Old friend, why are you so shy?
Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.
2011 : Someone Like You - Adele
I guess this isn't such a surprise - it's quite a popular track on quite a popular album which a few people might have heard. I didn't remember the video but I can't say I was amazed to see it involved Adele wandering mopily around Paris in black and white. Like our last track, this one's proved pretty popular on the old YouTube as well - it's had over 2 billion views.
The video alone has a larger Wikipedia write-up than many albums get, which is obviously doubly true for the song (210 milliPeppers). You couldn't even begin to guess at the level of detail that it goes into, most of which aren't of interest to anyone - but I never knew she co-wrote the song with Dan Wilson, who's done quite a lot but I've never heard of him. In case you didn't know, the song was pretty well received both critically and commercially, getting to #1 in a gazillion countries (including here and the US) and was the best selling single of the year here (and in Italy) - it also appeared in the year end charts in '21 and '23 for no obvious reason at all.
Wikipedia also offers up some cover versions, a couple of which are quite interesting. Charlie Puth and Emily Luther's version (it's pretty good and manages to be different) got him a record deal and he's done OK out of it, I guess. And Glee's version (mashed up with Adele's "Rumour Has It" - not nearly as bad some of their massacres) impressed the critics by being not shit and it got to #11 in the US. We're also offered up the slightly less culturally relevant versions from David Nail (it doesn't really add anything, but he's got a nice voice), Nine Ice Kills (it's not great. but it is at least different) and Dan Wilson with The Kronos Quartet (it's got nice strings at least). secondhandsongs comes up with many more versions by people I've never heard of but does offer up the slightly odd couple of an Alan Cumming mash-up (peculiarly Scottish) and Black Country, New Road (disappointingly not available but I bet it's mad).
I don't think too many people will be surprised this took the year - it was easily the best selling track of the year, 200,000 units clear of Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" with LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem", Jessie J's "Price Tag" and Rihanna's "We Found Love" making up a reasonable top five. Other tracks of interest from the year-end chart are Ed Sheeran's "The A Team" and "Lego House", Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" and "Set Fire To The Rain" (both of which I prefer to this track), Lady Gaga's "Edge Of Glory" and "Born This Way", One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful", Christina Perri's "Jar Of Hearts", Jessie J's "Do It Like A Dude", Olly Murrs's "Heart Skips A Beat" and Professor Green's "Read All About It". There was a decent selection of pop singles in 2011 - but I should also tell you that there are three Chris Brown singles in the top 40, so it wasn't all good.
Looking further down the charts throughout the year, we also find Katy B's "Lights Out" and "Broken Record" (a woefully under-appreciated artist), Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night", Damien Rice's "Cannonball" (which also got to #1 later in the year for Little Mix) and Lana del Rey's "Video Games" - not such a huge selection after a good start to the year. Across the pond, Adele also had the #1 spot but with "Rolling In The Deep", with "Someone Like You" only ending up at #24 (although it was also #43 in '12), The rest of the chart turns up nothing new of interest - I suspect we're reaching the point that we're no longer going to notice any difference between the two.
There's actually plenty of tracks from the year I prefer to this, but I'm also perfectly happy to give it the year - she's certainly put the effort in and boy did things pay off with this track/album.
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