-07-08-10-12-22-23-27-27-27-25-33-41-50-53-62-64-81-87-91-73-58-72-92

Kept off #1: None

EOY #7

The image that springs to mind when I think of ‘Airplanes’, for me, is that of being on the balcony in our 2010 holiday apartment on the west coast of Tenerife, looking out over a clear night sky at the sea and the island of La Gomera. We’d just got off a plane ourselves, and there was a plane in this view too, descending towards the island and to the airport some way south of us.

Perhaps it’s such a clear. beautiful image that I have associated with this song that causes me to rank it so high. That’s certainly a solid theory. Perhaps it’s the feature from one of my favourite musicians ever, Hayley Williams, who, while she deserves considerably more #1s than just this one with both her solo music and Paramore, does at least have a UK #1 to her name because of this. Which is a very good track. Hayley’s chorus here is certainly not her at her most inspired, but for holding to a simple message and giving off a certain feeling, she delivers so well. Along with the beautiful opening piano line, the immortal words ‘can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shootin’ stars’ are the keystone that holds this song together. Parodied over the years at a number of points, nonetheless it instantly grabs me and paints a mental picture of beauty, the same way I am awe-inspired when I see night light scenes in any context. That’s the real strength of this song though, that through both the music and the singing, it allows you to picture somewhere nice and briefly go there, where the music sounds smooth and great, especially with those little vocalisations that Hayley does in the verses to go alongside her incredible hook. It's so much more evocative and ethereal and beautiful than so many other pop-rap songs and indeed B.o.B's other #1 this year that it's always stood out among the best of that movement.

It is very apparent that B.o.B and Hayley never met while recording this song, the verses are so separate from the chorus, the video has Hayley silhouetted in black and in different shots from B.o.B. I don't think this is a point against it though, which is rare for that specific criticism, but with the song's theming that gives off a vibe of 'two ships passing in the night', it makes some sense that the singers aren't necessarily singing this together, and I think it works better this way. The song was written by a handful of B.o.B's collaborators, though mostly the song was an original production by the duo Kinetics & One Love, who released a version of this song on an album called Fading Back To Normal, the existence of which is hard to verify but the stories goes that this is two Cornell University college students handing out their album around New York, someone at Atlantic Records hears it, phones up the duo and asks them to work on a version of this song that has B.o.B and a featured singer, who would eventually be Hayley. Hayley and B.o.B would finally meet and perform the song together at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards - as for Kinetic & One Love, they seem to have been involved with a few things since, perhaps most notably music from Melanie Martinez.

I think the lovely feelings this song gives are a part of the reason it had such a great looking chart run considering this was the download era and not the streaming era, it entered the chart nearly a month before it would be #1, it picked up airplay and awareness and because it remained a popular song, started selling more and more until it managed to sneak a week before making its way down the chart in a very orderly fashion. Doesn't matter too much but what a pretty chart run. If you want to add anything extra, the 'Airplanes Pt. II' that exists and includes Eminem is also a worthy listen, there was a brief trend of giving hit songs part 2 and sometimes even 3 at this time and for the most part I enjoyed these when they showed up.

When I put out ‘Nothin’ On You’, I criticised B.o.B for not really adding many memorable lines to his own track. That’s not the case for ‘Airplanes’, the up and coming Georgia rapper adds a very introspective touch here, allowing the whole song to feel as it’s meant to be, a backdrop of relaxing but still lively sound. His lyrics focus on a theme of quiet resilience in the face of adversity, in the first verse making use of a few neat airplane related puns that show his determination through catching a flight, including lyrics like 'there comes a time where you fade into the blackness' which just sounds cool. He could use a wish, he could pretend the airplane is a shooting star, but turns out much better if actually catches the damn flight. Second verse is the best attempt B.o.B has at establishing his identity in his first three singles, the guy from Georgia who grafted, got big and now is not necessarily making the music he wishes to make, but damn he's gonna get back to it, if I were being flippant I would say that that doesn't necessarily include this song but despite it being given to him by the production label, I think this is the most connected to something profound that he ever did. Maybe ‘get a wish to end the politics, and get back to the music that started this shit’ didn’t age too well but as it is, it leads off a great sounding set of lyrics back into the chorus and that's what this whole pop-rap thing was about, making a song that has two distinct parts and having those parts elevate each other. I think when I am listening to this, I am very much awaiting the next part in a positive way, I know what's coming next and that it's something good, I don't think I could ever get tired of this.

I liked it at the time, great vocal from Hayley and good rap verses, but it spent way too long in the chart. It spawned a lot of soundalike hits with rapper in verse then singer in chorus.

It has aged well though, I assume it is considered by many a verified classic.

Edited Tuesday at 20:221 day by TheSnake

Loved 'Airplanes' now. Still love it now. I know B.o.B's verses by heart! He supported Paramore on their 2010 tour, so I actually saw B.o.B and Hayley perform this live together. That was brilliant!

Back-to-back redheads in Loud era Rihanna and Hayley Williams *.*

As Rich mentioned / I previously touched upon in my comment for 'Promise This' when Cheryl had also gone red, indeed so many girls were copying that iconic Rihanna look. Even some of the guys my age were getting in on that era with this Topman shirt complete with chinos:

I'm not as enthusiastic as others about the song (am more of a 'What's My Name?' and 'Man Down' girl) but can see why it was so huge with that club banger sound. I found it fascinating that it got to #1 in the U.S. after the follow-up single also!

'Airplanes' has such a dreamy chorus and I love the delicate piano throughout as well. The Eminem version was a repressed memory but I definitely ripped that on to my iPod back in the day *_* I'm glad Hayley got this moment at the top in the absence of Paramore ever making the top 10.

It's a decent enough song, but I was soooo unbelievably sick of it by the end of that year.

I loved Only Girl In The World at the time, but I don’t really go back to it at all now.

I really like Airplanes, though the sung chorus/rapped verse thing did eventually get a bit samey. Great that Hayley got a number one!

This is quite good but I do prefer 'Nothin On You' of the two.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Airplanes, I don’t hate it by any stretch, it’s just there.

The chorus is quite nice though.

Airplanes is OK, but never one I was big on (top 30 personal chart peak for me) and I havent heard it in quite a while. Hayley's vocal is pretty decent, but the rest of it has never moved me much. Maybe because my Playa De Las Americas Tenerife hotel room was facing a concrete wall on the ground floor and had no views at all. Not nearly as exotic as La Gomera when listening to music.....😄

I'm still trying to figure out what the last 2 songs are.

I know, I could go back through the thread and check them all...

"Airplanes" is OK - Hayley's vocals are great, but that pop-rap stuff never had much appeal on me. However, here the rap parts are OK and not ruining the song like for the Roll Deep ones. I would rank this close to Top 10.

Airplanes has very warm verses and delivery from B.o.B that remind me more of 90s rap, like Skee-Lo or something. The soft rock/pop chorus from Hayley is a nice contrast, and it was good to see her on a UK No.1.

Overall I like the track, and I did buy the B.o.B album on the strength of the two No.1s and remember enjoying it, as well as Magic.

50 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Overall I like the track, and I did buy the B.o.B album on the strength of the two No.1s and remember enjoying it, as well as Magic.

'Magic' is great! I don't really listen to anything else of his these days but I still give that one an occasional spin.

Great to see a clean sweep of Lady Gaga's solo (non-duet) #1s making the top 5 in all their appearances in these rates.

'Only Girl...' is a bit of a banger and the start of a huge era for Rihanna, even if it did soon become a little played out for me and I much preferred 'Who's That Chick?' by the time that came out.

Always appreciated the lyrical imagery of 'Airplanes' and it's great that it produced a #1 for Hayley. I prefer it to 'Nothin' On You' though I still don't feel the need to come back to it too often.

'Bad Romance' would probably top this as a standalone rate for me as it did for 2009, but aside from that, my favourite is still to come...

2. Tinie Tempah – Pass Out

2 weeks at #1 (entered 7^th March): 01-01-02-02-05-05-09-13-13-17-24-25-25-24-31-34-34-35-39-41-46-48-50-57-55-56-61-69-71-69-57-43-56-49-53-54-48-47-63-78-75-69-56-36-41-57-58-64-71-61-32-41-52-75-66-72-75-72-88-98-91-89-94-83

Kept off #1: Rihanna - Rude Boy

EOY #10

It’s okay, I’m good…. let’s go!

I do think it’s quite neat how all of my top 4 were in the end of year top 10, I think that means that for me at least, there was a good overlap in quality, especially given how many of this year’s #1s sales figures are a little embarrassing. The song I’m most surprised is there? ‘Pass Out’. Maybe I shouldn’t be, maybe I was underrating the wide appeal of this song, but it does feel like a miracle that the stars aligned so well for this to be one of the biggest selling hits of the year, because it’s bloody marvellous.

Tinie Tempah, particularly with this song, I don’t think was supposed to be as big as he was, despite his bursting onto the scene in a very telegraphed fashion after signing to Parlophone. The label even thought this song was risky and would be a slower burner to set him up as a known name. I think a new rap artist was certainly a good proposition to be signing at this time, but groups like N-Dubz, Chipmunk and Skepta were all over the charts, though a bit off the top spot, and though Tinchy Stryder had 2 #1s the year before, his were a bit different to Tempah’s, and not nearly as good. The secret ingredient Tinie had was Labrinth.

As producer, Labrinth adjusted Tinie’s already above par lyrical flow to the demands of the moment, a drum and bass undercurrent that makes this perfect for the dancefloor, but also softens Tinie’s edge just enough without compromising on quality to be heard on radio. Tinie would show a great record of being able to do this with producers while he was the darling of the moment, the wonderful ‘Miami 2 Ibiza’ later in the year just one prominent example. His raps are clear and understandable even over the production, and his lyrics are full of clever turns of phrase and references that would normally be far too obscure to put in a song headed for the top of the charts – the immortal ‘I’ve got so many clothes, I keep some in my aunt’s house’ a rhyme with a lyric from Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Pow’, or just referencing Uncle Fester from the Addams Family for… a reason.

While some of these lyrics are standard issue rap braggadocio lyrics, I think they switch topics so much that in a way Tinie is emulating the craziness of being on a night out, whether that’s being famous like him and in his limousine entourage, or being to Southampton but never being to Scunthorpe. All in all though, they fit together so wonderfully, each part of the song dives into the next part with enthusiasm and gusto, ‘Haters, I can’t fucking hear your reception’ or ‘DJ won’t you give me one more track?’ This song is just the platonic ideal of the rap-dancefloor banger, there are few songs I’d rather hear going on when I enter a club, and it’s so fun I’d happily play it many times over.

I heard this a few times at the time but initially I was more into ‘Written In The Stars’ because Labrinth’s production grittiness seemed a bit much, but quickly I got over that, and ever since, everytime I listen to ‘Pass Out’, I find something new to appreciate about it – either the great production, a Tinie lyric I hadn’t focused on previously or just the whole great energy running through it. It launched into the charts, sold 92000 copies on week 1, and denied Rihanna a #1 from Rated R. Great track, ‘Rude Boy’, but this is one time where RiRi was really outdone, because ‘Pass Out’ is glorious.

I think its impact is quite possibly one of the most important of all of the 2010 #1s, it was quite clearly one of the most long-lasting, but I think it opened up the possibility of UK rap artists to come at the rap game from a different, commercial angle, this was everywhere in dance and house parties for a long time, is easily a modern UK pop-rap classic and while it’s not exactly the grime that future UK rap successes would go for, Tinie’s a great gateway to that side of things.

I knew what would be #1 when I started this thread and I’ve never swapped that, but I think ‘Pass Out’ does run the #1 close for me, everything about it is wonderful.

1. Owl City – Fireflies

3 weeks at #1 (entered 10^th January, #1 on week beginning 24^th January): 50-02-01-01-01-02-03-08-11-13-15-15-15-15-18-24-29-33-35-38-48-57-60-72-73-66-73-80-87-78-88-83-85-91

Kept off #1: Glee Cast – Don’t Stop Believin’ & Jedward – Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby) [feat. Vanilla Ice]

EOY #6

If anyone wanted some spoilers for this, you could have checked my last.fm profile. According to that, and it’s largely accurate, ‘Fireflies’ is one of two songs I have ever played over 200 times. Though I feel it was obvious anyway, as I’m almost certain that whenever one of you lovely commenters has said throughout here that you think you know what my #1 would be, you were thinking of this song.

Anyway, here’s The Postal Service.

The Postal Service, for the uninitiated, are a collaboration between Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and a synthpop producer Jimmy Tamborello, and Jenny Lewis on background vocals. They had one album, Give Up, that notably had bubbling synthpop production and great heartfelt vocals from Gibbard. On release of ‘Fireflies’ becoming big, this was the cry from music critics, that this was a cutprice Postal Service, that Adam Young of Owl City was emulating Gibbard, that the production was incredibly similar. Of course you can hear some similarities, the best track on Give Up, ‘Such Great Heights’, is a great example. My stance, and I love The Postal Service, is that Young’s music is just what they were doing, but shifted slightly into pop colours, and one such song from that project, ‘Fireflies’, hit the jackpot and was briefly one of the most popular songs in the world. Then it left, and nothing ever quite like it again was ever quite as popular. Truth is, we could have done with more people doing that sound.

Adam Young, a multi-instrumentalist from Minnesota, founded or worked on many different musical projects, mostly electronica-related, some just him like 'Sky Sailing', some with others like 'Swimming With Dolphins'. When he hit it big with ‘Fireflies’, originally released as a song of the month, this song was part of a project using the moniker of ‘Owl City’, that he’d used for a few previous electronica albums all about colourful horizons and rainbow veins, the sort of thing that’s either twee nonsense, or his own neurodivergent way of describing the sounds of flying through nature and human cities, seeing the wonders of the world and expressing joy at them. Imagine perhaps a flock of owls flying through the woods outside a Midwestern city or even all across the Northern part of the States.

Taking that into account, I think that Owl City more properly had an expiration date as a project – and instead became, because of his success under that name, Young’s default name for releasing music. Newer albums, Cinematic and Coco Moon have far fewer what I would consider ‘Owl City’ songs in style and a lot more songs about Adam Young as an artist. Plus he dropped the electronica for a large part of them, and that was where the magic really happened.

I think the reason ‘Fireflies’ became such a big hit when so many electronica sounds remain more indie and underground is this leaning into a bright, optimistic sound that leaves the listener feeling happy and ready to gaze in wonder at the way that Young describes the world. For an artist with so few hits, Young amassed quite a good handful of fans or devotees, I’m certainly one of them and have played all of his albums from Maybe I’m Dreaming to The Midsummer Station excessively, loving nearly every track on there but most especially the album this was on, Ocean Eyes (should have had more hits, 'Umbrella Beach' and 'Vanilla Twilight' were incredible too). To an extent I think my fandom is because, as someone far more on the nerd side of the ‘jock-nerd spectrum’, Young represented an idol for that side of the spectrum – I would never be a Tinie Tempah, going out to clubs and raving, at least as I was at 16, I would be far more likely to be an Adam Young, focusing on somewhat more indoor pursuits to be safe from the world, while being awestruck by the world as I imagined it.

‘Fireflies’ was one of the first songs I properly added to a music player, I think I was using Youtube playlists before this to listen to a few favourites on rotation, but this allowed me to listen without Internet limitations, to a song that instantly captured my attention. The short time it was everywhere was absolutely wonderful and it did quickly become a track that I loved and I think probably everyone in my family did, I certainly remember it being one where there were several conversations I had about it even at the time, and anyone who knows my brother will know he’s probably a bigger Owl City fan than me. Yes it’s very much music that I focused on while younger, but it still hits me just as well when those brilliant bubbling chords start.

Yes, ‘Fireflies’ is about insomnia, but even more so it’s about the magical things happening when you try to go to sleep, the pictures of millions of fireflies going across the sky like shooting stars from the backdrop of an idyllic camping trip – it all sounds so bouncy and wonderful, all the instruments, so many of them, violin, cello, synthesizer, piano, guitar working in tandem with one another, like Young’s whole room does in the video, beeping and bopping to take you away to a world of wonder. It’s just a really really special track and it’s not quite that there was nothing else like it, but it managed to bring this sound to the mainstream even if briefly, and I love it in part for that.

Seeing it top the charts was something that I wasn’t quite aware of, though I knew it was popular, I wasn’t quite checking the charts obsessively in January, but I certainly was by the end of the year, I knew it was somewhere in the realms of the potentially biggest sellers, in part thanks to its run as the joint-longest #1 of 2010, not exactly a huge achievement and helped by being out at an uncompetitive time, but an achievement nonetheless. Also it seems to have kept off two of the most bizarre #2s of the year from being #1, the Glee Cast would have been a weird but ultimately harmless stint at #1, the popularity of Glee here also giving the wonderful Journey original a revival in the charts at a time when such reappreciations of old songs were the exception rather than the norm; that Jedward and Vanilla Ice thing was clearly lab-created to annoy the most people possible and is obviously horrendous.

‘Fireflies’ came in so high in that End Of Year chart, somehow, it was so glorious how this song became so big. That I do recall being one of the best ways to finish off my first year really following the charts, one of my favourite songs, and even then I sort of knew this, that this would be one of my favourite songs ever, all the way through the decade and a half that has passed since, I have kept it as the cornerstone, one of the best tracks by an artist that I enjoy a lot of tracks from for just how earnestly he wrote about his encounters with the world and life, and then, as now, I like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly.

Pass Out is great yes it is more Flux Pavilion style dubstep than drum and bass but the ending is great.

Fireflies is a nice tune and I'm glad it was #1 rather than Jedward or Glee, but I prefer more upbeat synthpop.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by TheSnake

Thank you to everyone for commenting along with this thread, this has been a really fun journey back into the past for me and I've enjoyed reading all of your comments, no matter whether we agree or disagree, and swapping musical geekery about the past of commercial music is very fun.

This is my full ranking for completeness:

1 - Owl City - Fireflies

2 - Tinie Tempah - Pass Out

3 - B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams)

4 - Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)

5 - Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

6 - Roll Deep - Good Times (feat. Jodie Connor)

7 - Scouting For Girls - This Ain't A Love Song

8 - Tinie Tempah - Written In The Stars (feat. Eric Turner)

9 - Diana Vickers - Once

10 - Yolanda Be Cool - We No Speak Americano (feat. Dcup)

11 - Cee Lo Green - Fuck You

12 - Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta)

13 - Lady Gaga & Beyoncé - Telephone

14 - Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are

15 - Taio Cruz - Dynamite

16 - Cheryl - Promise This

17 - Iyaz - Replay

18 - The Wanted - All Time Low

19 - B.o.B - Nothin' On You (feat. Bruno Mars)

20 - Dizzee Rascal - Dirtee Disco

21 - Katy Perry - California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg)

22 - Roll Deep - Green Light

23 - Alexandra Burke - Start Without You (feat. Laza Morgan)

24 - Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go

25 - David Guetta - Gettin' Over You (feat. Fergie & LMFAO)

26 - Jason Derulo - In My Head

27 - Ne-Yo - Beautiful Monster

28 - Usher - OMG (feat. Will.i.am)

29 - Matt Cardle - When We Collide

30 - Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)

31 - JLS - Love You More

32 - Helping Haiti - Everybody Hurts

33 - Joe McElderry - The Climb

34 - The X Factor Finalists 2010 - Heroes

35 - JLS - The Club Is Alive

36 - Shout For England - Shout (feat. Dizzee Rascal & James Corden)

And of course you are all very welcome to post your own if you want!

'Pass Out' is a fantastic runner-up. The lyrics are sharp and so quintessentially British (the aforementioned, much quoted Southampton/Scunthorpe line is the one that immediately comes to mind when I think of the song) and Labrinth brought a thrilling flair to the production. Loved their 'Earthquake' team-up the following year too.

'Fireflies' is the one I had pegged as your favourite all along as I associate yourself, Jacob and of course, Spinning Adam, as the Adam Young fans of t seet! I've struggled to get into his music overall but 'Fireflies' is a big exception, as I've always found the song pretty magical and it felt like a unique presence in the chart. The music video is so charming too. I wasn't aware of the Postal Service until much later as they never touched the top 40 singles chart. Infinitely grateful that 'Fireflies' blocked that Jedward / Vanilla Ice thing from the top!

Thank you Iz for putting so much effort into this countdown with those lengthy write-ups! You engaged me the whole way through and displayed great taste of course.

I think my own top 10 would look like this:

01 Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

02 Owl City - Fireflies

03 Tinie Tempah - Pass Out

04 Lady Gaga & Beyoncé - Telephone

05 B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams)

06 Diana Vickers - Once

07 Tinie Tempah - Written In The Stars (feat. Eric Turner)

08 Roll Deep - Good Times (feat. Jodie Connor)

09 Cee Lo Green - Forget You

10 Yolanda Be Cool - We No Speak Americano (feat. Dcup)