October 29, 2016 - The Chainsmokers + Halsey (4)

Welcome to the terrifying world of Sirius XM Hits 1's Halloweekend Countdown, where lots of frights await you in the world of ear-popping music. And on that note, Niall Horan of One Direction hosted this countdown. After seeing it, yeah, I can kinda get why people hated having guest hosts when they were a bigger thing so long ago (they don't announce exits or recap the sets of five songs, or the biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! or jump of the week). But at least he had a lot of clever stories behind the people of the songs he introduced. I'll talk about some of those in the blurbs. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• No by Meghan Trainor (#45)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
45. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony (#39)
44. Mama Said by Lukas Graham (#42)
43. Body Say by Demi Lovato (#41)
42. I'm Not Famous by AJR (#43)
41. Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande (#44)
40. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner (#37) (two weeks at #1)
39. Just Like Fire by P!nk (#40)
38. Never Be Like You by Flume featuring Kai (#35)
37. New Romantics by Taylor Swift (#38) (two weeks at #1)
36. Perfect Illusion by Lady Gaga (#31)
35. We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez (#36)
34. Chase You Down by RUNAGROUND (#33)
33. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (#32) (one week at #1)
32. My Way by Calvin Harris (#29)
31. Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds of Summer (#30)
30. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#25) (Uh...okay?)
29. Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (#28) (five weeks at #1)
28. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (debut)
27. Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer (#34)
26. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna (#14)
25. Kids by OneRepublic (#24)
24. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#27) (three weeks at #1)
23. I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien (#22)
22. Bacon by Nick Jonas (#23)
21. Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk (#14)
20. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (#18) (ten weeks at #1)
19. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#26)
18. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#21)
17. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#6)
16. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (#17)
15. Gold by Kiiara (#19)
14. This Town by Niall Horan (#20)
13. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#12)
12. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (#15)
11. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#7) (What the HECK?!)
10. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#10)
9. Into You by Ariana Grande (#11)
8. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#3)
7. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#5)
6. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (#4)
5. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#9)
4. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#8)
3. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ (#16)
2. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#1) (one week at #1)
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Drag Me Down by One Direction (first and only week at #1) (how appropriate)
1. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#2) (fourth week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna (-12)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ (+13)

New Entrants
- So we've got one new entrant this week, from Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, with Side To Side. While reggae feels like a very unusual inclusion on the Dangerous Woman album, I had a feeling that this would become a hit because of Nicki Minaj. This does have some pretty weird lines, and despite the rhyme scheme being almost nonexistent at parts, I do think the song is fun overall. Production works on this kind of track. I'm sure it'll be successful here.

Got Me Walking Blurb To Blurb
- So to start, No by Meghan Trainor has finally taken its well-deserved exit, and good riddance for that. The atmosphere of the countdown definitely feels more refreshing now that there's no more Meghan Meghans in it. Hopefully someday she'll leave music for good.

- Chase You Down by RUNAGROUND made a floppy second week drop. Come on, Hits 1. I was not expecting that.

- Before introducing My Way by Calvin Harris, Niall talked about how Calvin Harris had initially wanted to play football before becoming a DJ. That'd be funny to imagine.

- Before introducing Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds of Summer, Niall talked about how Luke Hemmings of the band ate like 17 bowls of ice cream in a contest once. That's crazy. I wish I could enter some crazy food eating contest sometime. And I have a lot of different binge foods. That aside, I should be questioning this song still being here, but with it being from Ghostbusters it kinda fits for this season.

- So is Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk gonna be like One Dance in that it's huge elsewhere but just does nothing here? I hope not.

- And nice to see This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna continue to drop. Hopefully it can be on its way out soon.

- Before introducing Kids by OneRepublic, Niall talked about how Ryan Tedder said that Wonderwall by Oasis and Mysterious Ways by U2 were some of his favorite songs of all time. Niall talked about how he was a big fan of The Eagles. Me? On the note of U2, With Or Without You is surely a favorite of mine. But if you held a gun to my head and made me choose my favorite song of all time, I think I would go with Thriller by Michael Jackson. Maybe not, but it's definitely up there. I also like Into The Groove by Madonna - it's not my absolute #1 but it's a huge favorite for me. She has a handful of songs from the 80s that I like. Don't judge me, please. Then again, most of you probably don't care.

- I'm surprised that Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk dropped out of the Top 20 this week. I heard it a lot over the past few days, so I thought it would remain in that territory. And since his album, Cosmic Hallelujah, just dropped, it could rebound next week. But that was what I predicted would happen to Perfect Illusion here, and it didn't.

- Our other three debuts from last week all made decent jumps. While The Greatest and Scars To Your Beautiful are definitely welcomes, I'm not looking forward to Don't Wanna Know getting big.

- 24K Magic by Bruno Mars dropped to #13. Let's hope this isn't a sign that it's about to flop.

- Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber got played a lot this past week, and it was a Most Wutchuwanted a few times. I thought for sure that it would be Top 5...and yet, it somehow (and I do seriously say "somehow") dropped out of the Top 10. What the heck?!

- So with No gone, I was juggling between whether to put Gold or Sit Still, Look Pretty in orange, and decided on the latter. The former can at least be humorable at times, but not the latter. It'd be great if it could leave the Top 10 and the countdown soon, k thanks bye.

- Both Hymn For The Weekend and Cold Water made some nice jumps into the Top 5. I'll gladly take both of those. However...

- I'm not happy that Heathens lost #1. It did not help that before introducing Closer, Niall called it "definitely the best song of the year". He better have been talking popularity, because right now, a lot of YouTubers I've seen are calling it among the opposite. I really don't want to hate this song again, but as it continues to hog #1, that gets harder. (Then again, I basically just summarized what many probably thought about Shut Up and Dance and Can't Stop the Feeling.)

In the world of Hit-Bound, we have but one new entrant: The Night Is Young by The Summer Set. I enjoyed Figure Me Out, but I think I may like this more. I'll have more words for it if it debuts.

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya
19. Gold by Kiiara
18. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes

1 — Bad:
17. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd

2 — Meh:
16. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul
15. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
14. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5

3 — Decent:
13. Unsteady by X Ambassadors
12. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots

4 — Good:
11. This Town by Niall Horan
10. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco
9. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber
8. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake

5 — Great:
7. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar
6. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay
5. Into You by Ariana Grande
4. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ
3. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
2. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
1. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Total score: 64/100

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya
2. Gold by Kiiara
3. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony
4. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna
5. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes

Countdown Top 5
1. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
2. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
3. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
4. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
5. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk

Most Missed Song: Welcome To New York by Taylor Swift - #2YearsOf1989 :D I spent most of Thursday with that album on repeat. And while this song was a one-week wonder, I do still enjoy it.

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1 And The Countdown: True Disaster by Tove Lo - Just after I say that Cool Girl would make for a good pick, I may like this even more.

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Hello by Adele — Ah yes, the big return from Adele after three years. It's not quite up there with her two big singles from 21, and may be just as overplayed as a certain other song I won't name, but I will never say it's a bad song.

Thanks for reading, everybody!