Song · Bakar
“Hell N Back” by Bakar
From the EP Will You Be My Yellow? (2019)
“Hell N Back” by Bakar appears on 14 radio countdowns from 11 stations between 2019 and 2026. It was first released in 2019 on the EP Will You Be My Yellow?. Its best result is #10 on the WERS Top 88 Songs of 2020. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #53 alternative song of 2020 and #294 of the '20s.
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Video from YouTube (BakarVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Hell N Back" came off Bakar's 2019 EP Will You Be My Yellow?, released through Black Butter Records, and it's a sunny, horn-kissed love song with a louche streak running under the breeziness. Kitty Empire of The Observer caught it well: a retro charmer with just enough drug talk to keep it from going soft, its swagger recalling a young Lily Allen and its brass and excess owing plenty to Amy Winehouse.
It took the long way round. Nothing much happened at first, then American alternative radio caught on in 2020: it topped the Adult Alternative Songs chart that July after a record 27-week climb, the slowest ascent to number one the chart had seen, and cracked the top 10 on Alternative Airplay that October. Billboard later placed it at 84 among that chart's most successful songs for its 25th anniversary, and by 2023 it was charting internationally.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 193 | Lightning 100 Nashville, TN | Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2019 | 200 |
| 2019 | 18 | WTMD Baltimore, MD | WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2019 | 89 |
| 2019 | 62 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 2019 | 100 |
| 2020 | 14 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 2020 | 91 |
| 2020 | 39 | CD101 Columbus, OH | CD101 Top 93 Songs of 2020 | 93 |
| 2020 | 20 | Lightning 100 Nashville, TN | Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2020 | 199 |
| 2020 | 10 | WERS 88.9 Boston, MA | WERS Top 88 Songs of 2020 | 88 |
| 2020 | 52 | The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2020 | 89 |
| 2020 | 27 | 107.1 The Peak Westchester County, NY | WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2020 | 107 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 16 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2025 | 390 | The Current | 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now | 893 |
| 2025 | 664 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century | 909 |
| 2025 | 410 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the 21st Century (So Far) | 714 |
| 2026 | 49 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
Also listed as: Hell n Back.
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