What a wildly uneven year this was.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still one of the worst recent years I have ever covered during my time covering the charts, but at the same time, this best list tops the last two years I’ve done these end of the year lists. So that speaks for some very good quality amongst a giant pile of shit that is Billboard’s 2023 year end list at least?
Yeah I really enjoyed writing this best list an awful lot and it helped me feel a lot better after all the negativity that spewed off my worst list. So why waste any more time recapping this year when we still have a month left to really judge 2023 as a whole. And since I technically had 13 songs on the worst list, I’m going to at least honor my hypocrisy and do 13 on the best list too. Hooray for misleading blog titles! Karma is that guy on the Chiefs, we are counting down!
THE BEST HIT SONGS OF 2023
…well shit. Maybe there is something to this guy after all?
13. “Everything I Love” - Morgan Wallen
I absolutely still stand by what I have been saying about this guy word for word. He is not that interesting of a performer and the controversy has more or less usurped everything about him as an artist. He’s at the Drake stage of oversaturating the market with overbloated albums solely to rack up hits while providing nothing new to the table as an artist.
But my god, this guy can make some good country music when he really wants to. I liked that “Sand In My Boots” cover from a few years ago. He will never make a song as good as “7 Summers” ever again. The self titled lead single for the album “One Thing At a Time” is very good and was in consideration for the best list. But this was my personal favorite of all the hits he had this year and he had like 10-15 so one was bound to stick eventually.
I’m just going to get straight to it. This is Morgan Wallen doing an Allman Brothers song. Which I don’t think many of my readers will know of The Allman Brothers Band, but that was a classic country act that my parents grew up listening to. And Morgan Wallen does a great Gregg Allman impression. It’s funny really that Morgan Wallen’s great songs are when he pretends to be someone else. Maybe he should take notes to be country music’s equivalent to Bruno Mars. Thats a niche that needs to be filled. I wouldn’t mind an album full of country throwbacks…just not 36 songs of them. That is overkill. Next.
12. “Cupid” - Fifty Fifty
One of the defining trends of this decade is that each year we are getting a new subgenre emerging into the American public chart consciousness. We’ve had reggaeton, afrobeats, this year was regional Mexican music, and of course, k-pop being the biggest of all. BTS was obviously the most successful of the k-pop acts, but most of their wild success came from stan bulk buying to boost their sales. So outside of “Dynamite”, we really didn’t have that true k-pop crossover and even then, “Dynamite” came from the bulk buying sales technique.
Fifty Fifty’s “Cupid” feels like the first true pop crossover smash hit. I don’t know if their stans bulk bought this single to prove that, but as someone who still listens to the radio at times, I heard this song everywhere. Whether in the car or in stores, it just felt like a reminder of happier times back when pop music used to sound like this. Because my god we are living in the most irony blind and irony poisoned timeline. What happened to just straight up happy pop music?
I guess if we can’t get happy pop music stateside, might as well pull it from overseas. This song just puts a giant smile on my face every time I hear it. And let me be perfectly clear. I am not talking about the English version…because the Korean version would make my top five. Why did they decide to remove the beat switch after the bridge to make it more American accessible? That actually ties the song together even more to make it a slice of pop perfection.
As is, the watered down English version is still a really good pop song as is. It just reminds me of happier times and these girls harmonize so much better than literally Fifth Harmony and some of the other more recent mainstream girl pop acts. And if your HAIMs and boygenius’s aren’t going to achieve mainstream hit success anytime soon; then by all means. More of this please.
Yeah this preamble is going to be a build up for another country song on the best list. Let’s get that out of the way now, but in all honesty, I can’t believe how much of a firm grasp country music has on the charts now. That used to be a recurring joke for me a decade ago that country so badly wanted to get recognition from the big names and genres.
And now they ARE the big genre. We went 23 years without a country song being number one on the charts to now having four number one hits this year alone. Look out America. Firmly grab your cowboy hats and start strumming your guitars. Hell, even some of the big names of recent are coming to country and folk to save their floundering careers.
11. “Dial Drunk” - Noah Kahan & Post Malone
Make no mistake, this is Post Malone basically trying to get off life support after two flop albums in a row. And you know what? It works! He couldn’t have picked a better song to hop on for a remix. It’s to the point that I can’t picture this song without him on it and hell, I absolutely loved the original as is.
I guess I should introduce you all to the other guy too. This is Noah Kahan. I didn’t know a damn thing about him before this year, but from what little I did check out after uncovering this song the first time; he’s basically Mumford & Sons lite. Apparently he had four songs charting at once before the Christmas music takeover of 2023. So he’s probably destined for a huge 2024 at this rate.
You want to know one of the quickest ways to get in my good graces? Being a karaoke single and my god, I can absolutely see this being a karaoke staple not just in my set but many others. This is one of the best choruses of the year. Right down to the triple entendre of dialing drunk, dying a drunk, and dying for you. That’s just straight up clever songwriting.
I don’t know how I feel about this Americana/folk takeover, but if it leads to more bops like this; then I’m all for it. This is the best Morgan Wallen song of 2023.
2023 was a year lacking any real surprises, but you know what the biggest surprise of this year was for me? This guy has one of my favorite albums of the year.
10. “Fukumean” - Gunna
I know I talked about this on the worst list, but it is still astonishing how much rap music fell off this year. Like it still is around, I’m not going to act like it is irrelevant now like rock music, “rock music”, or hell let’s be honest, pop music. But it felt like most of the big names either had down years or took the year off. 2024 will be the real telling sign for the genre, but right now, it’s mildly concerning since rap music hasn’t had a down year as long as I’ve been alive.
Gunna feels like one of the rare exceptions. I’m not going to act like I’ve always been a fan because trust me, I was not. Gunna’s brand of trap music has always been watered down garbage or getting emphatically outshone by his costars. Most Gunna songs I’ve heard up til this point have always had a feature or were incredibly abbreviated fragments of songs. That was up until this point:
Yeah this news was huge last year. Because it felt like a lot of the big names in rap music like Young Thug, Lil Baby, and yes, Gunna, were going to end up doing time. Gunna end up avoiding this by pleading guilty and snitching. Which most of the time, leads to your career going down the toilet (looking at you 6ix9ine).
So when Gunna announced his new project for this year with zero features, that had me thinking he had to rap his ass off for the first time in his career since basically nobody would want to work with him. And my god, he actually did it. This is some of the sharpest songwriting and music he has ever put out. A lot of looking into his legal troubles, introspection, and stories about his come up. No half assing anything or watered down beats. A real solid recommendation from me, check it out.
I would not consider “fukumean” to be the best song off that album. That actually goes to “rodeo drive”; which the transition from the former to the latter is one of the best transitions I’ve ever heard to the point that I wish both would be one full song instead of two separate songs. If anything, “fukumean” is one of the closest songs on that album’s that resembles a Gunna song from 2020 or 2021. But my god, I can visualize the whole crowd going off to this live. It slaps that hard. To the point that this has become an instant staple to my workout playlist. It just pumps you up and those light “yeahs” are one of my favorite music moments of 2023.
We’ll see if putting out the best music of his career leads to Gunna’s sustained success in the future. Most of the time, snitching does not help keep your fame. But if it does, at least he went out not with a whimper, but a “yeah”.
This being the biggest hit of Miley’s career still baffles me. I’ve been gradually warming up to it over the year, but I’m sorry. I still can’t say I really like this. Miley already did this song like a hundred times better with “Slide Away”. I thought we were well past the Liam Hemsworth breakup to the point that this topic is no longer “hot girl shit”. Now if you want real “hot girl shit”…
9. “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” - Bizarrap & Shakira
..:is Gerard Pique the dumbest man alive or what? Shakira is one of the most beautiful women alive, even at 46 years young! How fucking stupid are you!?
Look I can make this whole entry about the drama, but let’s rewind to why the, at first glance, weird song title is the way it is. Bizarrap is an up and coming music producer who is famous on Spotify and YouTube worldwide for these sessions where he and the artist for each session lock themselves in a studio and come up with a song on the spot. Which I have to admit, is a pretty cool gimmick.
This session with Shakira has sent Bizarrap’s popularity into a whole new stratosphere. Now instead of being with up and coming artists, all major Hispanic musicians want to do sessions with him. And for rightfully so. Shakira could have just made any other diss track about her bastard of an ex and we would have probably still eaten this up. But turning this diss track into an EDM song was a stroke of genius as literally every live performance of this song has nearly everyone turnt up including Shakira herself having the time of their lives.
This song’s worldwide success was so massive and such a fire of a diss track that Gerard Pique has lost millions of dollars and him and his soccer club are now being investigated for tax fraud and can do serious jail time. Shakira was included until she settled the payments out of court, thank goodness.
The world is just better with Shakira in it and her resurgance in popularity this year was just a thing of beauty. Shoutout to that other song she had on the year end this year with Karol G; who seems to be Shakira’s spiritual successor. It was a contender for this list as well, but did not make the best list because let’s be honest. It doesn’t compare to this one. Next.
Every year, I talk about an entry that was my most played song of the year from Apple Music because I don’t have Spotify so no Spotify Wrapped for me. Well for the second time in three years, SZA topped my list.
8. “Snooze” - SZA
How ironic. The biggest sleeper hit of the year was literally titled snooze. Actually let me give you all a little back story:
This is Leon Thomas III. A child star from Nickelodeon back in the day, I thought he had so much more potential in the music industry than he ever did as an actor; which he was fine as an actor too. And low and behold, he eventually did just that after the show he was on, “Victorious”, ended. He’s made quite a name for himself as part of the production team the Rascals. He’s done songs for Drake, Jay-Z, Ariana Grande, Lil Wayne, and Jack Harlow to name a few.
This song in particular though. He wrote and sung for SZA and SZA absolutely loved and asked for her to cover on her latest album from the end of 2022 that absolutely ruled. And while that album has a few other hits that I find better than this, I’m actually glad to see this was the second biggest hit off that album. It just makes me feel like I’m on cloud nine every time I hear it. Like listen to this again with a fresh set of ears and its just beautiful, sensual, sexual, and amazing.
This song is probably going to remain on the charts forever since the charts are so dead that inertia will keep this song afloat for probably 80-90 weeks and it will probably come in at like the 10-20 range on the 2024 year end list because that’s the way Billboard works now. But I don’t care, I absolutely love it. So much so that even a Justin Bieber remix didn’t hurt it any.
Yeah I can’t believe that happened. This song doesn’t need Bieber. Next.
Nope, sorry. I still think this song is very overrated. Especially since it’s the longest running country song in Billboard’s history. I mean it’s fine. Just not spectacular or anything.
It took me awhile to get the appeal of Zach Bryan. To me, he was just another country artist that was smart enough to utilize TikTok to make themselves famous. But has the Morgan Wallen effect of flooding the charts with endless quantity. Christ the EP with “Something in the Orange” on it had 34 other songs.
But with that self-titled album this year, suddenly everything just clicked. I absolutely get him now.
7. “I Remember Everything” - Zach Bryan (featuring Kacey Musgraves)
Three country songs on the best list now by the way. Can’t say this has ever happened before. Speaking of things never happening before, holy shit Kacey Musgraves has a number one hit.
That was the bigger story for me as I’ve been a fan of this woman for over ten years. She was not your traditional country artist as she let her true opinions and views known right out of the gate and she got blackballed by the music industry for it. That was some serious bullshit and even when she tried to lean into pop country, it didn’t translate to success either. Which is some serious bs because “High Horse” especially should have been a hit in 2018 when pop country was all the rage. I was hearing that song everywhere, but FM radio.
But this song is just so tragically beautiful. As Zach Bryan’s character reminisces on the upside of their relationship, Kacey’s character unveils the hidden truth that alcohol warped his perspective on their relationship as he was not the man that he once swore to be. And isn’t that the truth about alcohol and how it can distort one’s views from the hidden truth. Maybe Morgan Wallen should take a few pointers from all his stupid drinking songs?
I know most of this entry is me gushing about Kacey Musgraves finally getting that mainstream crossover success that she finally deserves, but Zach Bryan has won me over. If being a Philadelphia Eagles fan wasn’t enough, I finally get that his appeal is being such a strong songwriter and storyteller. Country artists like him don’t ever get these levels of fame and success. Especially being vocally pro-LGBTQ+. Maybe this is the true turning point in the genre’s history after all?
6. “As It Was” - Harry Styles
And to think, this was my second best song of 2022. Honestly, the Harry Styles fatigue started to hit a little harder this year. Probably due to all the Grammy wins for such a decent, but not earth shattering album and me sitting through that god awful “Don’t Worry Darling” certainly didn’t help.
But make no mistake. This is still an amazing pop song. When the time comes, I’ll come back around on it again; it’s just that good. And there are five more songs that I thought were better than it this year. That’s how good this best list is. What could possible be better than one of the most Grammy acclaimed songs of all time-
….I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-
5. “Next Thing You Know” - Jordan Davis
Last country song I swear. And even more embarrassing than the amount of them on this list is that it comes from this meat headed idiot. For those of you who don’t know, this is Jordan Davis. Literally every song he’s been on up til this point has ranged from mediocre to terrible. Luke Bryan is one of his major influences for his music and doesn’t that say it all right there?
Luke Bryan only wishes he had a song this good. To all up and coming artists, one of the best ways to get on my good side is to right a song about introspection and the future. Country music has a few of these types of songs already, most famously “Remember When” by Alan Jackson. One of my favorite country songs of all time if we are being honest. This is no “Remember When” but I seriously appreciate it for trying to be.
The part of this song that really hits hard is the second verse when it comes to this couple trying to start a family and becoming parents. If that doesn’t hit home for me and that little line about “how you doing there, dad?” makes me cry every time. Because that is exactly what happened to me.
If I had one problem with this song, Jordan Davis is only 34. He doesn’t have the voice or maturity to really make this hit home to being one of the best of these song topics. I mean him and I are the same age. I’m not ready to have those sorts of thoughts about getting old and looking back on life. And I bet Jordan Davis isn’t either. This was probably one of the other songwriters like….one of the guys who wrote Body Like a Backroad!!??!?!?!
…well just goes to show you even the stupidest of musicians can surprise you.
4. “Bad Habit” - Steve Lacy
Any day now with needing more Steve Lacy’s in the music world…
Wait, wasn’t that my best hit song of 2022? And it’s only number four!?!? You read that right. Now who in the world would make music that damn near perfect to top one of my previous best hits…
She can’t keep getting away with this…
3. “Cruel Summer” - Taylor Swift
…and I say that with the upmost respect. How many career peaks is she going to have? 2009 was her biggest year ever. Then it was 2012. Then 2015. Now here we are in 2023 and it honestly feels like Taylor is taking multiple victory laps between the ultra successful Eras Tour, multiple albums getting second wind of success, and deep cuts becoming new singles and topping the charts.
This happened to “All Too Well” in 2021, but that made sense since Taylor just re-released her re-recorded version of Red and made a short film for that song to promote it. But “Cruel Summer”? A song that Taylor already owns her master to? That was fascinating. I mean it’s justified since this should have been a single from Lover…but then the pandemic cut that album cycle short and Taylor made her two pandemic albums in 2020.
But we are in an era where old music is kicking new music’s ass. Where many of our biggest hits now have come from the past. And if anyone was going to get deep cuts turned into big hits, of course it was going to be the biggest pop star on the planet who has already done this before.
Once again, not complaining about any of this. Cruel Summer is one of the best pop songs of the last five years. The fact that this was never a true single felt fully justified this year. Taylor trying to emulate St. Vincent is just magical man; right down to her writing this song as well. Any other pop song that would try to rhyme "wooooo oh whoa" with "cruel summer" would have me roll my eyes. Not here. It is just wonderful.
I’m absolutely going to celebrate this being one of the biggest songs of any year. Even 2024, which don’t be surprised if it ends up this high again. Fucking Billboard…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/06/business/barbie-box-office-history/index.html
I’ll get into this more on the best films list, but Barbie being the biggest movie of 2023 absolutely feels surreal. Chalk that up to a smart marketing campaign, Greta Gerwig being such a fantastic filmmaker, and Margot Robbie absolutely solidifying her place as one of the biggest names in Hollywood if there was ever any doubt on that proclamation.
But you know what was ingenious? Hiring Mark Ronson to produce the soundtrack. That man just has the Midas touch when it comes to music. And while he did produce the true big hit for the album with Dua Lipa, I’m honestly getting real tired of her retro pastiche. A Dua Lipa disco song really does not surprise me anymore. Let’s talk about the real surprise from that album…
2. “What Was I Made For?” - Billie Eilish
…actually none of you should be surprised anymore. Billie has been at the top or at the very least second on practically every best list I’ve written this decade so far. And she will probably continue to do so because she is that much better at making music than almost everyone else in the industry right now. Adding Mark Ronson to produce and write this song with her and her brother Finneas was a stroke of genius.
Let’s go back to the Barbie movie for a minute. The ending admittedly didn’t speak to me at first, but I totally get that it did for women. As I was sitting there listening to Barbie talk about her uncertain identity with the spirit of creator Ruth Handler, I just kept waiting and waiting for the resolution to come. But when this Billie Eilish song came in to tie it all together, absolutely everything clicked at once as the song playing with the montage of strong and powerful women just absolutely moved me to the point that the ending worked. Hell it even brought a tear to my eye. It made me think of my own place in this world and realizing that I was made to be a father to my handsome little man.
That’s just the power of Billie Eilish. She’s at her best when she just lets her words sit there in absolute silence. Add in an accompaniment from Finneas and Mark Ronson that knows when to peak and when to strip back to let Billie’s words sink in. It’s just an absolutely beautiful song that is simply just too good for words.
Before we get to number one though, a few honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions:
“Escapism” - RAYE & 070 Shake
Admittedly this song doesn’t have much replay value for me and was the last cut from my best list, but I absolutely loved this trip hop throwback from these two artists who I guarantee we will never hear from again.
“Sure Thing” - Miguel
This song has aged so weirdly. Who would have thought that a TikTok of what sounds like a six year old singing this song while playing Fortnite would be what it took to give this song a second wind of life and make it chart even higher and last even longer in the public consciousness? Granted, why should I complain about how it got popular? A good song getting second life again twelve to thirteen years later isn’t a bad thing. But it definitely is a sure thing…I’ll see myself out.
“Bloody Mary” - Lady Gaga
Speaking of songs aging weirdly, this was the biggest surprise hit of the year for me. I wasn’t a fan of this song twelve years ago when it came out; where I was admittedly suffering from Lady Gaga burnout. But the more I look back fondly of that era of pop music; you know when chart watching was fun? I can’t help but say this has grown on me. Electro pop Lady Gaga was the best Gaga era. Also can Wednesday Season 2 make more 2010s should have been hits trend on TikTok too…
“Cuff It” - Beyoncé
This is a 2022 song. I swear these chart years are so screwed up beyond repair now…anyway, I honestly still really like this song. But weirdly enough, I don’t come back to it as much as I did over a year ago. Yet, I’m still listening to “Break My Soul” even more. Think of that what you will.
“Wait For U” - Future, Drake, & Tems
Okay now this is a prime example of how nobody cares about popular music anymore. This was a thousand percent 2022. How the hell did this have enough points to make it a second year in a row!?
“Paint the Town Red” - Doja Cat
Catchiest hook of the year. Even if the rest of the song is by the numbers Doja Cat. So much for that new direction and sound though. I guess you could say she just said that for attention har har. Oh well this is still a strong 8 out of 10 either way.
“Love You Anyway” - Luke Combs
This is cute.
And that’s all the honorable mentions. Yes, I know what I said about the good songs really sticking out, but it’s still the 2023 Billboard year end list. It still sucked. Without further ado onto number one…
…I should have bought my tickets to The Eras tour. Damn you, Ticketmaster.
1. “Anti-Hero” - Taylor Swift
Look, I already made an entry deep diving into the 2023 Taylor Swift phenomenon. I don’t need to explain that any further. So I can just go even further into why this is the best song of the 2020’s and one of my favorite songs of all time. You heard me right. One of the best. Of all-time. This would have topped my best list last year if it qualified and once this became the first song to lock for Billbaord’s classification of a 2023 year end list, it wasn’t even a fair competition. This was going to be number one no matter what.
There are simply too many best moments of this song. I can’t even begin to describe without gushing over every single little bit. This song, hell this whole album is phenomenal. If it wasn’t for 1989, this would be my favorite album of Taylor’s. And when it came out, boy did I relate to being an insomniac and the thoughts of being one. Especially since the album came out a week after my son was born and I was even more of an insomniac then.
But the song “Anti-Hero” is specifically about how Taylor Swift is now. With so many songs about how we should be sympathetic for one of the most successful artists of all time; hearing one about how Taylor considers herself the problem and her inner thoughts about how she deals with it. This is just a full circle moment for her career. I don’t hate that many Taylor Swift songs. I’m not a hater, far from it. I actually like her an awful lot. But even I have to admit that Taylor retreading some topics one too many times can be a bit much.
Also, as someone who self loathes frequently, listening to one of the most successful celebrities on the planet talk about her own internal struggles and mental health is just a slice of perfection that it really goes a long way. Especially in this decade, where anxiety and the screaming 20s are a real thing with the pandemic and all the other major new stories going on with the world. Seeing the inner workings of first draft thoughts of one of the biggest pop stars alive really does go a long way.
"Anti-Hero" is about a lot of things. About self-doubt, about being lonely at the top. And just the frustration of having no solutions to the problem of being yourself.
This is Taylor Swift’s world and we are just living in it. And what a perfect place that is to know this is her most successful song of all time. It will sweep the Grammys and I got zero qualms with that.
Thank you all for reading. Best Films of 2023 list will come out in early 2024. I might try to get a project up for the holidays, we'll see what sort of schedule life throws at me. Until then, take care.
