Lady Gaga – “The Dead Dance”: From season 2 of “Wednesday” on Netflix. Gaga features the Tim Burton-directed music video, sure to get you in the Halloween mood. It could become a yearly favorite, is fun and upbeat, and perfect for parties and clubs. It’s also featured on the digital reissue of her album “MAYHEM” which gave us the Top 10 hit “Abracadabra,, her first hit, aside from the ballads “Die With A Smile” and “Shallow,” in over 10 years. She performed it on the VMAs and absolutely crushed it, despite the horrible audio quality. “The Dead Dance” is #8 on Shazam, #89 on Spotify (not exceptional) and debuted #17 in requests on Liveline this week. This could be much bigger toward Halloween.
sombr – “back to friends”: Our function is to provide observations based on actual audience response from nightly national requests and verified with corollary streaming activity and rankings. A radio colleague tells us his Top 40 station won’t play “back to friends” because he feels it’s meant to be the “Alternative radio” single, while “undressed” is geared more for Pop. That mindset cheats Hit Radio’s credibility as the mainstream hit music source, the place where listeners find the very best songs from all genres.
Based on streaming numbers and nightly requests to Liveline, “back to friends” is a far more popular song than “undressed,” and sombr could likely become that rarest of items, a newly minted major music career superstar. It’s now #2 on Spotify and has been Top 10 for four months. Stations shouldn’t let label priorities keep them from playing hits any more than they should be hurting Top 04 ratings with stiffs to get free t-shirts. Why are we fine with Sabrina Carpenter having three songs simultaneously on the Top 40 chart, yet making a big deal about “artist separation” and “focusing on one song at a time” when it comes to sombr? “back to friends” will go down as one of 2025’s Top 5 songs. It was our most-requested last night for the first time ever. It’s #2 on Spotify (“undressed” is only #20) and has been Top 10 for four months! People love the song!
If that’s not enough, Sombr has another single creeping up the streaming charts which we’ve also received requests for, “12 to 12” currently #12 (funny enough), off the album “I Barely Know Her” which came out August 22. Will radio reject that one too? The label priority may be getting “undressed” to #1. Are we in the radio business, or the music business?
Fall Songs
As we officially close out the summer of 2025, imaging your station with music that matches a mood and fits what people are feeling is meaningful. Some songs that are already resurging with nightly Liveline requests and daily Spotify streams are “Sweater Weather” by The Neighborhood (a Top 20 request every year lasting for 3-4 months straight), “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez (one of the most-streamed–1.4 billion–songs globally of the past two years). It was a Top 3 request on Liveline and re-entered our Top 20 this week. Currently it’s #43 on Spotify.
Buried Treasure of the Week
Yellowcard – “Ocean Avenue”: Digging deep into the iPod-emo-skinny jean-Limewire era of 2004 brought back this now alt-favorite that came out just as punk/pop was starting to take hold at radio. Only getting to #13 on Top 40, #21 in Alternative and #37 on Billboard, it became Yellowcard’s only enduring hit, now with over 457 million streams in Spotify. We’ve gotten half a dozen requests for it in the last few months and even played it for “Who Sings It?” on Monday, to which all 5 lines it up… big surprise! The easier we make it, the less people call. This was definitely a tough one!
I know I’m irredeemably jaded and have absolutely nothing positive to contribute but my first annual radio encounter with “Sweater Weather” doesn’t get anything more than an eyeroll out of me at this point. If programmers are gonna trot this one out yet again (let’s be honest, they absolutely will), I hope they will at least put in the modicum of effort required so that my first encounter does not occur on an unseasonably warm week. I swear last year I first heard it when it was still regularly in the 90s outside.
Poor Artist of the Summer (on Spotify but not many major-market radio stations) sombr! The stations where I live apparently do not believe either of his two breakout hit songs are real hits but managed to find room for Myles Smith’s repulsive new clapper as one of the ~4 current (or “current”) songs in rotation. Might as well just move on to “12 to 12” already at this point.
I’m sorry but “The Dead Dance” is horrible. I genuinely laughed when I first heard it on some morning show the day it came out — seldom are hopes for lightning to strike twice so apparent. Like, she should have just released the sped up TikTok’d “Bloody Mary” mix to streaming when it had its brief moment and left it at that — few were really that excited about the (dull, plodding) original. I guess no one learned anything from last year’s failed attempt to hitch “Disease” onto Halloween? Correct me if I’m wrong, but holiday-related streaming activity has almost NEVER propelled current hits to prominence. (Remember Lil Nas X’s “Holiday”?) Someone get this artist a new idea, STAT! (Give one to the Weeknd while you’re at it.) Sigh. Stop listening to A&R consultants!!!
Calculation notwithstanding, I liked “The Dead Dance” better when I heard it on SXM Hits1. I can’t help noticing though that Gaga has released four consecutive singles that are all about dying.
I am offended by your hurtful words for “The Dead Dance” and if you and I were at a bar I would play this song on the jukebox a second time. Kidding of course. You’re probably right but I’m a fan and hear-no-evil when it comes to Ga Ga.
I’m loving Gaga’s MAYHEM era because it’s a throwback to her early 2010’s, and that among several Gaga fans is apparently what they have wanted for a while. I hope The Dead Dance does well.
I agree with Mason’s comments about Sombr. That he performed a medley of “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” and not “Undressed” showed where his team’s focus was. It’s just dumb though for Top 40 programmers to be resisting either “Back to Friends” or “12 to 12”. To me, Sombr is their new young male power artist.