“Ho Hey” by Lumineers

"Ho Hey" was the lead single from the Lumineers' self-titled debut, out on Dualtone in 2012, and it's the sort of song that makes a strong case for simplicity. Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites wrote it, Ryan Hadlock produced and recorded it, and Kevin Augunas mixed it, and nobody involved seems to have been tempted to dress it up. It's indie folk pared down to a thump and a chorus built for a whole room of people to holler back, closer to a campfire singalong than a confession.

That modesty turned out to be its secret weapon. Radio didn't just play it; radio wouldn't let go. It sat at number one on Billboard's Rock Songs chart for 18 non-consecutive weeks, spent two weeks on top of the Alternative Songs chart and eight at the summit of Adult Pop Songs, then crossed over to number 3 on the Hot 100, the band's first top-five hit. On the Mainstream Top 40 it got as high as number 2, stuck behind Bruno Mars's "Locked Out of Heaven". It was also the first Lumineers single to be certified in the US.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.