Here we are, Memorial Day weekend and the start of Summer 2025! That means the window is officially open to start tracking the Summer Songs of the year candidates.
A couple of my choices come straight from the Country category this year. Scotty McCreery w/ Hootie and the Blowfish/“Bottle Rockets,” Bailey Zimmerman & Luke Combs/“Back Up Plan,” my other two choices to watch are Role Model/“Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” and Morgan Wallen w/ Tate McCrae/“What I Want.” We’ll see how good my picks turn out by Labor Day!
Now, on to some picks for your ears this week.
From the Top 40/Hot AC space, here’s a couple that should be in your ears. With another 10 million plus streams this week and early commitments from Z100-NY, 99.7 Now-SF, BLI- Long Island, and Sirius XM-Hits 1- Benson Boone/“Magical Mystical” is something that should be on your radar. No streaming story on this yet, but Lola Young/“One Thing” sounds like a good follow-up to “Messy.” Final choice this week is A20 May/“Boss” not a real in-depth lyric message, but it has a great groove!
Moving on to the Rock world for this week. At Alternative with love from Alt 98.7 in LA, Sirius XM-Alt Nation and KITS-SF Royel Otis/“Moody.” I mentioned this one before, and the more I listen to it, the more I’m sure you should not miss this one! Streams on this song also jumped up 99% this week.
If Pop/Hot AC is looking for a rock record with crossover potential, this is probably the one! If you have not done so yet, give a listen to Three Days Grace/“Apologies,” I also mentioned this one a couple of weeks ago, and streams are over 2 million a week now and growing! One that should for sure get some time with your ears is Sammy Hagar/“Encore, Thank You, Goodnight.” Sammy pays tribute to his former bandmate, the late Eddie Van Halen, with help from Joe Satriani and Michael Anthony. The song will remind you of Eddie and his genius guitar playing.
From the Country World this week, with quite a few big stations in the format already on board, Mitchell Tenpenny/“Same Moon” sounds like a song you should consider if it is not already playing. Chris Stapleton/“Bad As I Used To Be” is catchy and worth your ears being on it! And the final choice for the week goes to Morgan Wallen/“Kick Myself.” There are really so many good songs on his new album, “I’m The Problem.” You should have fun listening to this one!
From the Rhythm universe this week, get your ears on Girlfriend/“Come Thru” if you have not already. Russ/“Crazy” is another for your ears this week, with streams topping a million this week and growing! One final choice for the week is Latto/“Somebody,” Not much love yet, but certainly worth spending some time with it and considering for airplay.
Well, there are my choices for your ears this holiday weekend. Happy listening!
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Jim Ryan writes weekly columns on the Hot AC format and ‘Hits On Horizon’ for Barrett Media. He spent 22 years programming and developing brands for Sirius XM including The Pulse (Hot AC), the 80s on 8 with the Original MTV-VJ’s and numerous other artists driven channels. Jim has spent time on-air too with APD/MD experience on Long Island and the Jersey Shore and several years in Philadelphia at Y100, Max 95.7 and 102.9 WMGK. Currently, he hosts weekends and fill-in at WAVV/WINK in Ft. Myers, and Alpha Media’s Free Country Chicago and Star 96.7. He can be reached by email at jimryan0420@gmail.com.
