The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2020 REDUX

 

The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2020 REDUX

Welcome back to Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes! Today FINALLY we’re reexamining the top 10 best hit songs of 2020!! As I stated in my worst list redux, the general sentiment towards the pop music in 2020 back in that year was “2020 is the fucking worst, but at least the Hot 100 is pretty good”. And 4 years later, that sentiment honestly does still hold true, to the point where I could make a top 25 of this list and still have plenty of material to cut, even if the year has aged pretty wildly. Since people had the desire to leave the bad shit of 2020 behind, it leads to a very messy picture of now long dead TikTok trends that people turned to to distract themselves and gigantic radio smashes that were only gigantic radio smashes because lockdown forced everyone out of their car and very few people were listening to the radio. While relistening to the year-end list, I honestly couldn’t help but be in awe at how much of a relic this year-end list is, a product of a world-changing pandemic that we are still, if not to nearly as extreme of a level now, are feeling the aftereffects of it. Tik Tok became one of the go-to avenues for indie artists to break through and several hits this year had both unintentional and intentional references to the pandemic. Listening to the biggest songs of 2020 felt like I was walking in a museum filled with dinosaur fossils or like I was on a tropical island with tons of exotic wildlife. Country music in particular, though, had one of its best ever showings on the YE (at the time, at least), with mostly great quality. It’s a year that feels extremely disconnected from any trends that came off of 2019 (Tik Tok aside) and any trends today. With all that being said, I couldn’t help but feel a perverse sense of nostalgia when relistening to this year-end list. I’m obviously not asking for us to go through another world-ending pandemic, but during such an unprecedented and difficult time, it felt like everyone on the internet was doing their best to support each other, at least in my circles. And being locked inside the house all day meant that I was listening to a lot more music, and yeah, my music taste in 2020 was kinda off the wall (I was basically listening to everything lol, with more emphasis on EDM and indie pop). Even looking at my old personal charts I used to make, when going through my 2020 charts, a lot of memories of me sitting on my bed or at my desk during online classes just listening to those songs haha.

But now for my criteria for this list, any song that made the Hot 100 year-end list for 2020 is eligible, but if the song made 2019’s year-end, it had to place higher on 2020’s YE to qualify, with any and all Christmas songs being replaced by the songs that placed just below the year-end. However, if the repeat is in the YE top 20 for 2020, it’s eligible regardless of its placement in comparison with the previous year. But let’s FINALLY get started on looking at the forgotten gems of a rough period in human history, starting with looking at my original best list…

HMs:

Lil Baby - The Bigger Picture

Maroon 5 - Memories

Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar

Doja Cat - Say So

surf mesa f/Emilee - ily (i love you baby)

Maddie & Tae - Die From A Broken Heart

Juice WRLD f/Marshmello - Come And Go

10. Dua Lipa - Don’t Start Now

9. JP Saxe f/Julia Michaels - If The World Was Ending

8. Billie Eilish - everything i wanted

7. Harry Styles - Adore You

6. Miranda Lambert - Bluebird

5. Luke Combs - Even Though I’m Leaving

4. Maren Morris - The Bones

3. Lewis Capaldi - Before You Go

2. Halsey - You should be sad

1. The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

Well, a few significant changes I can already see here, one of these songs was one of the final cuts from my worst list redux for crying out loud! But let’s finally get this party (with masks and social distancing) started with our honorable mentions!!

HM #1: JP Saxe f/Julia Michaels - If The World Was Ending (YE: #56, PEAK: #27)

I get it, this should NOT be anywhere close to any best of 2020 list; it’s faintly manipulative, it’s boring, and it’s very AC-core. But I’ve always really liked “If The World Was Ending”, even if I don’t really love this as much as I did in 2020, because it’s not trying to be anything more than it actually is. Yes, it’s coming off as a casual thought experiment, it’s desperate, sure, but to me, it’s clearly written from the point of view of two exes who are clearly not over each other even a year after the breakup. It’s painting an admittedly pathetic picture, sure. But then the lyrics, which are just these two exes having a casual thought experiment after an earthquake where if they were confronted with their mortality, would they share one final moment together before it all ends? And I think the song knows it’s a bit manipulative and lacking in stakes (given JP Saxe said in his verse that he didn’t feel the earthquake at all), so it’s not trying to be something that’d soundtrack an apocalypse. It’s more just wallowing in its feelings and loneliness. Also helps that FINNEAS produced this, making Julia Michaels have possibly her best ever vocal delivery here. She and JP Saxe have pretty good chemistry and Julia does quite a lot of heavy lifting to make up for JP Saxe’s admitted lack of presence. Yeah, sue me, this is a great song.

HM #2: Maren Morris - The Bones (YE: #9, PEAK: #12)

Okay, another song that while I have always really liked, I love it a lot less than I used to. And let’s face it, this is not a country song. It’s a pop song sung by a country singer. But that doesn’t diminish my feelings towards “The Bones” at all. I really like the piano melody, it sounds extremely lovestruck. And that matches the lyrics too, which are about how when you have a sturdy relationship that you’re committed to, no matter what hardship comes your way, nothing can pull you apart. And I won’t lie, the first line “We're in the homestretch of the hard times” did gain a bit of pathos, at least for me, in December of 2020. So yeah, this is a generic little pop song, but one that really works for me. Great song!

HM #3: Morgan Wallen - More Than My Hometown (YE: #96, PEAK: #15)

Well this one really grew on me. But really, in the context of 2024, when Morgan Wallen is delivering some of the most toxic lyrics I’ve ever heard in a country song, “More Than My Hometown” stands out in a similar way to how Maroon 5’s 2000s work stands out now. “More Than My Hometown” might be a bit generic musically with Morgan sounding a bit like a diseased frog, but the songwriting here feels very heartfelt, and is what ultimately made me turn around on this song. The song centers around Morgan’s girlfriend moving out of his hometown to chase her dreams and Morgan makes the difficult decision to let her go chase her dreams while he stays behind in his hometown. And Morgan doesn’t frame any of this as his girlfriend’s fault or frame himself as though he’s concern-trolling, it’s from a place of heart. Morgan, more of this and less of…”Ain’t That Some” or “Thinkin’ Bout Me”, I think that’d justify why you should be a huge star in music.

HM #4: BTS - Dynamite (YE: #38, PEAK: #1)

Alright ARMY, I hope you’re happy with this. But seriously, “Dynamite” is a ton of fun, where even if the guys in BTS are being robbed of their personality in this song, they’re still clearly having a ton of fun here to the point where I’m always swept along in the fun. Even the cringier lyrics like “cup of milk let’s rock and roll” don’t faze me at all. It’s almost a similar attitude I had with the entire 2nd verse of Hot Chelle Rae’s “Tonight Tonight” in a sense. I also love the production here, the beat is funky enough to give this a really solid groove and hell, even the cheesy as hell key change works for me. Taio Cruz may have out-dynamite’d, but this is still a ton of fun.

HM #5: Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion - WAP (YE: #24, PEAK: #1)

Well, following a similar attitude I had with this to “More Than My Hometown”, I think the only reason I put this on my original worst list was out of lingering bias I had against Cardi B. And truth be told, even back in 2021, I had an admiration for how this song just made every conservative lose their mind. The song is intentionally provocative and dirty, right down to the very beat literally saying “there’s some whores in this house” on loop. And Cardi and Megan just have endless personality and chemistry to give this a lot of quoteworthy moments. Horny rappers from 2005, this is how it’s done, take notes. But yeah, I’ve finally come around to realize this song is genuinely incredible and Ben Shapiro’s only good contribution to the world in the form of “wet ass P-word”. It’s arguably one of the most iconic songs of 2020, and it’s so well-deserved. Love this!!

HM #6: Lizzo - Good As Hell (YE: #31, PEAK: #10)

I’ve always liked this song, probably even loved it at first, but it admittedly cooled on me a bit with all the overplay as one of the few insane people who somewhat listened to the radio in lockdown. But yeah, all these years later, “Good As Hell” is incredible as hell (pun intended, lol). Lizzo has pipes and natural charisma that can sell this sort of self-empowerment anthem in her sleep. The pianos and the horns sound very exuberant. Yeah, this is another fun song, and it’s absolutely excellent. It might even be my favorite Lizzo song quite frankly.

HM #7: Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - Rain On Me (YE: #48, PEAK: #1)

Another song that I loved at first but then cooled on me thanks to radio overplay but I’ve swung back around to loving all these years later. But honestly, it’s pretty wild to me how well “Rain On Me” has aged. It’s an obvious callback to the early 2010s club boom that is very much Lady Gaga in her comfort zone. But honestly, I think what made me realize how much I love this song now is Ariana Grande, she sings her ass off here, bringing out her inner diva and having great chemistry with Gaga. I wouldn’t quite call it my favorite song from either artist - “The Edge Of Glory” ever so slightly edges (pun not intended) this out and “Into You” is just in a whole other galaxy of quality - but it’s still incredible and has aged even better than wine.

HM #8: Lee Brice - One Of Them Girls (YE: #68, PEAK: #17)

This was another one that REALLY grew on me. I always really liked it, but Lee Brice’s voice anchoring a very fun chorus just clicked into place for me. It’s a song that really had the potential to be a shambling disaster but just works so well on its strengths that it cancels out the drawbacks. It’s a song where Lee Brice approaches a girl who seems to only be at the bar for the party and not to date, or so she says, he thinks she’s playing hard to get. But Lee Brice isn’t being overly pushy or condescending here, he even says “if I’m wrong then stop me” and is clearly just wanting to show this girl a good time. Couple all of that with a great harmonica solo and a hook that goes this hard and you get a legitimately incredible song. Awesome stuff!!

HM #9: Arizona Zervas - Roxanne (YE: #16, PEAK: #4)

Rock sand. Okay, but all jokes aside, “Roxanne” is understandably a forgotten 2020 hit, but it’s one of the sunniest and happiest hits this year. It’s a very disposable song, but “Roxanne” takes that disposability and makes it really work. I love the cheerful sounding keys and the faster, more energetic and chirpy trap percussion. And then Arizona Zervas; he honestly is giving me the vibe of a more likeable blackbear (“hot girl bummer” was actually closer than you’d think to this list) crossed with the lyrics of a Juice WRLD track. And with a hook that’s as catchy as this one, rock sand is an excellent little song, definitely recommended if you haven’t heard it in a while.

HM #10: Maroon 5 - Memories (YE: #8, PEAK: #2)

Sue me, excluding Adam Levine’s solo features, “Memories” is the best thing Maroon 5 have made post-sellout. And yes, it’s really basic, liberally using Pachelbel’s “Canon” with no alterations to the chord progression whatsoever and Adam Levine’s voice definitely isn’t at its strongest here. But I always loved “Memories” regardless, partly because it hits all my weak spots in songwriting, but also because Adam Levine sounds exhausted and the unemotiveness of his delivery only seems to highlight the loneliness he’s feeling after this loss. Yeah, fuck all of y’all, this is a genuinely incredible song. Love this!

Now for the list proper!

10...This is probably one of the most polarizing hits of 2020. People either REALLY love this or REALLY hate this. And I do see both arguments, and I did really ponder whether this is worthy of being in my top 10...but fuck it, when the song is as fun as this, why you always in a mood?...

10. Dua Lipa - Don’t Start Now 24kgoldn f/iann dior - Mood (YE: #47, PEAK: #1)

I’ve always really liked “Mood” and it’s honestly only aged better over time. Like “Roxanne”, “Mood” is admittedly a bit disposable, but also like “Roxanne”, it leans into its disposability and winds up being really likeable as a result. I love the chirpy guitar and while the clicking trap percussion might be a tad too repetitive and fast, it only helps the song lean into its disposability to wind up incredible in the end. Couple that with iann dior’s really strong pre-chorus and 24kgoldn’s monster of a hook and you get a song that might not really deserve to be called one of the biggest hits of all time according to Billboard, but is still excellent all the way down. This one’s still a ton of fun, love it!

9...This was yet another one that I really liked, even loved, when I first heard it at the tail end of 2019, but got sick of it really quickly due to excessive overplay, but wound up loving it when relistening to the 2020 YE list, and yeah, this was as heartbreaking as it was the first time I heard it...

9. JP Saxe f/Julia Michaels - If The World Was Ending Selena Gomez - Lose You To Love Me (YE: #30, PEAK: #1)

Yeah, an incredibly spare piano ballad like this really isn’t the kind of song that stands up to 0760606076060507507507606060670607606706070 consecutive listens per day. But as a fractured piano ballad, “Lose You To Love Me” really works for me. Selena’s voice is very submissive here and it really works for this sort of song where the only emotion she’s trying to elicit is one of being hurt by a lover, likely Justin Bieber. And even then, Selena is emoting far more than usual here, I can feel the genuine pain she’s feeling from this breakup and bad relationship where she had to end the relationship for her own mental health. I do question the change to staccato piano notes for the second verse, especially when the rest of the song is in legato piano notes, it’s really quite jarring and doesn’t really fit the rest of the song, if anything. And the backing vocals from Julia Michaels feel like they only amplify the emotion here. Is it a bit overwritten? Yes. But if I’m stuck between Selena Gomez’s fractured song about how much of an asshole Justin Bieber is and Justin Bieber himself in a year where Bieber lost all sense of good taste and quality, Selena wins. Incredible, it’s an underrated song.

8...One song missing this list altogether is “Juicy” by Doja Cat. And look, I still like the song, but not nearly as much as I did when I made my original 2020 lists thanks to a subpar guest verse from Tyga and production that didn’t flatter any of Doja’s strengths. If you want the Doja Cat song that has only aged like fine wine though…

8. Billie Eilish - everything i wanted Doja Cat - Say So (YE: #11, PEAK: #1)

“Say So” is a song I’ve always really liked and has also only aged better for me over time, to the point where this is borderline pop perfection for me. I love the summery retro disco production and Doja Cat has truckloads of personality in both her rapping and her cooing. But okay, if this song is so “flawless”, why isn’t it higher here? I don’t know what to tell you, I just liked 7 songs better than this. That’s just how it is sometimes. In the meantime, this is still absolutely incredible.

7...So I mentioned that in 2020, country music had a great year on the Hot 100, not just in how many country hits there were, but in quality too. We saw two country songs make my honorable mentions in the form of “More Than My Hometown” by Morgan Wallen and “One Of Them Girls” by Lee Brice, it can’t get better than that, right? Well, you’d be mistaken...

7. Harry Styles - Adore You Miranda Lambert - Bluebird (YE: #91, PEAK: #26)

Just gonna put a spoiler: this isn’t even the last country song on this list. But “Bluebird” is still a gorgeous, lovely, and incredible song. I love the mandolin touches and the dreamy sounding guitar here and the equally dreamy percussion and even Miranda Lambert, whose voice is more hit or miss for me than I’d like, sounds fantastic here! Absolutely amazing little song and very underrated, without a doubt. Check it out if you haven’t already.

6...In 2020, it felt like a lot of the posthumous releases were being handled with more care than usual rather than feeling like very cynical cash grabs, and while something like “Dior” by Pop Smoke hasn’t really held up for me thanks to the drill production feeling really dated now, this one was always a song I found great and 4 years later, I now find it excellent...

6. Miranda Lambert - Bluebird Juice WRLD & Marshmello - Come And Go (YE: #54, PEAK: #2)

I don’t wanna ruin this one, this type of love don’t always cum and go. Okay, awful RateYourMusic-coded pun aside, “Come & Go” is an incredible song. Maybe it’s not the best contribution to pop music that Marshmello had in 2020 - “Be Kind” with Halsey would’ve probably placed up in my top 3 here - but it still goes really hard for me. Yes, because Marshmello is the producer, the electric guitar drop is overly compressed and loses a lot of power that the percussion had built up, but that aside, the rest of this song is awesome. Juice WRLD’s vocals don’t feel like an unfinished demo like on a lot of his posthumous releases, it sounds like he had potential to be a genuine rockstar. In fact, Juice WRLD’s lyrics don’t feel like they were written as diary entries like “Lucid Dreams”, for example, did. And sure, one could argue that that makes “Come & Go” lose some impact, but it still works for me because Juice WRLD making a set of lyrics that sound like he genuinely put a lot of effort and care into it feels really refreshing. He sounds like he genuinely wanted to release this. Incredible track, you probably forgot about it, but it’s one worth revisiting without a doubt.

5...This was a song that I adored so much in 2021 when I made my original 2020 lists that it nearly topped my original best list. And yeah, it did fall back a bit to stronger competition here this time around, but if I were to highlight the best thing Halsey has ever made outside of a Marshmello collab...

5. Luke Combs - Even Though I’m Leaving Halsey - You should be sad (YE: #82, PEAK: #26)

If “Graveyard” wasn’t caught between years it could’ve easily placed as high as this song did here. “You should be sad” is a fantastic song and Halsey’s best hit. It works thanks to the lyrics. Halsey makes it abundantly clear that she’s referring to G-Eazy here, she’s not being vague in the slightest, especially with the lyric about being glad she never had a baby with him, referencing her miscarriage. The country production has a good groove and Halsey is seething with anger here, she might say she has no anger nor malice, just a little bit of regret, but I can tell that there is at least a some anger bubbling under the surface and I see some of it let loose when she starts to belt and even in some lines like “you’re not half the man you think that you are”. It’s not like “Without Me” - a song I have grown to like for what it is over the years but is nowhere near her strongest - where Halsey was wallowing in her misery and was angry without much in the way of catharsis. “You should be sad” has a ton of catharsis in that distorted guitar and Halsey’s belting. Fantastic little song, and if this is a swan song to Halsey’s hitmaking career, what a note to go out on.

4...I don’t think I realized how much I really like Luke Combs’s music, more often than not. He has a great knack of making songs that may not be personal to him, but still is able to sing it like he’s the narrator. It’s even somewhat there in his “Fast Car” cover from 2023. But if you wanna know the instance where I probably should’ve known that Combs is an underrated songwriter...

4. Maren Morris - The Bones Luke Combs - Even Though I'm Leaving (YE: #85, PEAK: #11)

This is a tearjerker all the way down. The lyrics are what made this place so high on this list, though that’s not to dismiss the fantastic neotraditional country production. Okay but what about the lyrics? Yes, it’s a song about the loss of a loved one that really hits all my soft spots in songwriting, but what makes this so special? Well, the song starts off with a simple premise: a small kid is terrified of monsters under his bed and wants his dad to stay with him to protect him. But then it evolves as this kid grows up, him leaving to serve in the military eventually culminating to that final chorus where he has to see his dad say goodbye to this world. Each verse ends with the same chorus:

“Just 'cause I'm leavin'

It don't mean that I won't be right by your side

When you need me

And you can't see me in the middle of the night

Just close your eyes and say a prayer

It's okay, I know you're scared when I'm not here

But I'll always be right there

Even though I'm leavin', I ain't goin' nowhere”

And what really makes me choke up here is the way Luke Combs sings it so sincerely, even though his dad didn’t actually die, he sings this as if he did. He just makes me genuinely cry at that final verse. But yeah, fantastic song, by far the best country hit this year, but what 3 songs topped this?

3...In my original best list I expressed disbelief a song with a subject matter this dark got radio play, which...I’ll admit, is kinda a very stupid reaction in hindsight. This is far from the first song I’ve heard on the radio that tackles a serious topic like suicide, just to name a few, there was “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind and the poorly written “1-800-273-8255” by Logic. But that doesn’t stop this from being a fantastic song...

3. Lewis Capaldi - Before You Go Billie Eilish - everything i wanted (YE: #18, PEAK: #8)

For real though, I think the reason I was initially so shocked by this song’s lyrics was how young Billie Eilish is. And honestly Billie being only 18 and releasing a song where she recounts a dream where she...ends it all and no one cares is just heartbreaking (it’d be heartbreaking no matter how old she was but her extremely young age only highlights her position in the music industry, where at such a young age, knowing so little about the world, she has to top an extremely big year she had just the year prior). The muted pianos only add to the devastating, fractured atmosphere of the song and Billie’s vocals just sound dead inside, as if she’s emotionally numb from all the pain. And that sense of emotional numbness just makes a blunt lyric like this: “Thought I could fly so I stepped off the Golden” just cut through the emptiness of the song like a knife. Fantastic song, very well could’ve been my favorite hit of the year, so what two songs were better?

2...If I were to make a list of the most important, not biggest nor best, but most important, songs of 2020, this would easily top that list...

2. Halsey - You should be sad Lil Baby - The Bigger Picture (YE: #76, PEAK: #3)

I’m serious, I don’t think any other song I heard in 2020 was as important as this one. “The Bigger Picture” is a song that showcases Lil Baby stuck trying to be a bigger, inspirational figure in a bigger and messier picture where it’s not black and white where every person of color is dumb and every white person is racist. And I think it truly speaks to a moment in time where everyone was scared and tired and angry of the shit 2020 was inflicting upon us, putting lives on the line for George Floyd protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, where we didn’t know when this hell on Earth would end or even if it would end at all. The piano keys sound bleak and Lil Baby sounds terrified and exhausted against this bleak production. This isn’t just a time capsule of the negative emotions we were dealing with in 2020, it’s a call for action:

“It's bigger than black and white

It's a problem with the whole way of life

It can't change overnight

But we gotta start somewhere

Might as well gon' 'head start here

We done had a hell of a year

I'ma make it count while I'm here

God is the only man I fear”

And even if Lil Baby has never really lived up to the potential he showcased in this song, this is still a powerful moment. It’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, so what blocked this from #1 on this list?

1...Even with all the insane competition on this list, it was never gonna be anything else...

1. The Weeknd - Blinding Lights (YE: #1, PEAK: #1)

“Blinding Lights” is the sorta song that you rarely encounter in your lifetime, if at all, it’s already a modern classic and utterly timeless, from the very moment it dropped. The synths are majestic, enticing, and timeless and Abel’s voice on this song is insane. It’s infectious, it’s addicting, it’s huge, it’s sweeping, it’s such a towering song. But you already knew why “Blinding Lights” is a fantastic song, that’s not the anecdote I wanna tell. This is gonna sound like I’m blatantly cribbing from Spectrum Pulse but trust me when I say this actually happened. The year is 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic where in order to keep myself entertained/sane, at night I’d get into the Tesla with my dad and uncle and connect my phone to the Bluetooth speakers and blare my Spotify playlist on max volume as we’d drive through the dark streets of the Bay Area. When “Blinding Lights” starts playing, by this point we're in a very hilly and mountainous area where the only lights are our headlights. The synth riff blares out through the speakers as we make many twists and turns, and the adrenaline is pumping, resulting in a sensation that I can only describe as I was literally blinded by light, it’s like a near-death experience but instead of coming face-to-face with death, you’re face-to-face with evolving into a higher being. It’s the single most exhilarating moment of my life, and for that reason, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, the best hit song of 2020. It was the case in 2021, and it still is now.

And that’s the 2020 best list redux done!! I hope you enjoyed it, next list should be lists for 1998 before I get my final two (most likely at least) list reduxes out for 2021!! In the meantime, the Spotify playlist for this article is below this paragraph and if you wanna comment your own lists of the top 10 best hit songs of 2020 or even predict how my 1998 lists might go, please do so!! I’m eager to read them!! And until the next article, keep it Fire!!

Spotify Playlist