We’ve been making our way through the music you’ve helped power on The Current for the past 20 years by looking back at each ...

The track, which spent five weeks at No. 1, became the second song to top the weekly Hot 100, after Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool.” Also in the 1958 year-end issue, Billboard continued ...

The lyrics “Who says you’re not worth it, who says you’re the only one that’s hurting” comfort me. Besides this song, I listed other popular songs that hit harder when you understand the lyrics.

In a year of exuberance and dread, songs came from every which way to comfort, to amuse, to haunt, to tantalize. Here, in descending order of greatness, are the 30 best of the year.