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 October 8Oct 8 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.

Nothing wrong with a bit of Aloe Blacc. I thought he was great and stood out amongst the sea of EDM clones we had in the 2010s.

I find Jessie J tends to shout rather than sing and it can be a bit off-putting.

Rixton were a flash in the pan, weren't they? I couldn't remember them until clicking on the video here. 'Me and My Broken Heart' is OK I suppose.

Edited Saturday at 15:064 days by Charlielargepotatoes

22. 5 Seconds of Summer – She Looks So Perfect

Chart run: 1-10-15-19-23-26-32-35-37-44-38-33-32-37-23-35-41-48-58-60-65-74R(4) (22 weeks)

Sales at number 1: 94,470

Year End: 50

Number 2 peaks behind the chart topper: None

I really shouldn’t like this song. It’s not my usual sort of thing and it’s a bit throwaway, but I actually think it’s not half bad.

Here we have another band that made themselves big on social media before their big hits – in this case they were attention seekers on YouTube which clearly worked in their favour. Their biggest break was being invited to tour with One Direction, huge exposure to the right demographic makes a hit almost inevitable.

So who are 5SOS (as they are known and much easier to write – even though oddly fans pronounce this as ‘five sauce’)? Well, they are Australian, formed in 2012 in Sydney and are made up of Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin. There should be 5 of them as that would mean they are 1 second of summer each, but there you go. They made it big in the US, by having their first 3 albums debut at the top of the Billboard chart. Their single Youngblood from 2018 (number 4 in the UK and 7 in the US) is the 11th best selling song in the history of the Australian ARIA charts. Who new they were so big worldwide? Not me before this frantic research!

She Looks So Perfect was co-written by the band and was their debut single, reaching number 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and of course the UK. It is described as Pop-punk in the vein of Blink-182 and Good Charlotte, though clearly it is more along the lines of a slightly edgier boy band song – perhaps more like Busted.

Do I like this? As I said above, I do. It relies on the usual boyband tropes lyrically and is a bit heavy on the usual cliches, but fair play to them elevating this from the normal boy band blandness to something almost punk pop, but not quite punk enough. That drop from number 1 though! Quite large at the time, still pre-streaming/ACR.

Where are they now? Australia probably, enjoying their 5 seconds of fame.

We are d'accord on the midlow ranking. This is a quite OK song - I don't mind listening to it - it is a good pop-rock song. I have this ranked at #27.

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)

27. 5 Seconds of Summer – She Looks So Perfect (22)

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)

'The Man' is quite good but is one I easily can forget about too. Probably the same for everyone.

'She Looks So Perfect' is decent as well.

She Looks So Perfect isn’t too bad at all, in a McBusted-lite kind of way. Perhaps the lyrics are a bit cheesy but it’s quite a lot of fun and has a shouty-sing-along. I enjoyed it more listening to it today than I remember at the time. Maybe my favourite so far?!

21. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud

Chart run: 26-25-29-23-28-20-18-16-13-17-18-24-19-18-17-10-4-2-1-2-2-4-4-1-2-3-3-3-3-5-6-8-7-7-10-12-14-19-20-19-16-19-24-26-26-26-30-30-31-32-31-28-34-35-42-35-38-42-45-46-47-47-49-51-52-51-58-58-59-55-50-57-58-68R(7)-58-71-70R(2)-74-73-68-74-49R(46)-55-58-64-63-52-62-71-69-70 (91 weeks)

Sales at number 1: 89,475; 58,503 (the latter being lowest total of the year and the first time the official number 1 was not the biggest seller due to streaming sales)

Year End: 5

Number 2 peaks behind the chart topper: Union J – You Got It All

If any number 1 of 2014 screams overplay, then this is it. Radio, weddings, even Bridget Jones. Thinking Out Loud was omnipresent for an age.

So, Ed Sheeran. This was his second UK number 1 (and first mention in these threads) and the second single from the album x (or multiply). The first single will be up sooner or later. Ed was famously a busker in his early years before hitting it big with his single The A Team in 2011 – this would go on to be a million seller and firmly establish him as a chart force and one of the UK’s biggest singer/songwriters. He is also ginger and dated Taylor Swift.

Written by Ed and Amy Wadge in one afternoon, it was inspired by his Grandparents long lasting love and has been described as the only happy song from x. The video features a wedding and ballroom dance and this is prophetic as it became a popular wedding proposal song at his gigs and is still a popular first dance at weddings. All in all, it’s a sloppy romantic ballad.

The song bears a resemblance to Marvin Gaye’s Lets Get It On – this was an infamous lawsuit brought against him by Gay’s relatives after some royalties, but it was successfully defended by Ed in court as a generally standard melody used in may songs instead of plagiarism. He even sung it in court to demonstrate his songwriting progress. He won and gets to keep his cash.

Thinking Out Loud was a chart slow burner, taking 19 weeks to hit the top and it wasn’t finished there as it reclaimed the number 1 five weeks later, though this week was the lowest selling of the year for a number 1 and as mentioned above, the first that was actually not the biggest download seller of the week due to streaming – Union J’s You Got It All missed out. It has spent a whopping 91 weeks in the top 75 to date and I would say this is Ed’s signature song.

The reason this just misses out on the top 20 here is the overplay. I still slightly shudder when I rarely hear it now and its just too cloying and romantic for an old cynic like me. I do appreciate that it is a good song though with a nice melody and I can understand the mass appeal. Plus, it is way better than John Legend’s All Of Me, the other slush fest of the year.

NOTE - written before the recent Ed Sheeran controversy.

INTERLUDE 1

As there are so many number 1s to rate, I have decided to do three interludes this year as clearly this hasn’t been enough work yet! The first are notable number 1s on my personal chart that do not get a mention anywhere else in the thread.

Röyksopp & Robyn – Do It Again

This star collaboration, the follow up from 2007’s The Girl & The Robot was the first single from the Do It Again EP, which eventually spawned 3 personal chart number 1s for me in 2014.

Do It Again is instant and in your face much in the style of Robyn and is about doing ‘it’ and wanting more. The last part of the song when the bridge ends at 3 minutes 25 seconds onwards is a particularly banging climax to the song (as it were).

Röyksopp would also score a further number 1 for me in 2014 with Sordid Affair from their album The Inevitable End.

Coldplay – Midnight

Big kudos to Coldplay for producing a subtle dance track on their 2014 album Ghost Stories. It’s a shame that more of the album wasn’t in this vein as this is by far my favourite track on the album. Of course, the biggest single from it would also be a dance collaboration and is mentioned later, but Midnight is much gentler and less in your face and I am a big fan of more chill Coldplay. Incidentally, Ghost Stories is the best Coldplay album for me after their first 3 albums and a real return to form before they fell back into generic stadium type rock again. This is a bit of a cheat as I actually charted this at number 1 in 2015, but its from a 2014 album so….

Metronomy – I’m Aquarius

A bit of an outlier number 1 on my personal chart, I had never charted Metronomy before despite a fairly long career from them at this point (more famously their song The Look with its accordion hook). I think this grabbed me as I am indeed an Aquarius and their sound is my sort of thing?

I haven’t listened to this for many years, so was pleased to give it a spin – it’s a downbeat song with a funky beat with some shoop doops added in. I bought their album Love Letters (well, downloaded as was the custom at the time) and it is more of the same in a good way.

Give it a try if you have never heard of them. Shoop doop do-ahhh!

Asgeir – Torrent

Icelandic Asgeir was not on my radar before 2014 but I heard Torrent and was instantly smitten. This was from the album In The Silence, his first English language release. Admittedly, its all about the music and the language is by the by as this is, like a torrent, a song that sonically washes over you leaving you slightly gasping for air!

The whole album is epic in scale and I would also put the marvellous Head In The Snow at number 1. He is still going to this day, but I have not charted his music for many years.

Alt-J – Hunger Of The Pine

I think the video for this grabbed me first – it’s a bit like The Hunger Games with someone being pursued by arrows and spears across a grassy/forest landscape.

I had liked Alt-J for years, particularly the 2012 track Tessellate, but this was my first and only number 1 for the band. Hunger Of The Pine was from the album This Is All Yours and the song itself starts slowly with a repeated keyboard note before more almost Scandinavian sounding elements are brought in building to a rushing ending, like the increasingly frantic video. Superb still.

My favourite song from that Ed Sheeran era is Don't, which unfortunately did not made it to #1. Thinking Out Loud was never a big favourite of mine, but it is not bad. #28 in my ranking.

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)

27. 5 Seconds of Summer – She Looks So Perfect (22)

28. Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (21)

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)