The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2004

 

The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2004

In the following article, I take a look at a decent but slightly overrated year of the 2000s for the Hot 100 and look at why people look back on this year fondly.

Hey guys, welcome back to Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes for another year-end list. Today, we’re examining the top 10 best hit songs of 2004!

So if you read my worst list for this year, you know my assertion that 2004 is a kinda overrated year for the Hot 100. I think many people are seeing this year through rose-colored glasses. It's not bad by any means, but I kinda feel it falls towards the middle of the 2000s in terms of quality. Sure, the best of this year has stood the test of time, but the worst...oh boy, they might not be as bad as the worst of the following year but god, there’s a reason the worst songs were forgotten, all I’m saying. The charts in 2004 were dominated by the crunk explosion pretty much and mainstream pop was basically absent in 2004 and maybe with just very few exceptions, country music didn’t really have that good of a year, that said the few gems were pretty great. There were 66 songs here that were good or better, including the 2003 repeats. As a rule, the songs had to debut on the year-end Hot 100 in 2004 in order to qualify, so no, ”Get Low” by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and “Damn!” by YoungbloodZ are unfortunately ineligible for this list, so let’s get things started as always with our honorable mentions!

HM #1: Petey Pablo - Freek-A-Leak (YE: #14, PEAK: #7)

I think I may like this song way more than I should haha, that said I don’t really find this song a guilty pleasure, I genuinely really like this. Mainly thanks to the production, which Lil Jon apparently intended to be the production for “Yeah” by Usher haha, but the synths sound awesome, and it helps that Saweetie sampled this in another great song in 2019, “My Type”! That said, Petey Pablo did make better this year...

HM #2: Ciara f/Petey Pablo - Goodies (YE: #9, PEAK: #1)

I get why people hate this, that choice of synth is definitely hate it or love it, but I just think it’s a banger, not sorry. I can’t help but jam out to that synth, even if it’s just one F note going through the octaves, and yeah Ciara probably helps me not hate this song, even if her singing in this song isn’t precisely great I still feel she brings in a lot of personality to carry this, and yeah, even if Petey Pablo isn’t very impressive and the writing can feel sloppy at points - “If you're looking for the goodies/Keep on looking, 'cause they stay in the jar” - look I know this song was titled “Cookies” in earlier drafts, but you couldn’t have changed the metaphor? That said, I don’t care, this is a banger.

HM #3: Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway (YE: #74, PEAK: #6)

Yeah, Kelly has a much better song in the following year but “Breakaway” is still great nonetheless. It’s one of the few straight pop hits on the year-end list for 2004 and it’s absolutely wonderful. With Kelly’s vocals being very strong and her being able to sell the liberating feeling of her following her dreams so incredibly well. I wouldn’t put this among Kelly’s best from this decade because the instrumentation doesn’t quite have the punch it needs to really work, but hell, this is still pretty great.

HM #4: Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get It Started (YE: #88, PEAK: #21)

Okay, we don’t claim the version of this song that has the ableist slur in the chorus but this version is such a banger, The Black Eyed Peas are all delivering tons of fun personality and Fergie proves herself to be a great hype woman, they’re having tons of fun here and are bringing in everyone for the ride! And then we get the production, with the great funky groove  and the rock-leaning guitars, yeah I know a great party jam like this doesn’t require a lot to work for me and the Peas absolutely understood the assignment!! Great and fun song. And considering some of what The Black Eyed Peas would go on to make, this still is a highlight for them.

HM #5: Kanye West - Jesus Walks (YE: #43, PEAK: #11)

Well, I chose a bad time to put this guy on one of my best lists...yeah okay, let me just start by saying this: Kanye West is a shitty human being and me putting this song on this list isn’t me condoning any of what he’s recently said. And none of that changes the fact that to me “Jesus Walks” is a great song. Now when I first heard this song a couple years ago, it felt like a song I respected more than liked but it  grew on me rapidly and now I really like it. It’s a statement of how an artist could make a song with him shouting “Jesus walks” on the hook and still getting radio play in a very secular music industry. Why isn’t this higher here? Well I’ll admit, it’s still more of a song I respect more than like but hell, it’s great nonetheless

HM #6: Kanye West f/Syleena Johnson - All Falls Down (YE: #47, PEAK: #7)

Oh god yet another Kanye song here...again I don’t condone any of the shit Kanye has said recently and to me, that doesn’t change the fact that both “Jesus Walks” and “All Falls Down” are great songs the Lauryn Hill interpolation works well here and Syleena Johnson’s hook is great. I don’t have much else to say here, this is just a great little song.

HM #7: OutKast - Hey Ya! (YE: #8, PEAK: #1)

Yeah, there’s a reason this song is heralded as one of the best songs of the 2000s. True story, a few years ago in 2018 when I first heard this song, for whatever reason I disliked it and I genuinely don’t remember why, but thankfully I saw the error in my ways and came around to finding this a great song. With that happy bassline and Andre 3000’s infectious energy across this track, this is just a fun as hell track and a great song that is rightfully still in the cultural memory today

Alright, now for the list proper!

10...That SNL live performance of this song that I saw when writing this segment is genuinely one of the funniest and saddest things I’ve seen in my life haha...

10. Ashlee Simpson - Pieces Of Me (YE: #39, PEAK: #5)

I feel like nowadays this song and Ashlee Simpson is mostly remembered for that tragic fail of an SNL performance but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a great little song, it’s absolutely adorable from Ashlee Simpson’s delivery to that cute ass melody to the lyrical content depicting Simpson deeply in love with a new partner, yeah I don’t have much to say here, this is a great and really cute little song.

9…So, wow, country music delivered some excellence this year..

9. Alan Jackson - Remember When (YE: #82, PEAK: #29)

This is a very poignant song about the story of Alan Jackson’s relationship about how they made it through the bad times and lived the good, coupled with the gorgeous acoustic guitar and the string touches and a magnificent key change, and another key component of this working so well is Alan Jackson being a very compelling storyteller, delivering each line with tpns of restraint, yeah this is a beautiful song, won’t be the last song about aging that’ll make this list though!

8...Well, we didn’t have to wait that long for the other song here about aging...

8. Five For Fighting - 100 Years (YE: #77, PEAK: #28)

Yeah, this may be a bit of a hot take haha...I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who genuinely really likes “7 Years” by Lukas Graham from 2016, but I can’t deny that this song is basically that one done better. The basic reason why is that it isn’t reeking of ego like “7 Years” admittedly felt like it was at some points it just walks through different phases of a man’s life and the heartbreaking reality is how utterly mundane it is in the end - “Half time goes by,/suddenly you're wise/Another blink of an eye, sixty-seven is gone” -  there aren’t any milestones stressed in this man’s life, it’s just a tragic song that makes you remember you only have 100 years to live, and John Ondrasik’s restrained delivery just captures that sentiment perfectly, even if his vocals are admittedly not the greatest, it’s just a great song, sue me.

7...Yeah, mainstream pop may have suffered a lot in 2004, but the few sightaway pop hits this year were quite good on average!...

7. Britney Spears - Everytime (YE: #83, PEAK: #25)

When people think of Britney in 2004, they tend to think of “Toxic”, but I feel this song tends to get left out of the conversation a lot, which isn’t fair, because this is great too, a brilliantly vulnerable slice of ambient pop that Britney proves to be a fantastic fit for her. It just sounds so frail and devastating, with that beautiful sounding piano and Britney sells it so well - “Every time/I try to fly, I fall/Without my wings, I feel so small” is just a devastating lyric that almost seems to gain more pathos since her conservatorship, at least she’s free.

6...Well, I mentioned it in literally the last entry, yeah there’s a reason that Britney is arguably most well-remembered for this song...

6. Britney Spears - Toxic (YE: #48, PEAK: #9)

Yeah, while “EveryTime” is a poignant and vulnerable little song, “Toxic” is great in different way, in that it’s a fucking banger. With a razor tight groove and the strings just being very intoxicating, yes intended, and Britney being such a commanding presence here. Side note, I remember briefly a mashup of this song and Ginuwine’s Pony charting on pop radio, in I think 2021, and sadly it doesn’t really work, the groove is kinda stripped away and overall it’s kinda messy to me. But this is such a banger and there is a reason it’s arguably Britney’s most well-remembered hit.

5...Indie rock was blowing up in 2004, but most of which would only hit the charts in 2005, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any gems in indie rock to find on the Hot 100 year-end list for 2004...

5. Linkin Park - Breaking The Habit (YE: #79, PEAK: #20)

Oh boy, this is kinda a heavy listen. So this song was written based on Mike Shidona’s friend struggling with drug addiction and Chester Bennington resonated with it hardcore, because he said that he had trouble singing this song live because he’d always choke up.And you can definitely feel how much the song was close to him here as well the plucky guitars and Chester genuinely sounding devastated as he belts on the hook. And yeah, the other factor...the unfortunate thing about music can be that it hits harder after the death of an artist, and yeah, after Chester Bennington’s death in July of 2017, this definitely hits harder. Not my favorite Linkin Park song or even my favorite hit from them on this year-end list - we’ll get to that - but it’s still a great song

4...Okay, it wouldn’t be a best of 2004 list without this song, let’s be honest here, peace up A-town down...

4. Usher f/Lil Jon & Ludacris - Yeah! (YE: #1, PEAK: #1)

Yeah, I only found out while writing this segment that this song is about cheating, and honestly I doubt that thought has actually crossed anyone’s mind when listening to this. It’s a crunk classic with the blaring synths just hyping you up and filling you with so much energy and Usher’s vocal range and personality here is just chef’s kiss. That’s not to mention Lil Jon and Ludacris who also brought their A-game here. It’s just an all-around club jam and it slaps and there is a reason it’s probably the song that first comes to mind when you picture music from the 2000s. Every element of this song just comes together so well. Usher, more club bangers like this or “DJ Got Us Fallin In Love” would be great. Just don’t give us “OMG” again please...Yeah but just all in all, this is a classic, but there were still 3 songs I somehow found better? What could they be?

3...So if you’ve seen any of my best lists for the 2000s you won’t be surprised at all by this entry, even before I knew how much I liked this artist, this was my favorite song from her...

3. Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending (YE: #54, PEAK: #9)

This is a kickass song that harbors anger and despair so well. A song about the aftermath of a clearly bad breakup and Avril is clearly angry here, she sells her anger here so well with that sarcastic “so much for my happy ending” delivered with so much passion and sarcasm and this song rings despair too, that lying in the melody. That melody just sounds extremely sad even as it builds up more punch in the percussion but especially the bits with just an acoustic guitar just sounding really devastated and Avril’s delivery during those bits still having anger but also clear hurt. Yeah, up there with “I’m With You” as one of the best songs Avril has made, but still, I found 2 songs better

2..So remember when talking about “Breaking The Habit” that it still wasn’t Linkin Park’s best hit this year?...

2. Linkin Park - Numb (YE: #33, PEAK: #11)

When people think of Linkin Park, either “In The End” or this are probably the first songs that come to mind and for good reason! Even if I do prefer “In The End”, this still hits hard for me nonetheless, it’s a song about becoming numb because of some pressures to follow some path, and feeling afraid to fail - “I'm becoming this, all I want to do/Is be more like me and be less like you”. It’s a wailing bit of agony and frustration, with the instrumentation matching Chester Bennington’s aggression but in the end, you just have to try because you don’t want people to be disappointed on you -  “And I know I may end up failing, too/But I know you were just like me/With someone disappointed in you”. This is a feeling that I’m sure we’ve all felt at some point in our lives. A hard-hitting song,  I love this song, but it’s still not my favorite hit of 2004.

1..So I just went through “Yeah!”, “My Happy Ending”, and “Numb” and yet none of those songs was my favorite hit of 2004, so what did I choose? Well, I went with a song that truly encapsulated this act’s potential that they would only flush away throughout the 2010s and beyond, in other words, can we go back to this Maroon 5? Please? Because this is easily their best hit...

1. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved (YE: #35, PEAK: #5)

Let me quote what I said in my best of 2013 list about “Daylight” - “9...Unpopular opinion, but this is the best song Maroon 5 has ever released, yes even better than the songs in their Songs About Jane era” yeah...let me right that wrong here, because “She Will Be Loved” is Maroon 5’s best hit ever. I know people probably prefer “This Love” to this, which to be fair is good but I never really loved it like this one. Sure, people may see this as a “steal your girl” song but Adam Levine and Maroon 5 smartly framed this song to where our narrator doesn’t make any big swing for this girl, he clearly wants to be here for her but he knows that maybe it’s not gonna work out, there is a melancholic feel to the line “she will be loved” showing that she will be loved if she ends up at the right place, even if this guy isn’t that right place, beautiful song, and coupled with Adam Levine’s best vocals in any song with a delicate falsetto and having a restrained delivery throughout, yeah, this is an excellent song, and when you factor in some of the material Maroon 5 would go on to make in the 2010s and beyond...like “Lost” for example which has genuinely one of the most mind-numbingly terrible choruses I’ve ever heard, this song stands out even more. Seriously, Maroon 5 may be up there with B.O.B. as one of the most tragic declines in quality I’ve ever seen. And thus, “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5 is the best hit song of 2004.

Next stop on our journey through the 2000s is 2005! stay tuned for those lists and in the meantime, as always, Spotify playlist is below this article and if you wanna comment your own lists of the best hit songs of 2004 or predict what my 2005 worst list could be, please comment below, I’m eager to see them! But until then, you’ve been reading Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes, and I’ll see you next time!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63qz0L0MuvkyHixFn1f2FZ?si=1b11f49aa0a940cf