Sean Paul, Shaggy, and Dawn Penn were the sole Jamaican musicians who made the list of Billboard’s 500 Best Pop Songs.
In celebration of the Billboard Hot 100’s 65th anniversary, staff at the American music and entertainment magazine ranked the 500 best pop songs that have graced the chart since 1958.
Shaggy’s chart-topping hit “It Wasn’t Me” was ranked at number 273, Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” at number 341, and Dawn Penn’s cover of “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” was ranked number 454.
“One of the most enduring songs about cheating — specifically the denial of it — and another early ‘00s reggae crossover smash with enviable staying power, using a sing-song melody as a Trojan horse for some downright hilarious ways to handle getting caught in your infidelity,” Billboard said of Shaggy’s hit, which peaked at number 1 on the Hot 100 chart in February 2001.
“It Wasn’t Me” is Shaggy’s highest-charting song to date, topping the charts in Australia, Flanders, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The song is also referenced frequently in pop culture. In 2021, the Jamaican-American artist starred in a hilarious Superbowl commercial with Hollywood actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis that referenced the hit track.
Read: Shaggy Stars in Hilarious Super Bowl Commercial With Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis
Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” also peaked at number 1 on the Hot 100 chart in 2003. Billboard says the song “remains a guaranteed dancefloor banger, from its iconic directive-laden intro to its singular take on the Diwali riddim.”
Along with peaking at number 1 in the United States, “Get Busy” topped the charts in Italy and the Netherlands, and became a top-10 hit in an additional 11 countries. The song was one of the lead singles off Sean Paul’s second album Dutty Rock, for which he won Best Reggae Album at the 2004 Grammys.
Related: Diwali Riddim turns 20!
Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” became a worldwide hit in 1994 and is still regarded as a reggae classic. Billboard said the song “harnessed the ’90s Stateside dancehall boom and turned that energy into a cutting breakup anthem so sharp that even Beyoncé and Rihanna have delivered their own renditions over the years.” It peaked at number 58 in 1994. The song is a redo of Willie Cobbs’ “You Don’t Love Me.”
