Billboard+20180804

29

I Just Want to Be

Your Everything

1977

ANDY GIBB

30

Too Close 1998

NEXT

31

Every Breath You

Ta ke 198

THE POLICE

“It became this wedding song,

but it’s about a stalker!” says

Warren with a laugh. “You

think it’s romantic, but it could

be someone looking through

your window! I like the

subversiveness of that.

And it had quite a life

too, with Puffy’s version [“I’ll

Be Missing You”]. If you put

those two together, it’d be

No. 1 on this list.” (This is true.)

32

Somebody That

I Used to Know

2012

GOTYE FEAT. KIMBRA

33

Despacito 2017

LUIS FONSI & DADDY

YANKEE FEAT. JUSTIN BIEBER

34

Flashdance... What

a Feeling 198

IRENE CARA

35

Rolling in the Deep

2011

ADELE

36

Tossin’ and Turnin’

1961

BOBBY LEWIS

37

The Battle of New

Orleans 1959

JOHNNY HORTON

38

One Sweet Day

1995

MARIAH CAREY & BOYZ II MEN

39

Truly Madly Deeply

1998

SAVAGE GARDEN

40

Silly Love Songs

1976

WINGS

41

Let’s Get It On

197

MARVIN GAYE

42

Night Fever 1978

BEE GEES

43

Another One Bites

the Dust 1980

QUEEN

44

Say Say Say 198

PAUL McCARTNEY &

MICHAEL JACKSON

45

How You Remind

Me 2001

NICKELBACK

46

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Round the Ole Oak

Tree 197

DAWN FEAT. TONY ORLANDO

47

It’s All in the Game

1958

TOMMY EDWARDS

SEE STORY

48

I Want to Hold Your

Hand 1964

THE BEATLES

The all-time top act in Hot 100

Carly Rae Jepsen is not, technically, a one-hit

wonder. After “Call Me Maybe,” she climbed

to No. 8 with the Owl City collab “Good Time,”

and six of her singles have appeared on the

Billboard Hot 100. But “Call Me Maybe” was the

second-best-selling song of 2012 (according to

Nielsen Music) and Jepsen’s breakthrough after

a third-place Canadian Idol finish and little-

heard 2007 debut. Topping the Hot 100 for nine

consecutive weeks and reaching No. 50 on this

list, the song was so massive, so memorable, so,

well, perfect, that Jepsen may never escape the

burden of its legacy.

Yet unlike other artists

who won’t ever completely

step out of one song’s

shadow, like Radiohead

(“Creep”) or Beck (“Loser”),

Jepsen does not have

a tortured relationship

with her hit. In fact, it’s

still a staple in her live

performances, and she’s

just as bubbly and earnest

performing it as she was

in its campy music video.

To her loyal and passionate

fans — the “Jepfriends” she has cultivated over

the years since her breakthrough by writing

similarly impeccable songs — “Call Me Maybe”

is the sum of Jepsen’s talents wrapped up

in a neat, three-and-a-half-minute tune so

immediately recognizable that even nonfans

know it from its opening string-plucks. While

those outside of Jepfriend-dom might have

been surprised by the sophistication of her

third album, 2015’s E-mo-tion, her fans knew

better. We had already glimpsed the pop

savant Jepsen was on “Call Me Maybe.” (Not

coincidentally, the biggest hit off E-mo-tion

was “I Really Like You,” a joyous banger in the

“Maybe” mold.)

If “Call Me Maybe” is a supposed one-

hit-wonder’s one hit, it is arguably the most

fiercely beloved random smash on this

entire list. Jepfriends don’t advertise their

special relationship to Jepsen’s discography

by rejecting the song everyone else knows

or trying to justify how deep her talents run

beyond it. It’s the foundation of her career and

catalog, and as such, we don’t just continue

to embrace it — we embrace it as a key part

of what makes Jepsen the

pop star we love.

I tested that idea

recently when I tweeted

a question to my fellow

Jepfriends: Does “Call Me

Maybe” hold up? Over

half a decade since this

earworm entered the

airwaves, the responses

were overwhelmingly

affirmative. “Still one of

the most intoxicating

songs of all time ... Still

somehow sounds fresh,”

wrote one user. “It’s beyond love. It’s sacred

canon,” responded another. “It’s amazing, and

on its own, it still slaps,” another observed,

though he, like some other respondents,

did note that it can feel “out of place” with

respect to the rest of Jepsen’s output. When

I interviewed Jepsen in 2015, she seemed to

share that sentiment. “ ‘Call Me Maybe’ was

such a gift, but I don’t need that to happen

again in my life,” she said, her big brown eyes

hidden behind pink sunglasses. To her fans,

too, it’s still a gift — and what she has done

since continues to prove its promise.

One-Hit Wonderful

A Carly Rae “Jepfriend” on why her fans — and Jepsen herself — stand by the

supernova single that launched her to stardom BY STEVEN J. HOROWITZ

19 ROD STEWART • 20 OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN • 21 DRAKE • 22 ARETHA FRANKLIN • 23 MARVIN GAYE • 24 TAYLOR SWIFT • 25 KATY PERRY • 26 PHIL COLLINS • 27 BILLY JOEL • 28 DIANA ROSS • 29 THE FOUR SEASONS •

30 THE TEMPTATIONS • 31 DONNA SUMMER • 32 THE BEACH BOYS • 33 LIONEL RICHIE • 34 BRUNO MARS • 35 NEIL DIAMOND • 36 CARPENTERS • 37 MAROON 5 • 38 BOYZ II MEN • 39 THE JACKSONS •

Jepsen sang “Call

M e M ay b e ” a t t h e

2012 American

Music Awards in

Los Angeles.

50 BILLBOARD  AUGUST 4, 2018