And the winner for summer 2009 is …

“Best I Ever Had”! For sixteen weeks we’ve been monitoring the Song of the Summer landscape — checking the charts, polling our friends, hanging out next to car-stereo shops — and now it’s all over, with Drake at the top of the heap. He couldn’t be here in person to accept the award, and also, we didn’t contact him to let him know about it, but if we had actually gotten in touch with him, and if he had actually responded, he surely would have let us know that he’s overjoyed.

Now, before a pitchfork-wielding mob descends upon Vulture HQ demanding to know how a track that never reached No. 1 on the Power Rankings (nor on the Billboard Hot 100) could be the Song of Summer, allow us to explain: As we see it, the only real competition for “Best I Ever Had” were the two Black Eyed Peas singles — “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling,” in case you haven't heard them — with which BEP collectively broke the record for most consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100. But while BEP might’ve had the overall edge on Drake, they managed it with those two blockbuster singles, and effectively split the summer. Meanwhile, like the apocryphal tortoise, “Best I Ever Had” stayed prominent from the beginning of the season to the end, achieving true ubiquity — and launching Drake, and his feel-good Degrassi-to-riches tale, into the upper reaches of stardom. And it doesn’t hurt that, unlike BEP’s candidates, “Best I Ever Had” never once made us want to donate our ears to charity. Finally, for what it’s worth, we honestly did hear more Drake out of passing automobiles than anything else this summer.

Now, for the genre winners. We’re going to start with the easy ones, giving Country SOTS to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me,” Indie to Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is the Move,” and Throwback to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Rock is a tougher call — honestly, there just aren’t many good options — so we’re crowning Pearl Jam’s “The Fixer” despite its late entry into the game. Pop might have had an even more disappointing showing, considering the expectations (and as long as you consider “I Gotta Feeling” an R&B song), but we have to admit that Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad” totally grew on us. Young Money’s laid-back and honest-to-a-fault posse cut “Every Girl” takes Hip-hop, while the aforementioned “Best I Ever Had” takes R&B (with honorable mention to Keri Hilson’s terrible “Knock You Down”).

And that’s it! We leave you with a master list of every song that made even a blip on our SOTS radar. See you next summer.

1. Drake, “Best I Ever Had”

2. Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”

3. Black Eyed Peas, “Boom Boom Pow”

4. Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”

5. Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”

6. Young Money, “Every Girl”

7. Cobra Starship, “Good Girls Go Bad”

8. Dirty Projectors, “Stillness Is the Move”

9. Jeremih, “Birthday Sex”

10. Keri Hilson feat. Kanye West and Ne-Yo, “Knock You Down”

11. Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain, “Blame It”

12. Pearl Jam, “The Fixer”

13. Jay-Z feat. Kanye West and Rihanna, “Run This Town”

14. Animal Collective, "My Girls"

15. Shakira, "She Wolf"

16. Mariah Carey, “Obsessed”

17. Rob Thomas, “Her Diamonds”

18. Fabolous feat. The-Dream, “Throw It in the Bag”

19. Major Lazer, “Keep It Goin’ Louder”

20. Jason Mraz, “I'm Yours”

21. Japandroids, “Young Hearts Spark Fire”

22. Pitbull, “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)”

23. Kenny Chesney, “Out Last Night”

24. Passion Pit, “The Reeling”

25. Drake feat. Lil Wayne and Trey Songz, “Successful”

26. Kelly Clarkson, “I Do Not Hook Up”

27. Kid Cudi, “Make Her Say”

28. Demi Lovato, “Here We Go Again”

29. Paramore, “Ignorance”

30. Wavves, “Cool Jumper”

31. Tim McGraw, “It’s a Business Doing Pleasure With You”

32. Delorean, “Seasun”

33. Princeton, “Calypso Gold

34. Maxwell, “Pretty Wings”

35. Harlem Shakes, “Strictly Game”

36. Sean Kingston, “Fire Burning”

37. The Gossip, “Heavy Cross”

38. Green Day, “Know Your Enemy”

39. Webstar feat. Jim Jones and Juelz Santana, “Dancing on Me”

40. The-Dream feat. Kanye West, “Walking on the Moon”

41. Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks”

42. Jadakiss, “Who’s Real”

43. Jason Mraz feat. Cobie Caillat, "Lucky"

44. T.I. feat. Mary J Blige, “Remember Me”

45. Animal Collective, “Summertime Clothes”

Earlier: Drake’s Vixens Hold Up Admirably Well in Demanding Video
Song of the Summer: Drake’s Having the Best Week Ever