Singles Eligibility: I deemed eligible any single (be it radio, streaming, or video singles) released during the calendar year, or those released during 2023 that reached either their chart peak or greatest obvious visibility in 2024. Additionally, for the sake of variety, the number of singles entries is limited to one proper single per artist. However, an artist can appear multiple times if they were on a feature or collaboration with a different lead artist.
50) Sophie Ellis-Bextor- “Murder on the Dancefloor” (Polydor)
Originally released in 2001, the viral sensation this song enjoyed as part of the twisted Saltburn’s film soundtrack was this year’s answer to 2022’s “Running Up That Hill” revival that became one of the most fascinating chart successes in recent memory. Twenty-three years has done nothing to diminish the exquisitely and evocatively seductive magic of the track, and the fact that it fits so seamlessly into a modern playlist speaks equally to the staying-power that modern dance music has exhibited in the new millennium, as well as that of Ellis-Bextor’s skills in pop mastery. What should’ve-been-hit from the archives will TikTok crown as 2025’s comeback story?
49) Ella Langley featuring Riley Green- “You Look Like You Love Me” (Columbia)
A duet fronted by an unknown female artist that’s unapologetically doused in a retro 70s twang and with verses delivered through spoken word? Yep, “You Look Like You Love Me” seemed like the furthest thing from becoming mainstream country’s runaway story of the year, but how joyfully fantastic is it that this is precisely what occurred? Langley and Green’s campy sawdust -floor flirtation reiterated that Music City still has a pulse, while further fueling the genre’s latest sonic revival.
48) Rose and Bruno Mars- “Apt.” (Atlantic)
The irresistible K-pop movement in American music delivers its most delicious triumph to date. Together, Rose and Mars craft an endlessly potent cross-cultural moment that spans a wide swath of musical genres and influences. Their chemistry and combined charisma just spits from the speakers, with the punchy pre-chorus being the ultimate highlight on a track just spilling over with fun and spirited pop magic.
47) Justin Timberlake- “No Angels” (RCA)
The once untouchable JT’s long-awaited comeback effort didn’t quite become the 2024 blockbuster that he surely had hoped for, and probably expected. It’s understandably easy to ponder whether it would’ve gone a bit differently if “No Angels” had been the launch single. Its final stats withstanding, it stands to be one of the superstar’s most overlooked gems of a single; as stylishly confident and dazzling a modern-disco triumph as any of the smashes he built his solo resume on.
46) Trisha Yearwood- “Put It In A Song” (Gwendolyn)
For over thirty years and counting, Trisha Yearwood has reigned as one of American music’s most treasured voices and lyrical interpreters. “Put It In A Song” found the legend dipping her toes into the songwriting realm she usually leaves to the experts, and what a fitting introduction to such an era in the legacy arc of her career. Tipping its hat to the thematic tone of her classic hit, “The Song Remembers When”, this track likewise celebrates the prolific healing power of a great lyric. Unsurprisingly, she delivers the vocal with flawless aplomb, while also proving that she picked up a thing or two from the writers she’s championed all along.
45) Shovels & Rope featuring Gregory Alan Isakov- “Love Song From a Dog” (Dualtone)
For those on the outside who fail to connect with the powers of country and/or folk music, especially if they’re also not fortunate enough to count themselves as animal lovers, the mere concept of a dog song is going to make them groan over such an allegedly-maudlin idea. For the rest of us who get to enjoy the enriching rewards that country and folk music, and especially the love and companionship of animals provide in our lives, a perfectly-executed dog song is going to leave our hearts full and eyes flooded. S&R most certainly provide such a performance here. It’s a crapshoot as to whether I’m going to first smile or weep when listening to this track, but by its end, I will most certainly be doing both.
44) Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande- “Defying Gravity” (Republic)
The story of music in 2024 is simply left untold without mention of the wondrous Wicked soundtrack, and this, its climactic, cornerstone performance. It’s a shimmering emblem of the defining pop-culture moments created when the powers of Broadway, Hollywood, and popular music all gloriously blend together, as well as the enduring storytelling impact of all aspects of the fabled Oz universe. Our household is already counting down the days until the release of Part II, which will undoubtedly provide 2025 with its own share of wickedly great moments.
43) Kelly Clarkson- “Lighthouse” (Atlantic)
This majestic performance represents one of the truly great and simple pleasures of recorded music: the opportunity to hear a generational vocalist using their unique talents to bring to life a beautifully raw portrayal of the human experience. Kelly Clarkson has proven literally on a daily basis that she can masterfully sing anything, but the impact is never as gripping as it is when she’s telling her most emotionally personal stories, as she does on this undeniable gem from her criminally overlooked post-divorce album.
42) Josh Turner- “Heatin’ Things Up” (MCA)
A tremendous return-to-form from one of the best pure voices to emerge during the past two decades. Turner’s recent trio of vanity projects all had plenty to offer, and began a positive trajectory in the post-radio phase of his career, but this single marked the first time in eons that his pipes were provided with the solid country material that brings out their very best qualities. A sexy, sweltering slice of neo-honky-tonk that leaves the middling material of his last proper studio set in a cloud of dust.
41) Aaron Lee Tasjan- “Horror of it All” (New West)
A thrilling encapsulation of all the buzzy qualities that have come to define an ALT record, from the track’s dizzying cross-genre sonic palate, to Tasjan’s trippy vocal deliveries and his equally complex lyrical observations. Like so many of the highlights from his recent run of excellent records, he packs his performance both with plenty of critical social commentary, but also an amiable undercurrent of sarcastic side-eye at all of the ridiculousness that has pushed our entire culture to the edge of a proverbial cliff.
40) Billy Joel- “Turn the Lights Back On” (Columbia)
When the legendary Piano Man released this, his first proper single in seventeen years, and ended a recording drought that he had previously vowed to be permanent, he was also quick to clearly set expectations with his fanbase. “Turn the Lights Back On”, was not the lead release to a new album, which is certainly a shame given just how great Joel is on it. Nevertheless, if this does indeed prove to be his final recording, it’s certainly a worthy swan song. It’s brimming with the same pomp, passion, and beauty that has defined his classic catalog for the past five decades. And given its tone of rejuvenation, the clamoring and speculation that more will follow will remain unabated.
39) Kelsea Ballerini featuring Noah Kahan- “Cowboys Cry Too” (Black River)
Both Ballerini and Kahan sound splendid on this graceful condemnation of the kind of toxic masculinity that still too-often poisons the country genre, not to mention culture in general, and the upbringing of countless young men. It’s another marker of the continued artistic growth that Ballerini has shown over the past several years. A track like this would have been marred by schlocky pop production on her first two albums, but here is provided a richly organic blend of fiddle and steel that perfectly matches the song’s message of vulnerability and empathy.
38) I Don’t Know How But They Found Me- “Gloomtown Brats” (Concord)
This blood-curdling launch to IDKHBTFM’s second album era, and first as a newly-minted solo endeavor for Panic At the Disco!-alumni Dallon Weekes, further solidified that the act is easily the most underrated force in modern-day rock music. This record is a ravenous onslaught of rock & roll’s most deliciously glammy, dramatic, and intense characteristics, all anchored by Weekes’ scintillating vocals and colorfully loud and uninhibited stylistic vision. A bona-fide 2020s rock thrill ride.
37) Conner Smith featuring Hailey Whitters- “Roulette on the Heart” (Valory)
Beautifully understated and organic, “Roulette on the Heart” will easily reign as one of the ultimate country gems of the decade. Smith has a stellar love song on his hands; it’s both unrequited and humanly complex, and the rich and grassy textures that he uses to bring it to life are gorgeously refreshing. His most intelligent artistic choice however comes when he humbly allows Whitters to be the true star of the song. When her sweet country pipes come in on the final chorus, it’s an undeniable chef’s kiss on an already excellent record.
36) Margo Price and Billy Strings- “Too Stoned To Cry” (Loma Vista)
After fascinating us with a thrilling seven-year run of stylistically diverse records, Price hints toward a return to the stone-country sounds of her 2016 debut with this most recent single, and it’s wonderful full-circle moment to behold. She and bluegrass wunderkind, Strings have full-blown Gram & Emmylou chemistry here, while delivering a new Outlaw-gold standard that would’ve flourished on a 70s album from Waylon or Willie. Whatever Price has cooking for 2025 is going to be fire.
35) Billie Eilish- “Lunch” (Interscope)
It’s easy to allow Eilish’s hushed vocal style, especially after recent smashes like “What Was I Made For?” or “Birds of a Feather”, to subvert the more ballsy and alternative-infused expectations that launched her career during the “Bad Guy” era. Enter a track like “Lunch”, an unapologetically salacious and homoerotic celebration of female pleasure, all sung against a rippling rock bass line. It’s a positive thing that she has proven to be diverse enough to master material untethered from her initial artistic identity, but her music certainly reaches a new level when she returns to the original scene of the crime. This is destined to be a cult-favorite, alt-standard in the years ahead.
34) Maggie Rose- “Fake Flowers” (Big Loud)
There ain’t nothing fake about the glistening soul queen that Maggie Rose has blossomed into over the course of the past several years. “Fake Flowers” is one of the boldest and most satisfying examples of this to date, with her sultry range exuding a dynamic well of emotional highs and lows. This is luscious soul music that is rooted in the field’s vintage origins, while also emphatically reminding us that it’s a genre that has a key place in the current musical universe as well.
33) Dwight Yoakam and Post Malone- “I Don’t Know How (Bang Bang Boom Boom) (Thirty Tigers)
No disrespect intended toward Post Malone and the respectably genuine inroads he made within the country music community this past year by way of F-1 Trillion, or the irresistible impact of “I Had Some Help” (which, spoiler alert, is still to come on this list), but this was his true country-coming-out party of 2024. Both he and the legendary Yoakam are in a delirious, catatonic state of twangy honky-tonk bliss throughout this track, which removes the pop bumpers of his album’s standard edition, and allows him to really indulge in his C&W affliction. More importantly though, the record reaffirms what an all-out country-rock badass Dwight Yoakam remains after a long musical slumber. Do we even need to cast a HOF ballot this year? The 2025 class should already have Yoakam’s iconic name all over it.
32) Adeem the Artist- “One Night Stand” (Thirty Tigers)
It’s easy to continually allow the narrative surrounding this single to be dominated by its astute ability to seamlessly meld a queer love story into the framework of a standard contemporary country song, complete with a Loretta Lynn call-out. And while that is unquestionably a groundbreaking feat (and one that Adeem has been pulling off years now), its biggest triumph is how easily natural it all comes off, and it should. The real-life stories at the root of great country music have always been universally relatable across demographics and orientations (I myself am proof of this). That’s because we’re all living real life and real romance too. So they should sound natural next to anyone else’s. The fact that this is just a solid and catchy song is just the final clincher.
31) Benson Boone- “Beautiful Things” (Warner)
An undeniably career-making performance, and a sure-fire pop moment for the genre’s golden canon of classics. It’s positively staggering to consider all the depth that Boone exhibits here, both in terms of emotional heights, but also in just sheer talent. His softer, folksy Sheeran-leaning qualities are given glowing breathing room on the verses, while the explosive nature of the chorus serves as an electrifying display of all the passionate power and dramatic flare that he’s injecting into the current scene. We’ll all be screaming along to that climactic vocal run from now until the end of time. But let’s agree to leave the back-flips to Benson, y’all.
30) Lake Street Dive- “Good Together” (Fantasy)
The kind of splashy, effervescent, soulful pop delight that only Lake Street Dive can deliver, and one that had us cheerfully bopping along to well into the bitter winter, as if that warm June sun had never set. This band is humming along just fine as a diamond in the indy scene, but they are just so ripe and deserving for a breakout moment in the pop/rock mainstream. They are unquestionably one of the tightest and most consistently entertaining bands of the moment, bar none.
29) Red Clay Strays- “Wondering Why” (Thirty Tigers)
Speaking of a well-deserved breakout moment from the indies, these upstart country-rock crooners found just that when this brooding 2022 firecracker of a ballad became the latest viral benefactor of the TikTok era. In the span of nine short months, the Strays went from relative unknowns to releasing their sophomore album on the legendary RCA label. It was all worth the buzz; vocalist Brandon Coleman’s booming chops have a timeless rock & roll ambience to them, while the band surrounding him provide him with an equally fiery instrumental showcase.
28) Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars- “Die With A Smile” (Interscope)
A blockbuster collaboration worthy of its hype, not because Gaga and Mars united the glitzier and more flamboyant aspects of their respective arsenals, but because they did quite the opposite. They remain two of the most legitimately talented vocalists in the realm of modern pop superstars, and those chops are the raw powers they combine here. They absolutely shine together against the retro-leaning soft-rock backdrop, creating a modern classic that would have equally lit up the airwaves five decades ago as well.
27) Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies- “Mint Tea” (High Top Mountain)
Sturgill—err, I mean Johnny has all of his classic cosmic country vibes firing on brilliantly full cylinders throughout “Mint Tea”, one of the many highlights to be found on the instantly seminal Passage du Desir. Spaced-out country-rock licks and sweet, mountainous mandolin craft the kind of subversive roots sound that had become his signature over the preceding decade, and his smooth, throaty baritone is as soulfully commanding as ever. The true highlight however abounds at the end of each chorus as he coyly asks, “Tell me, why you so afraid of little old me?”.
26) Miranda Lambert- “No Man’s Land” (Big Loud)
Lambert’s ability to flesh her generous catalog with a balance between fiery feminine anthems and reflective ballads is truly one of the hallmarks of her success and longevity. However, it has perhaps frequently gone unnoticed just how often and brilliantly she blends both of those realms into one song, as she does on the gorgeous “No Man’s Land”. The woman at the center of this song’s story is indeed a stubborn and rebellious drifter like so many of the leads in her signature rave-ups, but she’s beautifully portrayed here through a sensitive and romantic lens, with her wildcard independence proving to be among her most endearingly beloved traits.
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Next: Part II
The 706 