The Number 1 Hits of Summer, 1994 to 2014
2003
Beyoncé feat Jay-Z “Crazy in Love”
No. 1: July 12 through Aug. 30
After a successful run with Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé’s floor-stomping, jaw-dropping dance/pop epic “Crazy in Love” amped everything up a few notches higher for everyone. If there were ever a song meant for summer, this is the one. Featuring a sizzling sample of a horn-riff from a 1970 single by The Chi-Lites, Beyoncé had everybody shakin’ their booty with this classic. It spent eight weeks at the top, and then after September, when the aptly named “Shake Ya Tailfeather” by Nelly temporarily reigned, Queen Bey was back atop for another 9 weeks with “Baby Boy.”
2004
Usher: “Burn”
No. 1: May 22 through July 3
Usher had just spent three months at No. 1 during the winter and spring of 2004 with his now-classic “Yeah,” and then he repeated Nelly’s feat of two years earlier by knocking himself out of pole position. “Burn” took over where “Yeah” left off, and all told in 2004, apart from one week (Fantasia’s “I Believe”), Usher was No. 1 from Feb. 28 through July 31. That’s winter, spring AND summer. And he’d do it again later in the year, when his duet with Alicia Keys, “My Boo,” would spend six weeks at the top from Halloween until early December. That’s called domination, my friends.
2005
Mariah Carey “We Belong Together”
No. 1: June 4 through June 25; also July 9 through Sept. 10
Well, I guess America agreed with her. Mariah Carey’s monster hit “We Belong Together” spent an improbable 14 weeks at No. 1, ruling the summer of 2005. The last time Carey had been at No. 1 was five years earlier with “Thank God I Found You.” Including her chart-topping debut “Vision of Love” in 1990, Carey has scored an extraordinary 17 No. 1 singles.
2006
Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland “Promiscuous”
No. 1 July 8 through Aug. 12
Nelly Furtado morphed from a vaguely hippy electronic-pop singer to a sexual powerhouse almost overnight with “Promiscuous.” From Furtado’s album Loose, the combination proved irresistible enough on the dance floors and airwaves to keep the track at No. 1 for six long weeks.
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