#9 Timbaland feat. OneRepublic, "Apologize"

And you say
Sorry like the angel heaven let me think was you

One of the signs of a truly great song? When it's on the radio every fifteen minutes and yet every time you hear it while flipping around between stations, you always--always, always, without fail--stop on it and sing along. It is true that had "Apologize" not been played quite so much in the U.S. it might have achieved a higher ranking on this chart, but still, even after hearing it so many times, I don't think I can fully get across how much I love it. While it definitely should be credited to OneRepublic feat. Timbaland, not vice-versa, Timbaland's much-maligned contribution to this ballad ("all he did was throw in a drum machine beat and say 'eh eh eh' in the background!") is vitally important to my love of this song; the original version of "Apologize" would have been lucky to get played more than a few times by me--there are just so many songs with a similar feel to them, and the original really didn't stand out that much to me. People underrate the importance of a basic handclap/stomp type beat and some heard-from-a-distance "eh eh eh"'s--here, as borrowed from Nelly Furtado's hopefully-a-classic "Say It Right," they add a real poignancy and power to the song, as well as just that little bit of needed dynamism, the feeling that the song--even if not couple in the song--is moving forward.

I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing "Apologize" on the radio. In the end, that's probably the absolute highest praise I can offer for a song.

(Much credit to J'ason D'luv for originally introducing me to the song.)

Find it on: Shock Value