We Are Young was in my top 50 of the year, I do enjoy it a lot. I like the verses more than the chorus myself, but that is anthemic.

It's funny that for a year so known for 'club bangers' some of the very biggest hits ended up being quite alternative slow burners in the end.

The top two left are both 10/10 songs for me.

I’m about in the middle of the various rankings of Paradise, just outside the top 10.  It’s probably the most recent Coldplay single I really liked, but not as great as their peak, the Rush Of Blood.. era

And then my number 1! Feel The Love is a song that I really liked then, but have loved more and more as time goes by. A wonderful drum and bass banger. Dance, gospel, great vocals, euphoric drops, fantastic horns and keyboards, what more could you want! I certainly ‘feel it too’!

We Are Young is also fantastic. A gorgeous old school pop song brought up to date and giving Janelle Monae a very unexpected but very welcome number 1.

That’s my top 5 gone now, but your last 2 are still in my top 10. Looking forward to the order!

"We Are Young" is decent fun - the biggest grower for me when re-listening to all the songs - did not remember it very well from 2012. The hook is fantastic and it is very catchy. I have put it at #6.

01. Rihanna - Diamonds (18)

02. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe (7)

04. Jessie J - Domino (28)

05. Gotye Feat Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know (6)

06. fun. feat. Janelle Monae – We Are Young (3)

07. Florence + The Machine – Spectrum (Say My Name) (Calvin Harris Remix) (9)

08. Psy - Gangnam Style (12)

10. Sam and the Womp – Bom Bom (13)

11. DJ Fresh feat. Rita Ora – Hot Right Now (11)

12. Flo Rida - Good Feeling (16)

13. Katy Perry - Part Of Me (14)

14. will.i.am; Eva Simons - This Is Love (31)

15. Cheryl Cole - Call My Name (15)

16. Little Mix - Wings (20)

17. Tulisa - Young (29)

18. The Script, Will.I.Am - Hall Of Fame (19)

19. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing (8)

20. Cover Drive - Twilight (24)

21. Maroon 5;Wiz Khalifa - Payphone (32)

22. Rita Ora;Tinie Tempah - R.I.P. (30)

23. Rudimental feat. John Newman – Feel The Love (4)

24. The Justice Collective – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (23)

25. Rita Ora - How We Do (Party) (26)

26. Labrinth Featuring Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful (10)

27. Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself) (27)

28. Olly Murs; Flo Rida - Troublemaker (17)

29. Gabrielle Aplin - The Power Of Love (21)

30. Wiley, Djo Feat. Ms. D - Heatwave (22)

31. One Direction - Little Things (25)

32. Coldplay - Paradise (5)

33. Chris Brown - Turn Up the Music (34)

34. James Arthur - Impossible (33)

35. Robbie Williams - Candy (36)

36. Gary Barlow & The CommonwealthBand - Sing (35)

That fun. song is not in the least bit fun. But I prefer it to Gotye, it doesnt strive to be as uber-cool as Gotye does!

'Paradise' is OK, it did start to get a bit annoying after a while though.

'Feel The Love' is fab, kind of felt like it came from nowhere for me at the time but it was (and is) enduring.

I enjoy 'We Are Young', but I was always much more of a 'Some Nights' fan and that's the one I listen to out of the two.

It took me several years before I realised what Janelle Monae actually sang on We Are Young

32 minutes ago, dandy* said:

It took me several years before I realised what Janelle Monae actually sang on We Are Young

Is it just the carry me home line?

Still love We Are Young - though very of its time.

44 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

I enjoy 'We Are Young', but I was always much more of a 'Some Nights' fan and that's the one I listen to out of the two.

Even if it owes a lot to Paul Simon! Specifically Cecilia and You Can Call Me Al.

14 minutes ago, Jester said:

Is it just the carry me home line?

Still love We Are Young - though very of its time.

I believe so!

“Call Me Maybe” - I don’t think I’d place it any higher but it’s a perfect example of bubblegum pop that couldn’t be any better made.

“Somebody That I Used to Know” is a fabulous track with sublime storytelling and I think would likely be my #1.

“Paradise” is great even though their overall output wansn’t as special as their earlier stuff by this point. That intro really has an epic feel to it as it builds.

“Feel The Love” is a marvellous summer anthem - I went to Radio 1’s big weekend in Hackney (not something I’d done before or since but it happened to be on my doorstep at the time) and it was great hearing it there.

“We Are Young” was another really special one off #1, although I did also like “Some Nights” a lot.

Oh I missed Rudimental... that's one that I liked much more at the time than I do now. I agree with DaTilt that it is quite formulaic in its use of drum & bass and that it works well in some circumstances, but not one I'd choose to listen to now very often. At the time it stood out a lot more though and it was a decent enough #1. I suspect it would still make my top 10 somewhere as I'm not that fussed about many of the #1s really.

I shall post the top 2 tomorrow PM, in the mean time it's time for...

Interlude #2

Feel The Love and We Are Young were consecutive number one singles, the former knocking the latter off the top and down to #2. It was the week after the Eurovision Song Contest and they were joined in the top 3 by that years winner, Loreen's Euphoria. 2012 was back when I still paid attention to Eurovision (thanks largely, if not wholly, to this site) and I was very much taken in by Loreen's song and performance, and whilst I don't rank Euphoria as highly as the other two it is still great - had it made #1, it'd towards the bottom of the top 10 here amongst the Florence and Calvin collabs. It got me thinking that this must challenge for being my favourite top 3 in history of the UK charts, so much so that I went back through years of top 40s on the OCC website to see if I could find any that are better.

A lot of years were trawled through but so many where there's promise of a better top 3 fall short somewhere. There are some where there are three songs I love but aren't quite as great (e.g. The Fear, Just Dance, Use Somebody / All The Things She Said, Cry Me a River, Songbird), there are many occasions where two utterly brilliant songs are let down by a truly terrible third one (e.g. Sweet Like Chocolate and Hey Boy Hey Girl being behind Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen, and Telephone and Pass Out being ahead of Justin Bieber's Baby (they also shared a top 3 with Rihanna's Rude Boy which is much less bad but still meh)), occasionally you get close with a brilliant #4 and one slight let down in the top 3 (if Placebo's Nancy Boy and George Michael's Older had swapped their #4 & #3 positions behind Beetlebum and Your Woman it'd be perfection), and there are occasional top 3s that I might consider great but in a more lolz ironic way and I can't seriously say are better (Three Lions 98, Vindaloo, C'est La Vie).

So, what do I conclude from this endeavour?

2012 contains the best UK top 3 of the last 30 years

Like most years, there were swathes of 1996 I could just skip over as songs like Oooh Ah Just a Little Bit, Wannabee (I appreciate both of these but I'm never going to consider them in favourite ever lists) and Mysterious Girl had long runs in the top 3. But when Peter Andre's breakthrough left the top 3 on 7th July it was replaced by one of the greatest songs of all time, Underworld's Born Slippy Nuxx entering the chart at #2. At #3 was the final week in the top 3 for Three Lions as Euro 96 fever was still very much around, a song I still listen to a lot and get great enjoyment from (for a period of 4-6 weeks every other summer). As good as We Are Young and Feel The Love are, I don't enjoy them quite as much as those two. A #1 that's as good as Euphoria and I'd have to declare it a better top 3, and unfortunately Loreen, Euphoria doesn't quite touch The Fugees Killing Me Softly. Therefore, I have to say that July 1996 was the last time a top 3 was as good as when Loreen and Rudimental joined fun. there in May 2012.

18 hours ago, RabbitFurCoat said:

We Are Young ended the year as the third biggest seller in the UK, which meant the top 3 sellers were all breakthrough hits, as neither fun. or Janelle Monae had charted with any of their previous work. All three had been released elsewhere in 2011 before taking off fully in 2012.

Can't believe neither of these occurred to me before now, pretty incredible!

We Are Young is a great top tier pop song, top 10 for sure for me, though I preferred the follow-up fun. record even more, that was a big chart-topper for me. Coldplay an epic singalong stadium song, but the timeless brilliance of Princess Of China is my top track of the decade. Paradise is still great though, and would be top 5 for me. Gotye is the best track so far, what a classic, and looking to be my top record of 2012, pending whatever is left.

Feel The Love is a good track, but peaked at a mere 40 for me at the time. It's better than that, playing it again, but I'd still say it's overly loop-based, 2 lines on repeat over and over, albeit slightly different along the way till the oh no's and the instrumental trumpet bit. It gets more interesting as it goes on, until we are back on the loop. Top 20 probably though, but not top 10 for me.

'Feel The Love' is one that grew on me during its slow descent of the Top 10 - if 'Hot Right Now' had been the first drum & bass #1 then this soon followed it as an even better one, the changes of pace are really energising.

And there's my #1 of the year in 'We Are Young', up there with my favourites of the decade - an unusual sound and structure with the breezy first verse before the big chorus, and then it's as if everything else is moving in slow motion like in the video. There's something about the piercing production and soaring vocals that just makes me want to embrace the moment when I hear it.

I like the two songs to come and they'd both feature high up for me too, maybe I just feel they've softened to overplay a little (blame Heart radio), which isn't an issue for me when it's songs that I truly love, but I have a slight preference between them so interested so see how they land.

I think I’ve now realised the two still to come and they’re both very strong so I’ll be content with whichever wins out. I think I’d guess at the male vocal one winning but we’ll see

I love 'We Are Young'. It might be camper than a Brighton bus queue but the vocals are good and it's uplifting.

I also liked Janelle Monae too. She's so talented, as a feature artist and solo. It's a shame she didn't have further success.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Charlielargepotatoes

Tightrope by Janelle Monae deserved to absolutely smash, how that wasn't a hit is beyond me

02. David Guetta feat. Sia - Titanium

1 week at #1 (entered 14th August 2011, re-entered 8th January, #1 5th February) {16-31-53}-61R(19)-08-03-02-01-02-04-05-07-08-06-07-08-07-11-19-19-15-21-26-32-39-39-43-39-31-30-35-36-43-50-56-59R(2)-56-57-69-63-61-48-56-57-39-48-63-75{-47R(7)-60-47R(9)-38-37-66-71R(12)-58R(2)-59-61-65-60R(6)-74} (61 weeks)

Kept off #1: Alyssa Reid feat. Jump Smokers – Alone Again

Sales: 85,985

EOY: #4 (922,000)

2009 was the year where French DJ David Guetta went from occasional hitmaker to huge superstar that couldn’t stop producing massive hits, with 15 UK top 10s from When Love Takes Over to She Wolf (Falling To Pieces) and 5 end of year top 20s in a four year period, with him collaborating with a range of different vocalists, typically from the rap and R&B world but not always.

His album One Love was a consistent if not massive seller, ending in the lower reaches of the top 100 selling albums in 2009, 2010 and 2011, partly down to a re-released expanded edition. Follow-up Nothing But the Beat was slightly more successful in that regard, ending each of 2011, 2012 and 2013 in the top 50. Both of them contain some genuinely brilliant hits and some less good ones, Sexy Bitch/Chick (with Akon) and Memories (Kid Cudi) being my favourites, but there’s a definite soft spot for Who’s that Chick (Rihanna), When Love Takes Over (Kelly Rowland) and even Where Them Girls At (Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj). However, the crowning glory of this period, and his whole career, was Titanium with Sia.

Originally released as a promotional single just before the release of Nothing But the Beat, it had a brief chart run of 16-31-53. It was then when I first begun to enjoy it, and it reached #3 in my Personal chart in September. It got a proper single push in the new year and knocked Jessie J off the top in February, in its 4th of 13 weeks in the top 10, to become his 5th number one in four years. Titanium has gone on to become about his biggest and well known hit, it’s well ahead on Spotify numbers of almost all of his discography, behind just one song, I’m Good (Blue), which makes me want to weep.

The majority of singers featured on Guetta’s work were more high profile than Sia, who at that stage had very little commercially successful output as a singer but had a significant amount of songwriting credits for other pop singers, which was the route she wanted to go down. She had written Titanium and recorded a demo of it with the intention of it being sung by a bigger name. Katy Perry turned it down, Mary J Blige recorded a version but David preferred Sia’s version so kept it on without her knowing and was initially upset about it. Titanium completely changed her career trajectory, as since then, she’s gone onto become far more successful with some huge worldwide hits in the years since.

Sia’s vocal on Titanium is absolutely phenomenal, and it’s hard to imagine many, if any, singers could do it the same justice and she delivers one of the great choruses of all time. It was definitely the right decision to go with her vocal on it. By this point, Guetta hadn’t yet gone into the Guetta-by-numbers production and beats that he would definitely go on to, so this still felt fresh and original at the time and has aged superbly, if anything it’s got even better over time. I said in the opening post that two of these songs reached my personal chart #1 and ended in my End of Year Top 10, and Titanium has broken that duo as I rank it ahead of Feel The Love now (hard to directly compare as I ranked Titanium #16 in 2011). In recent years it’s probably the song here I’ve had most exposure to too, as my enjoyment of watching darts on TV has increased in the same period where Stephen Bunting became one of the more successful players in the sport. Maybe it's The Bullet that has increased my love for Titanium.

I should probably acknowledge that Alone Again by Alyssa Reid and Jump Smokers is a song that was released and made #2, little else to say about it

01. Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin – Don’t You Worry Child

1 week at #1 (entered 14th October) 01-02-02-04-05-12-15-12-14-17-15-11-{09-14-16-21-25-27-32-37-36-36-34-37-49-54-59-52-56-57-55-62-63-65-62-64-70R(3)-66-72R(5)-40R(4)-44-65R(6)} (42 weeks)

Kept off #1: Adele - Skyfall

Sales: 135,563

EOY: #13 (632,000)

It was never going to be anything else. Whilst there's essentially a hairs breadth between the three songs below, the number one number one was never in doubt, from when I first looked at the list of chart toppers, to listening to them all in a vague likely order, to writing all the commentary. The all-Swedish collaboration Don't You Worry Child has always been a favourite, instantly too with a 20-02-01 personal chart run as quick a rise to the top as anything where it then had a four week run. It ended the year ranked as my 3rd favourite track from it behind Bat For Lashes - Laura and Blur - Under The Westway, two songs I'd probably rate lower than it now, the latter definitely as I was probably too drawn in to a Blur comeback than it being quite that good.

Swedish House Mafia are a supergroup formed in 2008 of three Swedish DJs who'd been active for between 9 and 15 years, Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. They had been able to attract some big names on their singles and had produced a stellar set of hits in One (Your Name) with Pharrell, Miami 2 Ibiza with Tinie Tempah, and Greyhound, a fantastic instrumental released earlier in 2012. There was also Save The World, with fellow Swede John Martin providing the vocal.

Before Save The World, John Martin had only been in a rock band called Steroids, mainly just performing live within Stockholm. Whilst in the band he met producer and songwriter Michael Zitron who got him involved with the Mafia trio for Save The World. Impressed as they were with its quality and success, they agreed to work together again on another song, Don't You Worry Child.

In the summer of 2012 Swedish House Mafia confirmed that their upcoming tour would be their last, called it One Final Tour in 2013 and would then part ways, their show in Milton Keynes Bowl was where Don't You Worry Child was first played and went down a storm. It was to be their final single and as a result gained more attention than it perhaps would have done. It entered the chart at #1 with a massive sale but it could've been different. Thankfully Adele released her boring Bond theme on a Friday, and despite selling 176k in its first nine days didn't come close to hitting the top. They did, of course, get together to release music and perform again later (and are still doing both), but had a five year hiatus to 2018.

It was Zitron that was largely the writer of the lyrics of Don't You Worry Child, and they are some fantastic lyrics. The chorus he said are words that his Dad had said to him after his parents had divorced, whilst the pre-chorus of "upon a hill across the blue lake, that's where I had my first heartbreak" is a wonderfully evocative image of young love and heartbreak. They're made all the more fantastic by Martin's delivery of them. I find his voice exceptional, and he's someone that can elevate dance songs to a new level, as he also did with Save The World and Reload (a later release with Sebastian Ingrosso), and in fact still does - there aren't may people who would make me want to listen to 2026 David Guetta but he has done over the summer.

Don't You Worry Child is incredibly euphoric, and for me is the absolute peak of the EDM boom of this period. But it has to be the full mix, the radio edit doesn't do it justice, although it never feels like it lasts 6:43, it's just an absolute joy to listen to from start to finish. A group of us went to Dublin shortly after this was released for a friend's birthday, we all loved the song and it was everywhere there; "I still hear the songs reminding me of a friend" - indeed, an unforgettable trip and set of people, helped in part to this. I rejected the chance to go to Oslo to see them on that final tour as it seemed like too much of an expense to justify, but did see a Sebastian Ingrosso DJ set in O2 Brixton in 2013, he of course finished his set off with this and it was an incredible moment to experience.

Don't You Worry Child has definitely gone on to be an all time favourite song, and top 5 of the many dance sub-genres. It's always been incredible to listen to and I'm still mesmerised by how good it is. I can't see it ever beginning to tire.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by RabbitFurCoat