Pharrell 'Happy' to Be #1 for the Year

No wonder he's so darn “Happy”. Pharrell Williams, who was featured on the best-selling song of 2013, Robin Thicke's “Blurred Lines”, will have the best-selling song of 2014 all to himself. With less than week to go in Nielsen SoundScan's tracking year, “Happy” has an insurmountable lead over its two closest challengers, John Legend's “All of Me” and “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry.

This will be the fifth time in the past seven years that Perry has had a song in the year-end top 10. She's the only artist who can make that claim. (Rihanna is in second place, finishing in the year-end top 10 in three of the last seven years.

The top R&B song for the year-to-date is “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz, which is #5 overall, behind Meghan Trainor's “All About the Bass”. Iggy Azalea is the only artiste with two songs in the top 10 for the year. “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), and Ariana Grande's “Problem,” on which Azalea is featured.

“Happy”, which Williams wrote for the animated movie “Despicable Me 2”, isn't the only song from an animated blockbuster to appear in the top 10 for the year-to-date. Idina Menzel's “Let It Go” from Frozen is also on the list.

The other two songs in the top 10 for the year are “Turn Down for What” by DJ Snake & Lil Jon is and Sam Smith's “Stay with Me”.

“Happy” is also #1 on Billboard's already-published recap of the top songs of 2014. At 41, Williams is the oldest lead artist to rank #1 on Billboard's recap since 1999, when Cher, then 53, finished first with “Believe”.  It is also the first song from a movie to rank #1 for the year on Billboard's recap since “Gangsta's Paradise” by Coolio featuring LV in 1995. Iggy Azalea is the only artiste with two songs in the top 10 on Billboard's recap. Her own “Fancy” is #4 while Ariana Grande's “Problem” on which she is featured, is #9.

Source: Yahoo! Music