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The 100 Best Songs of 2005: Staff Picks

The Billboard staff's picks for the 100 best songs of 2005.

Bentley uses his gruff, husky voice to alluring effect on the first single from his second album, Modern Day Drifter, displaying a previously hidden sultriness on this sexy ballad, which harks back to classic bedroom country fare à la Conway Twitty with the come-on line, “Come a little closer, baby, I feel like laying you down.” Twenty years later, the song — which spent three weeks at No. Image Credit: Courtesy Photo If dictionary entries included songs, “Photograph” would be right there under the word “nostalgia.” From his onetime school to his old arcade, lead singer Chad Kroeger takes listeners on a guided tour through his childhood in this catchy, anthemic, post-grunge rock banger while hitting on a painful truth: for all that our memories shape us, the best we can ever do to revisit them is look back at old pictures. Which isn’t to say anyone should’ve doubted the recipe behind “In My Arms” — Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” and Boy Meets Girl’s “Waiting for a Star to Fall” were two of the most undeniable mega-pop hits of the ’80s — but combining the laser-show synth riff of the former with the looped chorus-capper of the latter over producer Myles MacInnes’ bubbling beat resulted in a single nearly their intoxicating equal, pop alchemy at its absolute mid-’00s finest.

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