I find this very boring like most of the Rita Ora songs. There is something missing in her voice - her songs always sound too generic and exchangeable. So I have it at #26.

Bang Bang has similar issues like problem + Nicki Minaj as guest, which puts it behind Problem for me, because I have a problem with Nicky Minaj nowadays. #34 for me.

02. Sam Smith - Money On My Mind (34)

04. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass (32)

05. Rixton - Me And My Broken Heart (27)

12. Cheryl Cole - I Don't Care (29)

17. DVBBS & Borgeous ft. Tinie Tempah – Tsunami (Jump) (28)

18. Sam Smith - Stay With Me (31)

22. Magic! - Rude (33)

26. Rita Ora – I Will Never Let You Down (25)

29. Cheryl Cole ft. Tinie Tempah – Crazy Stupid Love (30)

33. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – Problem (26)

34. Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj – Bang Bang (24)

35. Gareth Malone’s All Star Choir – Wake Me Up (36)

36. Will.i.am ft. Cody Wise – It's My Birthday (37)

37. Ben Haenow – Something I Need (38)

38. Band Aid 30 – Do They Know It's Christmas? (35)

'Problem' is fine but like you wasn't really a Ariana fan much. 'Into You' was probably the first single of hers I properly enjoyed. ('One Last Time' picked up after the tragedy though of course).

'I Will Never Let You Down' is my fave out so far. Sure it's pretty generic but a major bop. Was #2 in my Year End chart behind another one to pop up here. Would say only 'Anyhwere' tops it now.

'Bang Bang' is quite good though I did go off it pretty quickly. Was very tired of Jessie J by this point!

Both okay songs so I suspect I’ll probably have them in a similar position by the end of the countdown.

I Will Never Let You Down is very average, maybe a bit boring, both Rita and Calvin seemed to be everywhere at the time and that got a bit tedious for me.

I like Bang Bang a bit more, at least it was energetic. Jessie does seem to be trying too hard with the OTT vocals and Nicki’s rap was yet another unnecessary one (boy do Eminem and Rihanna have a lot to answer for). Ariana’s contribution gets a bit lost amongst all that.

Edited Thursday at 21:221 day by Jaz13music

I actually love 'I Will Never Let You Down' - the first really good single she did (as a main artist)

'Bang Bang' is one of those songs I feel like I wouldn't normally enjoy but I secretly do 🤭

23. Aloe Blacc – The Man

Chart run: 1-3-5-12-14-16-27-32-43-49-64-72R(6)-73-73 (14 weeks)

Sales at number 1: 88,369

Year End: 53

Number 2 peaks behind the chart topper: John Legend – All Of Me (Year End 3)

Is this Aloe Blacc off of Avicii’s Wake Me Up fame? It is! Is this the forgotten follow up number 1? It is!

Aloe Blacc (or Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III) has already been introduced in the 2013 rate thread so I wont rehash his career up this point here, but lets just say that he was no newcomer to the music business before the 2013 and had spent more than a decade recording music with no success until reaching number 2 in the UK in 2010 with I Need A Dollar and then had massive success with Avicii.

The Man was the second single from Mr Blacc’s third album, Lift Your Spirit and was co-produced by DJ Khalil. Elton John and Bernie Taupin are listed amongst the co-writers as the song was inspired by and interpolates Your Song (especially the lyric ‘you can tell everybody’.

Looking back, I struggled to remember this follow up – I am very aware of Wake Me Up and I Need a Dollar as these have more enduring appeal, but it was good that this snuck in at the top of the charts off the coat-tails of Wake Me Up. The song peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard charts but it was by far the biggest hit in the UK.

This is a nice slice of soul and RnB and is pretty uplifting on repeated listens. Again, this probably would be higher up the rate if it had remained on my radar since 2014, but it suffers here from being overwhelmed by much more enduring (to me) and bigger songs.

So, in a year of few number 2 peaking songs due to the high number of chart toppers either dropping to number 2 the following week or hosting the next number 1 behind it, here is a huge song that I can thank Aloe Blacc from stopping getting to the top. It’s the year end number 3 (!) slushy snooze fest All Of Me. John Legenzzz more like. Awful awful tripe.

I love "I Need A Dollar", but "The Man" never clicked with - I particularly find the refrain a bit annoying. My ranking is #30.

02. Sam Smith - Money On My Mind (34)

04. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass (32)

05. Rixton - Me And My Broken Heart (27)

12. Cheryl Cole - I Don't Care (29)

17. DVBBS & Borgeous ft. Tinie Tempah – Tsunami (Jump) (28)

18. Sam Smith - Stay With Me (31)

22. Magic! - Rude (33)

26. Rita Ora – I Will Never Let You Down (25)

29. Cheryl Cole ft. Tinie Tempah – Crazy Stupid Love (30)

30. Aloe Blacc - The Man (23)

33. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – Problem (26)

34. Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj – Bang Bang (24)

35. Gareth Malone’s All Star Choir – Wake Me Up (36)

36. Will.i.am ft. Cody Wise – It's My Birthday (37)

37. Ben Haenow – Something I Need (38)

38. Band Aid 30 – Do They Know It's Christmas? (35)

Rita and Aloe songs were good.

Even if the latter owes a lot to Elton John!

The Man is pleasant enough, if not very memorable. Maybe Aloe deserved a number one after going uncredited for Wake Me Up?

The Man is not bad, nice soul and has lovely verses and bridge but the chorus interpolation is too corny for me.

I loved Bang Bang at the time, all three play off each other well on it, even though I'd rather not listen to Nicki nowadays.

Rita's track is pretty good, great production, especially in the chorus. Certainly my second favourite of hers to that point, after Radioactive, but she'd have better to come.

Completely forgot this one existed, such a fleeting default #1

'I Don't Care' would be bottom 3 for me, just above the charity ensembles, it sounds very thrown together with the expletive in the chorus to make it noticeable. The instrumental of 'Tsunami (Jump)' is more interesting than yet another Tinie cameo on a #1 (I'm sure there's a rollercoaster mention in that too).

The Rixton song I would have thought was fairly forgotten, but no, it's closing on 1 billion Spotify streams - I believe the writers of 'Lonely No More' by Rob Thomas were given retrospective writing credits for its similarity with that song.

I wasn't keen on either of Ariana's first two #1s and that hasn't changed - the whispery chorus on 'Problem' just kills the momentum, and 'Bang Bang' is a too much of a mish-mash of styles. I do like 'I Will Never Let You Down' though - not Calvin's most adventurous production by any means, but it's a decent song and Rita sold it well.

I really like 'I Need A Dollar' as well as 'Wake Me Up', but while it was good to see Aloe have a #1 of his own, 'The Man' is not that memorable outside the Elton interpolation. (Also I had hoped 'All Of Me' would get to #1!)

Gah getting behind.

I think “Tsunami” is my favourite out so far: I agree Tinie doesn’t really help it but it’s still decent.

“Bang Bang” is maybe the second best: a decently written pop song but has a bit of a look how many stars were throwing at this feel.

Should it be “one less problem” or “one fewer”? That mental debate is all that happens in my head while that song plays.

“Me And My Broken Heart” and “The Man” are both pretty bland, and I find the lyrical message of the latter a little trite.

“I Will Never Let You Down” is better than the party and party and party one at least, but beyond the rather nice bassline I don’t particularly enjoy it.

Hard to call which of Cheryl’s #1s this year is worse but I think “Crazy Stupid Love”, while naff, at least has something to it.