AT20 December 25, 2005

[johnnywest]

Part 1 of AT20's year-end Top 60, (based on R&R's list):

60. Forever - Vertical Horizon
59. Incomplete - The Backstreet Boys
58. Wordplay - Jason Mraz
57. Have A Nice Day - Bon Jovi
56. Listen To Your Heart - DHT
55. Let's Get It Started - The Black Eyed Peas
54. Beverly Hills - Weezer
53. We Belong Together - Mariah Carey
52. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
51. Nobody's Home - Avril Lavigne
50. Live Like You Were Dying - Tim McGraw
49. Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
48. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - U2
47. Almost - Bowling For Soup
46. What Happens Tomorrow - Duran Duran
45. A Lifetime - Better Than Ezra
44. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day
43. Good Is Good - Sheryl Crow
42. Broken - Seether f/Amy Lee
41. Get To Me - Train
40. Only You - Josh Kelley
39. Rich Girl - Gwen Stefani f/Eve
38. Photograph - Nickelback
37. American Baby - The Dave Matthews Band
36. Over And Over - Nelly f/Tim McGraw
35. Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
34. You'll Think of Me - Keith Urban
33. True - Ryan Cabrera
32. Cool - Gwen Stefani
31. Somebod Told Me - The Killers

Countdown extras and optional songs:

Better Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes (#1 pop song of 1981)
Give Me On Reason - Tracy Chapman (#1 song of 1996)
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling (#1 song of 2002)
This Love - Maroon 5 (#1 song of 2004)
Jump - Van Halen (#1 pop song of 1984)
Unwell - Matchbox Twenty (#1 song of 2003)

Top 60 stats:

15 hits by solo men
2 country singers (2 by Tim McGraw)
8 #1 songs in 2005
33 hits by groups

-- Duran Duran is the longest charting act in the Top 60.

-- And Casey mentioned that "Don't Mess With My Heart" bubbled under the weekly Top 20 and got enough points to place on the year-end show.

[mst3k]

johnnywest said:

-- And Casey mentioned that "Don't Mess With My Heart" bubbled under the weekly Top 20 and got enough points to place on the year-end show.

So did it finish all the way up in the Top 30? 'Cause it's not listed above...

[620 Soul Train]

mst3k1 said:

johnnywest said:

-- And Casey mentioned that "Don't Mess With My Heart" bubbled under the weekly Top 20 and got enough points to place on the year-end show.

So did it finish all the way up in the Top 30? 'Cause it's not listed above...

I think he meant "Let's Get It Started", "Phunk With My Heart" finished at number 90.

[Hervard]

I just got done listening to the show, so I haven't looked at this until now.  Anyway, here is the full list of the Top 60 of 2005, complete with statistics:

Pos. SONG/ARTIST - Peak/Weeks charted
60) Forever/Vertical Horizon - 19/21
59) Incomplete/The Backstreet Boys - 19/20
58) Wordplay/Jason Mraz - 17/18
57) Have A Nice Day/Bon Jovi - 12/17
56) Listen To Your Heart/DHT - 14/18
55) Let's Get It Started/The Black Eyed Peas - 31/14
54) Beverly Hills/Weezer - 11/21
53) We Belong Together/Mariah Carey - 16/20
52) Hollaback Girl/Gwen Stefani - 18/20
51) Nobody's Home/Avril Lavigne - 16/20
50) Live Like You Were Dying/Tim McGraw - 21/20
49) Sitting, Waiting, Wishing/ack Johnson - 18/20
48) Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own/U2 - 16/20
47) Almost/Bowling For Soup - 20/20
46) What Happens Tomorrow/Duran Duran - 13/20
45) A Lifetime/Better Than Ezra - 13/20
44) Wake Me Up When September Ends/Green Day - 1(2)/8
43) Good Is Good/Sheryl Crow - 5/16
42) Broken/Seether f/Amy Lee - 17/20
41) Get To Me/Train - 7/20
40) Only You/Josh Kelley - 8/20
39) Rich Girl/Gwen Stefani f/Eve - 17/20
38) Photograph/Nickelback - 1(3)/14
37) American Baby/The Dave Matthews Band - 8/20
36) Over And Over/Nelly f/Tim McGraw - 16/17
35) Somewhere Only We Know/Keane - 11/16
34) You'll Think of Me/Keith Urban - 5/24
33) True/Ryan Cabrera - 13/20
32) Cool/Gwen Stefani - 4/20
31) Somebod Told Me/The Killers - 17/7
30) Vertigo/U2 - 9/11
29) Beautiful Soul/Jesse McCartney - 14/20
28) Holiday/Green Day - 5/26
27) My Happy Ending/Avril Lavigne - 8/4
26) 1985/Bowling For Soup - 7/8
25) Better Now/Collective Soul - 8/29
24) Mr. Brightside/The Killers - 12/22
23) Look What You've Done/Jet - 10/26
22) Chariot/Gavin DeGraw - 5/25
21) On The Way Down/Ryan Cabrera - 5/11
20) Dare You To Move/Switchfoot - 6/13
19) This Is How A Heart Breaks/Rob Thomas - 3/25
18) Speed Of Sound/Coldplay - 3/23
17) Heaven/Los Lonely Boys - 11/10
16) The Reason/Hoobastank - 10/11
15) Behind These Hazel Eyes - 1(5)/29
14) Lady/Lenny Kravitz - 4/25
13) Daughters/John Mayer - 1(1)/15
12) Sunday Morning/Maroon 5 - 4/28
11) Breathe (2 am)/Anna Nalick - 6/37
10) One Thing/Finger Eleven - 4/21
9) She Will Be Loved/Maroon 5 - 1(2)/19
8) Breakaway/Kelly Clarkson - 2/27
7) Collide/Howie Day - 7/39
6) Since U Been Gone/Kelly Clarkson - 2/34
5) Let Me Go/3 Doors Down - 3/43
4) Give A Little Bit/The Goo Goo Dolls - 1(7)/32
3) You And Me/Lifehouse - 1(10)/42
2) Lonely No More/Rob Thomas - 1(10)/39
1) Boulevard Of Broken Dreams/Green Day - 1(10)/42

-- Duran Duran is the longest charting act in the Top 60.

And just barely.  "I'm Feeling You" by Santana featuring Michelle Branch was right outside the Top 60.  Santana has been charting since 1970.

-- And Casey mentioned that "Let's Get It Started" bubbled under the weekly Top 20 and got enough points to place on the year-end show.

Yeah, that rather surprised me.  The song peaked at #31 on the Hot AC chart and spent 14 weeks on the chart.  I don't imagine that it was played on very many stations, so it probably didn't get a lot of recurrent airplay.  It was ranked over several hits that spent 20 weeks on the chart and got a lot of airplay.  Makes me wonder if it might be a statistical error on R&R's part.

Here's the complete list of countdown & optional extras:

Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes (#1 pop song of 1981)
Give Me One Reason - Tracy Chapman (#1 song of 1996)
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling (#1 song of 2002)
This Love - Maroon 5 (#1 song of 2004)
Jump - Van Halen (#1 pop song of 1984)
Iris - The Goo Goo Dolls (#1 pop song of 1998)
Unwell - Matchbox Twenty (#1 song of 2003)
If You're Gone - Matchbox Twenty (#1 song of 2001)
The Sign - Ace Of Base (#1 pop song of 1994)
Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik (#1 song of 1997)
Every Breath You Take - The Police (#1 pop song of 1983)
Crazy For You - Madonna (#1 pop song of 1985)
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia (#1 song of 1998)
Everything You Want - Vertical Horizon (#1 song of 2000, both at Pop and Hot AC formats)


Interesting chart tidbits:

* Three songs tied for the longest running number one song in 2005, with ten weeks each.  That accounts for three fifths of the chart year.

* The highest ranked song that did not go to number one was "Let Me Go" by 3 Doors Down, which came in at number five for the year.  The song, which peaked at #3 in June, also has the distinction of being on the chart for longer than any other song, with 43 weeks.

* The highest ranked song that did not go Top Ten was "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers.  It peaked at number twelve in May and finishes off the year at number 24.

* "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys is the highest ranked song that did not hit the Top Ten within the chart year.  It started out the year at #11.  The song only spent ten weeks on the chart in the time frame used for the chart year, so the song was greatly fueled by recurrent airplay.  It is the #17 song of 2005.

* There are two songs on the Top 60 of 2005 that never made the Casey's Top 20 chart.  We already mentioned "Let's Get It Started" by the Black-Eyed Peas, which peaked at #31.  The other song did not miss the Top 20 by much at all, peaking at number 21 in April.  That song was "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw, which ranked #50 for 2005.

* Eight songs went to #1 during the chart year of 2005 and all are included on the list.  The later in the year they charted, the lower they ranked on the list, which is logical because, the earlier that a song debuts, the more weeks that it has to accumulate airplay points.

* There were thirty-eight Top Ten songs in 2005.  Thirty-five of those made the Top 60 of 2005.  The other three came very close:

61) I'm Feeling You/Santana f/Michelle Branch - 6/10
66) Better Days/The Goo Goo Dolls - 5/9
68) Because Of You/Kelly Clarkson - 3/9

These songs, as you probably know, debuted too late in the year to gain enough airplay points to make the year-end countdown.  If Casey went back to doing a Top 70 chart like he did in the opening years of his Hot AC countdown (called Casey's Hot 20 back then), all of the year's Top Ten songs would have made it.  (Actually, he could conceivably do a Top 70 countdown, since there were four non-optional extras in both halves of the countdown.  All he'd have to do would be to cut out the second verses of several songs and there would be enough room.)

All in all, a very good countdown, with great songs, many of which I was surprised to see on the list.

[Topay]

I like how Casey played the #1 Hot AC songs from 2000-2004 all as extras. He also played the #1 Hot AC songs of 1996-1998. I know "Iris" was a hit on Hot AC as well, but I think it would have been nice to hear AT20 play the #1 Hot AC song from 1999 in its place (since there's already a 1998 song on there).

[Hervard]

topay said:

I like how Casey played the #1 Hot AC songs from 2000-2004 all as extras.  He also played the #1 Hot AC songs of 1996-1998.  I know "Iris" was a hit on Hot AC as well, but I think it would have been nice to hear AT20 play the #1 Hot AC song from 1999 in its place (since there's already a 1998 song on there).

Yes it would have (I don't even remember what the HAC #1 song of 1999 was. I know that on Pop it was "Every Morning" and on AC it was "You'll Be In My Heart", but I'm drawing a blank on the HAC #1 song that year.

[JP]

ulij20 said:

Yes it would have (I don't even remember what the HAC #1 song of 1999 was.  I know that on Pop it was "Every Morning" and on AC it was "You'll Be In My Heart", but I'm drawing a blank on the HAC #1 song that year.

"Slide" by the Goo Goo Dolls was the #1 song of 1999.

[Hervard]

Oh yeah.  It would have made more sense, because it was a song by the same artist, and I definitely hear "Slide" on the Hot AC stations that I listen to much more often than "Iris".

While I think that they had an interesting selection of Extra songs for the countdown, I really wish they'd go back to playing other songs from during the year (i.e. songs that made the Top Twenty but didn't quite make the Top 60, like "I'm Feeling You" which, as stated above, finished the year at #61.)  Or at least do half and half, maybe play the #1 songs of past years as the Optional Extras, since not all stations play those (and, come on, folks, do we really need to hear "Every Breath You Take" and "Give Me One Reason" for the millionth time?)

Oh well, at least the choice of extra songs wasn't quite as boring as it was in the first half of the AC Top 60 of 2000.  Talk about a snoozefest!