Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2006, the year I celebrated my 32nd birthday. A mere eleven of these songs remain familiar to me today, with just three of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#76: Rascal Flatts – Life is a Highway
iTunes stats: N/A
A cover of the Tom Cochrane classic for the Cars soundtrack, it peaked at #7.
#71: Bon Jovi – Who Says You Can’t Go Home
iTunes stats: N/A
The band’s highest charting song of the decade, it reached #23.
#42: Black Eyed Peas – My Humps
iTunes stats: 26 plays
Dismissed as a puerile form of sexual titillation by some critics, it spent six weeks at #3 while spending over nine months on the Hot 100.
#38: Nickelback – Photograph
iTunes stats: N/A
The band’s third top ten hit, it went to #2.
#34: Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Featuring a sample of a Ray Charles song from 1956, it became West’s first #1, spending ten weeks atop the Hot 100.
#23: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Dani California
iTunes stats: N/A
The band’s third top ten hit, it topped out at #6 and won two Grammys.
#9: Justin Timberlake featuring Timbaland – SexyBack
iTunes stats: N/A
The lead single from his sophomore effort, it spent seven weeks at #1.
#7: Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
iTunes stats: 27 plays
Spending seven weeks at #2, the group’s debut single was the first track of the year to hit #2 and not rise to the top of the charts.
#5: Shakira featuring Wycleaf Jean – Hips Don’t Lie
iTunes stats: N/A
Shakira’s first chart topper, it spent two weeks at #1 in the summer.
#4: James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
iTunes stats: N/A
Spending a single week atop the Hot 100, it was the first non-hip hop/R&B track or American Idol song to reach #1 since 2001.
#1: Daniel Powter – Bad Day
iTunes stats: N/A
It spent five weeks atop the Hot 100 in the spring of 2006.