Lose Control: The Most Stubborn Hit of All-Time
2025 has been describe as one of
the worst years for new music. When you look at the eventual year-end list for
2025 at least a fourth of that chart will consist of songs that was released
last year or the subject of today’s video two years. Lose Control set the
record of the longest charting song in Billboard history by a huge margin. On the outside it’s a fine enough song but how did this song last 100 plus weeks
on the charts? We are going to go through this song’s journey and at the end,
I’ll explain why the longer this song stays on the charts will hurt him in the
future. So, without further ado here…
Lose Control: The Most Stubborn Hit of All-Time
Before we can even talk about the
song itself, we need to understand how Teddy Swims got to this position. Real
name Jaten Collins Dimsdale, he was an aspiring musician from Conyers, GA.
He’ll spent most of his come up joining local bands from Atlanta, but none of
them were for the long term. On his own, Jaten befriended Addy Maxwell, a local
producer and thanks to some connections, they would open up for Tyler Carter.
In 2019, Jaten would start his YouTube career in covering songs. He needed a
stage name and he came up with Teddy Swims. Teddy came from a childhood
nickname, while the Swims is an acronym standing for Someone Who Isn't Me
Sometimes. He would cover songs from a wide range of artists. But the one that
gave him the most success was his cover of “Still the One” by Shania Twain.
That video amassed 160 million views on YouTube. This is where Teddy decided to
try and release music independently. He dropped his debut single “Night Off”
and it got him attention from Warner (possible villain of this video) who
decided to sign him.
His first years in Warner was him
dropping EPs but none had mainstream success. But he did make his television
debut on the Kelly Clarkson Show and Rolling Stones named him an artist to
watch. Teddy’s voice became something that had people noticing. One who noticed
was Meghan Trainor as she offered him to collab on the song Bad For Me. Again
the song never charted on the Hot 100, but it gave him a charting debut on the
Adult Contemporary Charts (more on them in a bit).
It's now 2023, Teddy’s career has
seen potential but he hasn’t called anything his own. He teamed with songwriter
Julian Bunetta. He knew that Swims could sing anything but needed a hook to
take off. Teddy just blurted out “I Lose Control” and that is how the pair got
the hook. They then comprise lyrics s a four-day writing camp. A producer name
Ammo, came up with production that could come off as timeless. A song where you
can say “this could’ve came out in the 70s or 80s or 90s”. Once done and
hearing the first playback, Teddy said that “This song is going to change his
life” (and it did).
On June 23, 2023, Lose Control was
released. The songs lyrics consist of his honest interpolation about toxic
relationships. Love can be addicting and you wind up losing control as you want
to chase that feeling over and over again. The song would spend it’s first two
months on the bubbling under 100 charts. Thanks to increasing yet slow virality
Lose Control debuted at 99 on the Hot 100 on the week ending on August 26,
2023. Over the rest of 2023, the song began to quietly climb the charts and
speculation of a sleeper hit began to surface, especially given it’s stability
during the holiday rush. Some of it helped when he released his debut album I
Tried Everything But Therapy Part 1 in September that year. When the holiday rush
went away, Lose Control surged to #12 and the next week, it entered the top 10
for the first time. In March 2024, Teddy decided now is the chance to make the
run at the top. He discounted sales and dropped several remixes. However, he
was blocked by Carnival by Kanye & Ty Dolla Sign. There was one thing he
took advantage of. Early in 2024, there was a gap in the music industry and it
stemmed from the UMG vs TikTok feud. With Teddy being under Warner, it left him
unaffected and saw an opportunity to try for the top. On the week ending on
April 6, 2024, Lose Control reached the #1.
Lose Control would spend the rest
of that year coasting in the top 10, but now was the big test, following up.
Can Teddy prove to everyone that Lose Control wasn’t a fluke? Well on June 14,
he The Door was released. On the charts, it had a similar start to Lose
Control, debut low but slowly climb, and by the fall it reached the top 30. You
would think it would rotate Lose Control out, but The Door just stalled out.
The song winded up forced into recurrency in due to the album bomb of GNX,
Wicked & Holiday music.
But he didn’t give up, he released
Bad Dreams to lead off his Therapy Part II album on September 13, 2024. It
debuted one week before exiting the charts but it returned as it was gaining
worldwide attention. After the Holiday rush of 2024, the song returned after
this rush. Should be noted Lose Control exited the charts during this period
but returned thanks to Billboard’s inconsistent recurrent rules. In January his
Therapy Part II album was released and then he pushed another duet with GIVEON
called Are You Even Real but that song’s run was spent mostly below the top 50.
Back with Bad Dreams, the song did reach the #30 on the Hot 100 and you would
think it would get rotated in an effort to rotate out Lose Control. But just
like the Door, it’s momentum stalled out and Bad Dreams was forced out due to
the Morgan Wallen Album Bomb.
It seems like no matter what songs
get released by Teddy Swims, Lose Control was going to stick around. Whenever
it seems Lose Control was losing momentum, something either streaming or the
radio (or a combination of both) will keep it around. In the early summer of
2025, Lose Control became the longest charting song in Billboard History
surpassing Heat Waves by Glass Animals. In July, Lose Control became the first
song to reach 100 weeks on the charts, and it also own the most weeks spent in
the top 10. How does this happen? Well, I have several theories on why this
song stayed on the charts this long and won’t die.:
1. Spoiled
by 2024. 2024 is regarded as one of the best years for releases. A year
that had the rise of women in pop, country music was booming, and there was a
rap beef that definitely was a talking point in 2024. In 2025, most of those
trends carried over. If you follow the Billboard Hot 100, you noticed majority
of the songs released last year squatted in the top 25. Songs like Espresso,
Not Like Us, Beautiful Things, I Had Some Help remained on the charts well into
2025 and will likely occupy spots on the Billboard year-end list. Speaking of
the year-end list, right now a ¼ of the year-end list for 2025 is expecting to
have songs that have made previous year end lists. Not helped that Billboard
decided to make the year end in mid-October to align itself with it’s BBMAs which
was moved to the end of the year.
2. Adult
contemporary radio: AC radio is where most songs go when their peak on
Billboard comes or near it’s end. In 2024, Lose Control was one of, if not the,
most heard songs on the radio. One thing about AC radio is that songs don’t
rotate out easily, they stay around. It’s a case on why Wildflower by Billie
Eilish was able to skate away from not only the top 50 recurrent rules but the
top 25 recurrent rules. The song has been impacted by AC radio for over a year
and currently has no signs of slowing down.
3. Lazy
streaming practices. Another big story of 2025 that has been going under
the radar is how some streaming playlists failed to update to rotate in fresher
and newer songs (spotify). As a result, Lose Control is able to maintain
consistent streaming throughout 2025. Many chart watchers have complained that
radio is causing these songs to stay longer than it should and perhaps should
be removed from Billboard’s formula on determining the #1. However, evidence
shows streaming is just as guilty.
4. Warner.
Labels do have a say on what become a hit and how things become a hit. But they
are getting some of the blame. Back in the day when a label sense a song was
falling off the charts, sense a song is failing overall, they quickly either
push another single or tell the artist to go in the studio and create a new project.
Unsure what the practice is today, but Warner is still finding was to milk
money out of Lose Control. It has lasted over two years on the charts so why
try and push another single to challenge. What was once a beloved hit, has now
becoming stale and stubborn.
I did say in the
beginning of the video the longer this song is on the Hot 100, the more it will
hurts Teddy Swims. First let’s look at other songs that has lasted over 90
weeks. Blinding Lights lasted 90 weeks on the Hot 100, still beloved by fans,
he might be the exception as The Weeknd still have a music career for now. But
Glass Animals “Heat Wave” wasn’t so lucky, it lasted 92 weeks and since it’s
exit in 2022, Glass Animals never charted in America again. Teddy right now is
in uncomfortable territory. The more this song lasts in the Hot 100, the more
known he’ll become of said song and thus enter the one-hit wonder talks. Teddy
has proven he could get other songs on the charts but those songs often get
knocked out by album bombs. In reality, his other songs haven’t sniffed the top
10 and I bet you didn’t know that he released more singles in 2025 but it
didn’t chart, likely due to Lose Control fatigue.
In conclusion,
this video wasn’t made to knock down Teddy Swims major accomplishment, but he
took advantage of several opportunities during LC chart run and now the song
cannot get off the charts. A song lasting two years on the Hot 100 is kind of
embarrassing when you dig deeper into this and while I hope Teddy Swims
continues his music career, the longer Lose Control squats on the charts, the
less likely it is for him to get another hit.
SOURCES:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/teddy-swims-interview-1122488/
https://www.flaunt.com/blog/teddy-swims-reminisces-life-on-broke
https://variety.com/2024/music/news/teddy-swims-lose-control-julian-bunetta-1236235416/
Several
episodes of Billboard Breakdown
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