Dr. Dre's Super Bowl Halftime Show dominates Apple's iTunes Top 10

Dr Dre Super Bowl Halftime
Dr Dre Super Bowl Halftime (Image credit: NFL)

What you need to know

  • Dr. Dre's Super Bowl Halftime Show is the talk of the town and it's lighting up iTunes.
  • Seven of the top-10 songs in the iTunes charts are from Dre or those who appeared on stage with him this weekend.
  • BTS' Jung Kook, Ed Sheeran, and Jennifer Lopez make up the numbers.

The Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show featured Dr. Dre and those who he's worked closest with over the years — Eminem, Snoop Dog, and more — and all of them are reaping the benefits in the iTunes music charts.

The Halftime Show was a blast for those of us who are of a certain age and while Dre was undoubtedly the star of the show there was an all-star supporting cast. Each and every one of them are now benefiting from their appearance with seven of the iTunes top 10 songs currently theirs.

As Variety notes, while BTS' Jung Kook's Stay Alive still sits pretty at the top of the pile, it's all about Dre after that — bar two spots taken by Ed Sheeran and Jennifer Lopez.

While BTS' Jung Kook's "Stay Alive" continues to hold down the iTunes top spot, most of the rest of the Top 10 is Super Bowl LVI songs that are reeling in royalties for Dr. Dre: His own "The Next Episode," "Still D.R.E." and "Nuthin' But a G Thang" (all featuring Snoop) are at Nos. 2, 4 and 9 respectively; "Forgot About Dre" with Eminem is at No. 7; "California Love," Dre's classic Golden State tag-team with Tupac, is at No. 6; Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair," produced and cowritten by Dre, is at No. 3; and "Lose Yourself," one of the few songs performed during the show that Dre didn't co-write, is at No. 5.

Beyond the top ten chart, we find more of Dre's influence. 50 Cent makes an appearance at number 11 while Snoop's in at number 14. And it continues as you move down the list.

Looking further down at the Top 20 we see 50 Cent's Dre-helmed "In Da Club" at No. 11, Snoop's Dre-helmed "Gin and Juice" at No. 14; and Mary J.'s other song performed during Halftime, "No More Drama" — and apparently Eminem got people's nostalgia going, because his "Real Slim Shady," which wasn't even performed at the Super Bowl, is at No. 18. (Curiously, both "Lose Yourself" and "The Next Episode" also at No. 13 and No. 19 respectively, iTunes charts are often confusing.)

Poor old Kendrick Lamar has to make do with number 54 for his 2015 anthem Alright.

Which song were you blasting on Apple Music this Monday morning?

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.