Every #1 Hit Song From 2013 Ranked From Worst to Best

From the start of July through this weekend, we’ve been ranking every Billboard #1 hit from 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013 from worst to best in each respective year. Last week, we looked at what 2003 had to offer—including chart-toppers from Jennifer Lopez, Eminem, 50 Cent and others. At only a dozen tracks, that year’s 52-week span revealed how complex and unbalanced the appetite of America was when it came to music’s mainstream. This time around, we’re looking at 11 tracks that found musical immortality in 2003. One of the worst #1 hits since 2000 spent 12 weeks atop the charts, while two legendary, all-time tracks helped shape enduring pop star careers.

As is the case with the era these songs come from, there are quite a few disappointing entries. I’d argue that many of these songs are forever bound to 2013 and are practically unlistenable now. There are four, maybe five, unbeatable entries, while the remaining half-dozen are subpar and outdated. With pop music as the titanic guiding force, this is the most upbeat list we’ve had so far—as only two ballads grace the final ranking.

To score a #1 hit is an achievement that makes your career immortal in some capacity—whether the songs are good, great or just plain awful (see many of the songs on this list). But, these artists put in the work and got to the promised land. 2013 offered up a unique mix of former stars now long-absent from the charts and young legends still making great work. From songs by P!nk to Bruno Mars to Miley Cyrus to Eminem, here are the best #1 hit songs of 2013 ranked. —Matt Mitchell, Assistant Music Editor

11. Robin Thicke ft. T.I. & Pharrell: “Blurred Lines”
There’s not much to say about Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” It spent 12 straight weeks at #1, yes, but it also is a harmful song that greatly perpetuates rape culture and sexual violence against women. I can’t say the song hasn’t aged well, because it never had any merit to begin with. —Matt Mitchell

10. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz: “Thrift Shop”
Now, this is a song that has aged like milk. 2013 really was something else, given that Macklemore—of all musicians—became the most popular artist on the planet. His record with Ryan Lewis, The Heist, drummed up controversy when it topped Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kanye’s Yeezus, Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail and Drake’s Nothing Was the Same for Best Rap Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards, and its fourth single, “Thrift Shop,” is one of the most sonically offensive songs I’ve ever heard. I was 15 when it dropped, the optimal age in a generation that ate this song up when it dropped. I couldn’t find anything to love about it then; I much more preferred “Same Love,” despite its corny, heternormative, poetic waxings about queerness. “Thrift Shop” holds no value 10 years later, regardless if it was a #1 hit. Few artists have ever made a novelty song that transcends time; Macklemore is not in that company. —MM

9. Baauer: “Harlem Shake”
The “Harlem Shake” dance was such a meme that it’s easy to forget that the song itself was a #1 hit for five weeks in 2013. The dance craze that Baauer’s song soundtracked holds no ties to the New York City street dance that originated in the early 1980s. It’s in the same class as “Cha-Cha Slide” or “Cupid Shuffle.” Its appeal relies on advanced participation from the listener, rather than offering any legitimate replay value. “Harlem Shake” exists in the vacuum of its own compartmentalized internet senationalism and nothing more. That’s not a knock on what it did for early meme and dance culture; it’s just a track that I don’t think many music fans are putting on the aux when it’s passed to them. —MM

8. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton: “Can’t Hold Us”
“Can’t Hold Us” is better than “Thrift Shop,” but, to be fair, the competition isn’t all that stiff. For five weeks, the second single from The Heist topped the charts and ended 2013 as the most-streamed song on Spotify. It’s hard to put into words just how poor Macklemore is at rapping. Given his run at the Grammys in 2014, you’d think he was the second coming of Eminem. Unfortunately, his work never got off the ground in a meaningful, timeless way. What allowed a no-substance track like “Can’t Hold Us” to gain such acclaim is the pure truth that music was in an identity crisis 10 years ago. Everyone was bending over backwards to reach pop stardom, the best hip-hop albums weren’t getting their due on the awards circuits and no rock acts were transcending their own spheres. Of course a track like “Can’t Hold Us” was bound to succeed. Its blandness defined everything happening across mainstream music at the time. —MM

7. Eminem ft. Rihanna: “The Monster”
When Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP 2 in late-2013, I was definitely going through a phase with his music. Not to mention, he raps about a character whose name is, quite literally, Matthew Mitchell. You can see the bias, I’m sure. His duet with Rihanna—the fourth single “The Monster”—is one of the few tracks on the record that ever had any merit. “Berzerk” was a re-introduction to “Slim Shady,” while “Rap God” was a novelty hip-hop track with a focus on machine-gun spitting himself into a world record. But “The Monster,” which is, essentially, a gimmicky continuation of their 2010 #1 hit “Love the Way You Lie” and its Part II sequel, is catchy if not goofy. The melody is an earworm, as Eminem raps about the destructive forces of finding fame while Rihanna sings about inner demons. In 2013, putting two stars like Eminem and Rihanna on a track together was, basically, a #1 hit guarantee. They’ve never made an all-time song together, but they definitely perfected the chemistry needed to top the charts. —MM

6. Bruno Mars: “Locked Out of Heaven”
I much prefer Bruno Mars’ work on 24K Magic, but Unorthodox Jukebox is still a good record. Aside from his work in Silk Sonic, Mars has remained relatively quiet on the charts. His last solo #1 hit was in 2017, but, in 2013, you’d think he was going to be churning out chart-toppers for decades. “Locked Out of Heaven,” the lead single from Unorthodox Jukebox, was the biggest song in America for four weeks at the beginning of the year, and it set the tone for that chapter of Mars’ career. He’d found immense success three years prior with Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and he—to no one’s suprise—continued to capitalize on that momentum. “Locked Out of Heaven” is a fun assemblage of pop rock that employs undertones of funk and new wave. The lyrics are a bit cringey (“Your sex takes me to paradise”), which is why it’s lower on this list than Mars’ other #1 hit in 2013, but that melody is undeniable. —MM

5. Katy Perry: “Roar”
As a Katy Perry truther, it was understood immediately that she was never going to top the successes of her 2010 album Teenage Dream—but, boy, did she try on 2013’s Prism. Lead single “Roar” is a great power pop song that was destined to top the charts. In the early-2010s, Perry was churning out Top-20 hits at will and racking up Song of the Year Grammy nominations that she would never win. “Roar” is cookie-cutter, lyrical bubblegum—but that instrumentation is so tethered to the era it was made in that listening to it 10 years later is quite an undertaking. While “Roar” was a sophisticated, empowering evolution from songs like “Teenage Dream” and “Last Friday NIght (T.G.I.F.),” there’s a reason why the former is not as timeless as the two tracks of the latter: They weren’t built to last. If “Roar” wasn’t so motivationally gimmicky and tarnished by Dr. Luke’s presence, it’d be a Top-3 song on this list. But that’s not quite how it all played out in this timeline. —MM

4. P!nk ft. Nate Ruess: “Just Give Me a Reason”
P!nk’s 2012 album The Truth About Love was—and still is—her greatest achievement as a performer. It was a terrific turn in the her career, and it’s fun to look back on how she merged rock and electropop. She called upon Lily Allen, Eminem and Nate Ruess to help bring the record into greatness, and it’s Ruess who lends his vocal chops to third single “Just Give Me a Reason,” one of the better mainstream pop ballads of the early 2010s. Reuss had found monumental commercial success through their sophomore album Some Nights one year earlier, and he would also appear on Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 in 2013 in the same capacity as he arrived on P!nk’s record. “Just Give Me a Reason” did the one thing that was foolproof: It centered P!nk’s incredible vocals and let her shine like she’d never had before. It earned her two Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year. It’s her greatest song for a reason, a pop triumph that all but saved the abysmal mainstream blandness that ruled the charts for all of 2013. —MM

3. Bruno Mars: “When I Was Your Man”
A swirling truth about Bruno Mars is that, if you hand him a ballad, he’s going to absolutely eat that thing up—and that’s what he did on “When I Was Your Man” in 2013. It’s a stone-cold pop ballad of its era, though you can hear the influence of every great rock showman, from Billy Joel to Elton John. The track is vulnerable and full of heartache and worry, as Mars openly fears the trials of, potentially, losing the love of his life. It’s just Mars and his piano, crooning into oblivion. His vocal performance on the song is, likely, his very best—as he marvelously injects ferocious emotion into the stripped-back instrumental. A detour from the funk, reggae and R&B that defined much of Unorthodox Jukebox, “When I Was Your Man” is stadium-sized soul balladry. —MM

2. Miley Cyrus: “Wrecking Ball”
After Bangerz lead single “We Can’t Stop” peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, Miley Cyrus doubled down and put out “Wrecking Ball,” which would hit #1 and stay there for a total of three weeks between September and December 2013. Bangerz was Cyrus’ breakout record after Hannah Montana ended in 2011. She cut her hair and began singing about themes that better reflected her own adulthood. It was an incredible turn for the pop star at the time, and “Wrecking Ball” is a ballad that holds up 10 years later. Covering all things from relationship violence to intimate anguish, the song was a strong juxtaposition to the party anthem of “We Can’t Stop” and offered a glimpse into Cyrus’ ability to command stardom beyond her Disney Channel history. Like “Roar,” Dr. Luke has a songwriting and production credit on “Wrecking Ball.” It’s a demerit on an otherwise masterful song, but “Wrecking Ball” quickly came to define Cyrus’ career—which is still thriving, as her song “Flowers” spent eight weeks at #1 earlier this year. —MM

1. Lorde: “Royals”
There was never a doubt as to what the greatest #1 hit of 2013 was. “Royals” is what turned New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde into a global superstar—and thank goodness. She co-wrote the song with Joel Little and watched it soar to #1 and stay there for nine straight weeks at the end of the year. By no means is “Royals” the best Lorde song; anything from her sophomore album Melodrama will suffice. But, without “Royals” blowing up, we don’t get Melodrama. It’s an incredible stroke of art-pop minimalism. Lorde’s implementation of sparse hip-hop instrumentation and indie pop vocalizations is unmatched here, too. The entire architecture of the track is pure, infectious pop goodness. You could sense the stardom on “Royals” and throughout her debut album Pure Heroine. And, two records later, that truth holds steady. Lorde’s brilliance is immovable, and “Royals” went on to become one of the best-selling singles in music history—moving over 10 million units across the planet. —MM

Check out a playlist of these 12 #1 hits below. Catch up on the 1973 list here, the 1983 list here, the 1993 list here and the 2003 list here.