It’s time to finish the year-end countdown. I hope the suspense has raised your heart rates just a little. The only question mark remaining has to do with the remaining chart life of As She’s Walking Away, which could move up the chart and thereby drive a number of other songs down one slot. That’s not a major issue, so let’s get on with the top 25. I explained my method of calculating the rankings here, and I’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Mediabase, Billboard, stand aside: here comes the JN top 25.

First, let’s finish the top 30.

25. Southern Voice, Tim McGraw. 689 points. Tim doesn’t make too many appearances at #1 these days, but this song spent 11 weeks in the top 10, 6 of those in the top 5, and a week at the top. This song was down at #43 on Billboard, because its chart run was divided between 2009 and 2010. Mediabase has it at 18 because MB does count spins that came along after a song has been moved to recurrent status (and off the main chart). [I will abbreviate Billboard as BB and Mediabase as MB below.]

24. She Won’t Be Lonely Long, Clay Walker. 693. Clay’s not the chart-topper he was in the 1990’s but when he does produce a big radio song, it ranks high because it takes so long to climb. This one spent 27 weeks in the top 40, 9 of those in the top 10 with a peak at #4. The timing of this song allowed it a very generous #10 ranking on BB, while it came in at #17 on MB.

23. Our Kind Of Love, Lady Antebellum. 694. Lady A couldn’t really be much hotter than in 2010, including 2 big #1 songs following up their superstar-making Need You Now. This one spent 11 weeks in the top 10 and 2 of those at #1, earning it #17 in BB and #34 in MB (because it was a late-year song, and late-year songs never do as well on the MB list).

22. Come Back Song, Darius Rucker. 721. This 2-week #1 hit spent 10 weeks inside the top 10, and its big audience numbers earned it a #9 position on the BB list. I don’t think too highly of its #42 status on MB, but that’s what happens when songs chart late in the year. You want to know why I don’t like the MB method, here’s a fine example.

21. Red Light, David Nail. 728. There aren’t many songs that follow this one’s pattern. 33 weeks inside the top 40, 7 in the top 10 with a peak at #7. This song was hanging around, not getting much attention, when the high quality of its vocals landed it a few key radio-station adds. Suddenly and belatedly it was a hit. It peaked in December 2009, so I assigned it to 2010, and I think its long, slow chart run earned it a high position. It didn’t make Billboard’s or MB’s 2010 top 50, though.

No reason to slow down. Let’s venture into the top 20.

20. Roll With It, Easton Corbin. 735. Pretty nice year for the newcomer, no? This is not his biggest hit, according to me. Billboard thought it was, as it placed at #6 thanks to the high audience numbers that characterized the fall hits. This came in at a weak #35 on MB because, again, it was a late-year hit. 11 top 10 weeks, a week at #1, if you’re keeping score.

19. The Truth, Jason Aldean. 743. Pretty much all of Aldean’s songs go all the way, and this one was a 2-week #1 that spent 11 weeks in the top 10. #32 BB, #12 MB, and I’m in the middle, which I think is a fair assessment of the song’s popularity.

18. I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes, Dierks Bentley. 749. This song spent 26 weeks in the top 40, 12 of them in the top 10 with a 2-week run at #2 for a peak. It landed at #28 on the MB list, but missed Billboard’s entirely due to a split-year problem, as it peaked in January and therefore a lot of its chart run wasn’t counted for 2010.

17. American Honey, Lady Antebellum. 752. Have I typed this before? 11 top 10 weeks, 2 at #1. They’re hot. This was #12 on BB and #10 on MB. I have it lower partly because their lists omit songs that I refuse to leave out.

16. That’s How Country Boys Roll, Billy Currington. 761. 10 weeks in the top 10, one at the top – another of Dallas Davidson’s co-writes that hit #1 in 2010. #26 on BB because of its early-in-the-year run, #7 on MB because of its vast recurrent spin total. I don’t think this song had the chart run of a year-end top 10, myself.

15. A Little More Country Than That, Easton Corbin. 773. Nice 30-week run in the top 40, 9 of which weeks were spent in the top 10, one at #1. Came in at #19 on BB, but it made it to #4 on MB because of its early-year chart run. Plenty of recurrent spins for this, and it’s not that I object to counting recurrent spins – just that the result of doing that is that you deflate the rankings of all the late-year songs.

14. All Over Me, Josh Turner. 785. Josh had quite a year. This Dallas Davidson co-write spent a week at #1, 10 weeks in the top 10, 27 weeks in the top 40. The fall audience numbers were very strong, so Billboard ranked this song at #4 for the year. MB puts it at #30, which I don’t care for at all, and I’m in between again.

13. Farmer’s Daughter, Rodney Atkins. 792. Another strong late-year song, and this one would have had higher than a 3-week run at #5 if the competition hadn’t been so tough. It lasted 11 weeks in the top 10. Hard song to rank, and my numbers put it quite high. It was #20 on BB, while MB buried it at #44 (late-year blues). Rodney loses the tiebreaker to Darius based on Darius’ higher peak position.

12. History In The Making, Darius Rucker. 792. Currently this song’s claim to fame is as the only Rucker single that didn’t hit #1. (We’ll call that the Whatever It Is Award, named for the ZBB song with the same distinction.) 13 weeks in the top 10, with a peak at #3, and Darius still puts up a strong ranking. #24 on Billboard and 26 on MB, as they struggle with the songs that had good chart positions in the prior chart year.

11. Keep On Lovin’ You, Steel Magnolia. 800. Well, the Steel Mag fans are going wild. I’ll bet the rest of you didn’t entirely expect this. Credentials: 9 top 10 weeks, 34 top 40 weeks, chart peak at #4. #15 on BB and 16 on MB. Only 11 songs scored 800 points and this was one of them. Let’s see what kind of success they can follow KOLY with.

Drumroll. Fanfare. Top 10 – close your eyes, review the year, and see if you know which songs remain.

10. Do I, Luke Bryan. 842. Luke has 2 of my top 10 songs of 2010. This one peaked in Dec 2009 so Billboard split its points between two years – resulting in this big hit missing their top 50 entirely. It did make it to #24 on MB, but 14 top 10 weeks with 3 weeks spent at #2 and 4 weeks at #3 on top of that – that’s top 10 material.

9. All About Tonight, Blake Shelton. 854. 6 songs spent 3+ weeks at the top; Blake’s the lowest-ranked of those 6. Here’s the 4^th Dallas Davidson top 50 hit. 11 top 10 weeks; #8 on BB but only 21 on MB (late-year problems).

8. Rain Is A Good Thing, Luke Bryan. 860. Dallas Davidson’s 5^th top 50 song, and Dallas says that farmers have a better appreciation of rain than cityfolk in this interview. 2 weeks at #1, 11 top 10 weeks, 28 top 40 weeks, huge hit to cap off Luke’s tremendous 2010. Billboard has this at #2 for the year; it was #11 on Mediabase.

7. The Man I Want To Be, Chris Young. 864. Another big hit to follow up on the Black Dress Song; Chris spent 3 weeks at #1 and 12 in the top 10. #5 on BB, #5 on MB, the first song so far that all 3 of our lists agree was a top 10.

6. The House That Built Me, Miranda Lambert, 868. This song put Miranda into a different class as far as radio is concerned. 4-week #1, 12-week top 10. #11 BB, #8 MB.

5. Gimmie That Girl, Joe Nichols. 873. Will this song turn Nichols’ career around? 31 top 40 weeks 11 top 10 weeks, 2 weeks at the top. Dallas D’s highest-ranking song of his 6 #1 hits in 2010. Another unanimous top 10, with BB saying it’s #7 and MB putting it all the way up at #2.

Songs 5 through 10 were very close to each other in total points. Now we make a jump to much bigger totals.

4. Love Like Crazy, Lee Brice. 956. This song set a new record for longest country chart run ever, and managed 46 amazing top 40 weeks, 10 of them in the top 10. It peaked at #4, and you don’t ordinarily see songs that failed to reach #1 (or at least #2) making the year-end top 10. But look at this: LLC was #1 for the year on BB and #9 on MB. Incredible.

3. Consider Me Gone, Reba. 970. A career best 4-week stay at #1 for Reba, along with 13 top 10 weeks and a fantastic chart run. It was #1 for all of January, and that wasn’t the best timing, so BB has her at an unfortunate #42 position. Ouch! MB did better, but not well enough, ranking this as #25. I do like my way of doing this.

2. Why Don’t We Just Dance, Josh Turner. 1095. Fantastic single for Josh. 14 top 10 weeks, 4 of them at #1. Also 28 top 40 weeks. #3 on Billboard, #1 on Mediabase. We all saw this one the same way.

1. Need You Now, Lady Antebellum. 1127. I don’t care when it peaked, this song had to be #1 for its year. 5 weeks at #1, 16 weeks in the top 10 (you read that right), and that results in a #48 position on BB. I guess it was in the top 50 last year too, but so what? Thanks to its massive recurrent spin total, this did finish at #3 on MB.

And that’s the top 25, to complement the 26-50 section posted earlier. I had fun doing this, and I hope the discussion continues and I look forward to replying to your comments posted below.