2003: 20-11

20. "Like Glue" - Sean Paul
19. "03 Bonnie & Clyde" - Jay-Z
18. "Step In the Name of Love" - R Kelly
17. "Milk Shake" - Kelis
16. "Baby Boy" - Beyonce
15. "Cadillac on 22's" - David Banner
14. "Crazy in Love" - Beyonce
13. "12:51" - The Strokes
12. "Hey Ya!" - Outkast
11. "Through the Wire" - Kanye West

In fairly strong year - stiff competition between dozens of very good songs, though near the top, not too many truly great ones - two songs stand out as undeservedly forgotten. Sandwiched in between monster hits from Beyonce and Outkast, among others, The Strokes' "12:51" and David Banner's "Cadillac on 22's" probably haven't been played on our local radio stations since late 2003, but we surely give them a spin (ok, a click) from time to time.



The Strokes' song was sort of written off as a Cars rip, and while it does feature some pretty Ocasek-esque keyboards, it actually sounds less like their 70's faux-punk brethren than almost anything they'd done to this point. By replacing any modest flirtations with arena rock bombast with a very subtle twee-pop melody, The Strokes actually avoided sounding too cheesy (a la Guided by Voices), and had one of their most memorable hits.



Believe it or not, I actually don't like Banner's other, bigger hit, "Play", because the too-vulgar (!) lyrics outweigh the awesome beat, so I will gladly pay tribute to the late-period Jackson 5 sampling "Cadillac on 22's", which is almost the polar opposite of "Play" - an introspective, organic-sounding Southern rap yarn about the trials and tribs of a pusher ("Maybe hell ain't a place meant for us to burn/ Maybe Earth is just a place for us to learn/ Bout yo love, yo will and grace/ Sometimes I wish I wasn't born in the first place"), with enough soul and substance for a Marvin Gaye song. Too bad it doesn't exactly make you want to dance.