The Biggest Hits Of 2013 That Never Made The Blog...Until Now

As frequent (or even casual) readers of this blog can attest, I have done a heckuva lot of music posts this year. Maybe I'm just on a music kick (okay, definitely I am) or maybe I just don't have much time to compile many other kinds of posts (that's true, too). Throughout the course of the year, I've posted a fair number of current hit songs – that's both coincidental and by design – but I did miss a few big ones here and there. Having thought of no better way to include the songs before year's end, I've gathered them all together here for your listening (and viewing) pleasure. Enjoy!   ~  JH

1)  AWOLNATION  ~  "Sail"  (Yes, technically, I did post an a cappella cover of this song a couple weeks ago, but in my book that doesn't count.)

2)  Katy Perry  ~  "Unconditionally"  (She has her faults, topically and lyrically speaking, but I have to give Katy Perry props for crafting some really good pop songs.)

3)  Maroon 5  ~  "Love Somebody"  (I've heard this song I don't know how many times, but I'd never seen the video till now – it's weird. Good song, though!)

4)  P!nk  ~  "Try"  (P!nk never ceases to amaze me – she's consistently awesome!)

5)  The Band Perry  ~  "DONE."  (Good song by a good modern country band – but I really wish those brothers would get new hairdos – Ughsville!)

6)  Lady Gaga  ~  "Applause"  (Somewhat questionable video, but a catchy song – annoyingly so!)

7)  One Direction  ~  "Story Of My Life"  (I must grudgingly admit that this is a surprisingly good song!)

8)  Taylor Swift  ~  "I Knew You Were Trouble"  (I know I should be embarrassed to admit it, but I really like [and own most of] Taylor Swift's music – this song is no exception!)

9)  Baauer  ~  "Harlem Shake"  (Don't worry, there's no booty shaking in this video – it's audio only.)

10)  Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton  ~  "Can't Hold Us"  (I wish this guy didn't pepper the majority of his songs – this one mostly excluded – with foul language, because if so I would probably buy and listen to his music. Oh, well...)

11)  Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams  ~  "Get Lucky"  (It's an undeniably good tune, but I can't in good conscience recommend the lyrics. Big hit, though.)

12)  Eminem ft. Rihanna  ~  "The Monster"  (Sorry, music purists, I couldn't post the official music video for this one. It contained a couple of un-family-friendly words that weren't bleeped, and I prefer to keep it PG here.)

13)  Lady Antebellum  ~  "Downtown"  (This one's obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and that's a good thing. 'Cuz if not…)

14)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Two Black Cadillacs"  (A darker song for Carrie, but no less enjoyable than her cheerier hits. Sorry that Sound Of Music Live! thing didn't work out so well for you, chica…)

15)  Icona Pop ft. Charli XCX  ~  "I Love It"  (Again with this song, I couldn't post the original music video because of some uncensored lyrics, but the clean version is just as good – no, better! – to me, even if it's not actually a video.)

Video wouldn't load properly – click link to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TETp3OFNa3U

BONUS TRACK:  Ylvis  ~  "The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)"  (Would you believe I never even heard this song till last week? I didn't say "heard of" – I first heard of it a few months ago, but had somehow managed to avoid it till recently. I'm sorry it took me so long to experience it, because the song is hilarious – not epic, but hilarious – as it was obviously intended to be.)

Songs With "See" In The Title

Yesterday, I posted a collection of songs with "Wait" in the title. Here you have a collection of songs with "See" in the title. They were supposed to be gathered into one post. But I liked too many songs in the "Wait" category – and, as it turns out, I liked too many songs in the "See" category – to put them all together. So here's part two of two. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Scotty McCreery  ~  "See You Tonight"

2)  Glee Cast  ~  "Come See About Me"

3)  Tonic  ~  "If You Could Only See"

4)  KT Tunstall  ~  "Suddenly I See"  (Due to 8 repetitions of a mild expletive in the chorus of this song, parental discretion is advised – it's still a good song, though)

5)  Marshall Tucker Band  ~  "Can't You See?"

6)  Ed Sheeran  ~  "I See Fire"

7)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "See You Again"

8)  John Fogerty  ~  "Long As I Can See The Light"

9)  Johnny Nash  ~  "I Can See Clearly Now"

Video wouldn't load properly – click link to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahb7kQoLTTA

10)  Texas  ~  "I'll See It Through"

11)  Coldplay  ~  "See You Soon"

12)  Jimi Hendrix  ~  "Can You See Me?"

13)  Krista Siegfrids  ~  "Can You See Me?"

14)  The Dave Clark Five  ~  "Can't You See That She's Mine?"

15)  Brandon Heath  ~  "Wait And See"

BONUS TRACK:  Sara Bareilles  ~  "Brave"  (I really like this song and have been unsuccessfully looking for a way to integrate it into a post for awhile now. Well, the song's chorus repeats the phrase "I wanna SEE you be brave."  That's close enough for me!)

Songs With "Forget" & "Remember" In The Titles

I told you there were more of these "Opposites" music posts coming. This is just the latest entry in a seemingly endless series. Pretty good collection of songs here, though, if I do say so myself. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Demi Lovato  ~  "Don't Forget"

2)  Alan Jackson  ~  "Remember When"

3)  Cee Lo Green  ~  "Forget You"

4)  Michael Jackson  ~  "Remember The Time"

5)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Don't Forget To Remember Me"

6)  Adele  ~  "Don't You Remember"

7)  Simple Minds  ~  "Don't You (Forget About Me)"

8)  Keyshia Cole  ~  "I Remember"

9)  Gréta Salóme & Jónsi  ~  "Never Forget"

10)  Sarah McLachlan  ~  "I Will Remember You"

11)  The Civil Wars  ~  "Forget Me Not"

12)  Daley ft. Jessie J  ~  "Remember Me"

13)  Lior ft. Sia  ~  "I'll Forget You"

14)  Tim McGraw  ~  "Please Remember Me"

15)  Birdy  ~  "I'll Never Forget You"

16)  Ane Brun  ~  "Do You Remember"

17)  Glass Tiger  ~  "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)"

18)  Hedley  ~  "For The Nights I Can't Remember"

19)  Heathers  ~  "Forget Me Knots"

20)  Ry Cuming  ~  "Always Remember Me"

Songs With "Take" In The Title

I'd love to be able to say – "You asked for it, and here it is!" – but who am I kidding? I'm probably more excited about these random collections of songs connected only by a common word in the titles than any of you, dear readers, are. That being said, I'm even fonder of this collection of songs than I was of the "Give" songs I posted last time around. There are songs for pretty much all musical tastes here. Unless you like reggae. There's no reggae. No rap, either, for that matter. Come to think of, there's also no blues music here. Well, let's just say there are songs for almost all musical tastes. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  A-ha  ~  "Take On Me"

2)  Rihanna  ~  "Take A Bow"

3)  The Police  ~  "Every Breath You Take"

4)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Jesus, Take The Wheel"

5)  ABBA  ~  "Take A Chance On Me"

6)  MIKA  ~  "Relax, Take It Easy"

7)  Mary J. Blige  ~  "Take Me As I Am"

8)  Passion Pit  ~  "Take A Walk"

9)  Twisted Sister  ~  "We're Not Gonna Take It"

10)  JLS  ~  "Take A Chance On Me"  (Not the same as the ABBA song!)

11)  Amy Winehouse  ~  "Take The Box"

12)  Berlin  ~  "Take My Breath Away"

13)  Filter  ~  "Take A Picture"

14)  Phil Collins  ~  "Take Me Home"

15)  Fefe Dobson  ~  "Take Me Away"

16)  Karmin Music  ~  "Take It Away"

A Baker's Dozen Of "Good" Songs

As promised earlier, here's a collection of otherwise unrelated songs which all bear the word "Good" somewhere in their titles. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Better Than Ezra  ~  "Good"  (Back in the day, this was my jam!)

2)  Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen  ~  "Good Time"  (I'm a big Owl City fan, but this isn't my favorite song of his; it is extremely catchy though)

3)  OneRepublic  ~  "Good Life"  (The official music video looked and sounded better than this one, but it didn't edit out a certain offensive word like this version does – it's a better song without it anyway!)

4)  Chris Malinchak  ~  "So Good To Me"  (Any music video that prominently features a giraffe is alright by me!)

5)  Michael Bublé  ~  "Feeling Good"  (This guy's voice is almost too smooth; I keep waiting for him to strain to hit a note – nope!)

6)  Frank Ocean ~  "Swim Good"  (I've heard a lot about this guy, but never listened to any of his songs before now – not bad!)

7)  Kimbra  ~  "Good Intent"  (Quirky female pop singers will be the death of me – or at least the death of my bank account [not really, but sort of])

8)  Daughtry  ~  "Start Of Something Good"  (Another good song by a great band)

9)  Nelly Furtado  ~  "All Good Things (Come To An End)"  (How true that is...)

10)  Kenny Chesney  ~  "The Good Stuff"  (I've never heard this song before today – it almost made me cry [not really, but sort of])

11)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Good Girl"  (Get it, girl!)

12)  Shania Twain  ~  "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!"  (A YouTube user made the following comment on this video: "Her styling [here] is an example that you can look fierce and classy, instead of looking like a freakshow, aka Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, and Nicki Minaj!" So true!)

13)  The Beach Boys  ~  "Good Vibrations"  (This post wouldn't be complete without this classic summer song)

BONUS TRACK:  (Because I can, that's why...)

Trip Lee ft. Lecrae  ~  "I'm Good"