What if the sound of classic rock and classic hits music was still being produced? Imagine if rock ‘n’ roll radio of the past hadn’t splintered into limiting sub-genres. What would Top 40 radio sound like today if it hadn’t been taken over by rap and auto-tuned dance divas?
The Phoenix 50 helps you find current listenable music by aiming for the sweet spot in today’s rock ‘n’ roll — no head-banging excesses, no wimpy weepers, no whiny juveniles, no way-out eccentrics. Just solid mass appeal tunes for the rest us, like in the old days. In other words, rock ‘n’ roll for grown-ups.
Our Top 100 Hits of 2014 is a good place to start for discovering cool new music. It was another banner year with new releases from a wide variety of artists — from 1960s veterans through today’s brand new bands. Some highlights . . .
U2 placed three songs in the year-end top 10 — all from different sources:
- “Invisible” (#1), a fund-raising single to fight AIDS, was downloaded more than 3 million times in the first 36 hours after its debut as a Super Bowl commercial;
- “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” (#7) was the first single from the Songs Of Innocence album;
- “Ordinary Love” (#10) came from the soundtrack of the Nelson Mandela biopic Long Walk To Freedom.
Phoenix-based band Kongos finally achieved their big breakthrough with “Come With Me Now” (#3), a national #1 rock song. They followed it up with another hit, “I’m Only Joking” (#54), whose video begins with a ride on the Phoenix Metro light rail.
“Kansas City” (#8) was the first single by New Basement Tapes, a project built around unpublished Bob Dylan lyrics from 1967 when he was writing and recording with the Band on what would later become known as the Basement Tapes. The collaboration consisted of five musicians who wrote melodies and performed the songs — Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford (of Mumford & Sons), Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), Taylor Goldsmith (of Dawes), and Rhiannon Giddens (formerly of Carolina Chocolate Drops) — all under the guidance of famed producer T Bone Burnett.
Other new collaborations of veteran musicians in 2014 included Trigger Hippy (#25), Tired Pony (#73), Hard Working Americans (#75) and Autumn Defense (#85).
Lana Del Rey had an unexpected #1 smash with “West Coast” (#11), produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys — which had two chart-toppers of their own in 2014 with “Fever” (#2) and “Gotta Get Away” (#15).
Paul McCartney keeps broadening his musical palette. “Appreciate” (#14) finds the ex-Beatle experimenting, just like in the old days, and incorporating some of the electronica sounds of his long-time side project The Fireman. Other legends updating their sound were Bruce Springsteen with “High Hopes” (#4) and Tom Petty with “American Dream Plan B” (#5). Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant (#14), David Crosby (#34) and Pink Floyd (#56) — all superstars from the 1960s and 1970s — also released new material.
This past year also saw new music from alternative artists who first hit it big in the 1980s and 1990s, including Beck (#6, #39), Coldplay (#9, #13), Suzanne Vega (#29), Foo Fighters (#64), Afghan Whigs (#66), Counting Crows (#78), Big Head Todd & The Monsters (#84), Camper Van Beethoven (#88) and Joan Osborne (#93), who is also a member of Trigger Hippy (#25).
Among the established 21st century hitmakers that placed songs on the top 100 were the Decemberists (#17), Ryan Adams (#19), Spoon (#20), Broken Bells (#22), Foster The People (#24), Arcade Fire (#26), Jack White (#37), Imagine Dragons (#45), Conor Oberst (#50, #72), Kings Of Leon (#79, #90) and Lorde (#97).
And, of course, new artists with their first hits were also well represented. These included Milky Chance (#12), Boy & Bear (#16, #53), Lake Street Dive (#28, #70), George Ezra (#30), Desert Noises (#49, #63), St. Paul & The Broken Bones (#65) and Nick Waterhouse with a retro ’60s boogie sound that anchors the chart at #100.
THE PHOENIX 50 | Top 100 Hits of 2014
Compiled from the weekly potential playlists of current hits for a mass appeal, rock-leaning Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) radio station — if Phoenix had one
Click on song title to play video | *former number one song
o1 INVISIBLE — U2*
02 FEVER — BLACK KEYS*
03 COME WITH ME NOW — KONGOS*
04 HIGH HOPES — BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN*
05 AMERICAN DREAM PLAN B / U GET ME HIGH — TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS*
06 BLUE MOON — BECK*
07 THE MIRACLE (OF JOEY RAMONE) — U2*
08 KANSAS CITY — New Basement Tapes featuring Marcus Mumford*
09 MAGIC — COLDPLAY*
10 ORDINARY LOVE — U2*
11 WEST COAST — LANA DEL REY*
12 STOLEN DANCE — MILKY CHANCE*
13 A SKY FULL OF STARS — COLDPLAY*
14 APPRECIATE — PAUL McCARTNEY
15 GOTTA GET AWAY — BLACK KEYS*
16 SOUTHERN SUN — BOY & BEAR
17 MAKE YOU BETTER — DECEMBERISTS*
18 RAINBOW — ROBERT PLANT*
19 GIMME SOMETHING GOOD — RYAN ADAMS*
20 DO YOU — SPOON*
21 LET ME DOWN EASY — PAOLO NUTINI*
22 HOLDING ON FOR LIFE — BROKEN BELLS*
23 SHELTER SONG — TEMPLES
24 COMING OF AGE — FOSTER THE PEOPLE*
25 RISE UP SINGING — TRIGGER HIPPY*
26 AFTERLIFE — ARCADE FIRE*
27 DARK SUNGLASSES — CHRISSIE HYNDE*
28 BAD SELF PORTRAITS — LAKE STREET DIVE
29 I NEVER WEAR WHITE — SUZANNE VEGA
30 BUDAPEST — GEORGE EZRA*
31 RIPTIDE — VANCE JOY
32 SUPERNOVA — RAY LAMONTAGNE
33 LAZY — FATHOM LANE
34 WHAT’S BROKEN — DAVID CROSBY
35 BULLET — FRANZ FERDINAND
36 WALKING BACKWARDS — LEAGUES
37 LAZARETTO / JUST ONE DRINK — JACK WHITE
38 RAINY DAY #1 & 2 — GRIP WEEDS
39 HEART IS A DRUM — BECK
40 THE STRUGGLE — GRIZFOLK
41 GOT IT WRONG — WILD FEATHERS
42 GHOST — JERRY MESSERSMITH
43 SILVER TIMOTHY — DAMIEN JURADO
44 RED EYES — WAR ON DRUGS
45 ON TOP OF THE WORLD — IMAGINE DRAGONS
46 STRONG — LONDON GRAMMAR
47 FORGOTTEN MAN — TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
48 FEELS LIKE WE ONLY GO BACKWARDS — TAME IMPALA
49 MICE IN THE KITCHEN — DESERT NOISES
50 HUNDREDS OF WAYS — CONOR OBERST
51 LANTERNS — BIRDS OF TOKYO
52 WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER — SAM ROBERTS BAND
53 THREE-HEADED WOMAN — BOY & BEAR
54 I’M ONLY JOKING — KONGOS
55 WHEN WE’RE FIRE — LO-FANG
56 LOUDER THAN WORDS — PINK FLOYD
57 LANDLOCKED — FANFARLO
58 SHOELACES — ELIZABETH & THE CATAPULT
59 THIRSTY MAN — BLITZEN TRAPPER
60 LEFT HAND FREE — ALT-J
61 ANOTHER STORY — THE HEAD & THE HEART
62 THE WALKER — FITZ & THE TANTRUMS
63 FOLLOW YOU OUT — DESERT NOISES
64 SOMETHING FOR NOTHING — FOO FIGHTERS
65 CALL ME — ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES
66 ALGIERS — AFGHAN WHIGS
67 WILDERNESS — MASON JENNINGS
68 LIGHT WILL KEEP YOUR HEART BEATING FOR THE FUTURE — MIKE DOUGHTY
69 INSTANT PUNK — DAFT PUNK FEATURING JULIAN CASABLANCAS
70 YOU GO DOWN SMOOTH — LAKE STREET DIVE
71 LAST LOVE SONG — ZZ WARD
72 ZIGZAGGING TOWARD THE LIGHT — CONOR OBERST
73 I DON’T WANT YOU AS A GHOST — TIRED PONY
74 MY SILVER LINING — FIRST AID KIT
75 DOWN TO THE WELL — HARD WORKING AMERICANS
76 ONLY ONE — JOHN BUTLER TRIO
77 SHAPE SHIFTERS — SAM ROBERTS BAND
78 SCARECROW — COUNTING CROWS
79 FAMILY TREE — KINGS OF LEON
80 THE SOUNDMAKER — RODRIGO Y GABRIELA
81 THE HEART — NEEDTOBREATHE
82 WASHING DISHES — JACK JOHNSON
83 TAKING CHANCES — SHARON VAN ETTEN
84 JOSEPHINA — BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS
85 THIS THING THAT I FOUND — AUTUMN DEFENSE
86 LIVE IT RIGHT — HIP ABDUCTION
87 YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY — BENMONT TENCH
88 IT WAS LIKE THAT WHEN WE GOT HERE — CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
89 HIGH & WILD — ANGEL OLSEN
90 WAIT FOR ME — KINGS OF LEON
91 MORNING SONG — AVETT BROTHERS
92 SPINNERS — THE HOLD STEADY
93 WORK ON ME — JOAN OSBORNE
94 CRUEL CITY — AUGUSTINES
95 MODERN BLUE — ROSANNE CASH
96 HEAD FOR THE HILLS — NIGHT BEDS
97 YELLOW FLICKER BEAT — LORDE
98 LONG TIME GONE — BILLY JOE ARMSTRONG & NORAH JONES
99 PAULINE HAWKINS — DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
100 THIS IS A GAME — NICK WATERHOUSE