Julian Bunetta rises from No. 2 to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Producers chart (dated Nov. 2), becoming the top producer in the U.S. for the first time, thanks to his production work on seven Billboard Hot 100-charting songs.
Leading the way are three songs in the top 10: Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espress” and “Taste” (Nos. 5 and 9, respectively) and Teddy Swims’ former No. 1 “Lose Control” (No. 7).
Here’s a recap of all seven of Bunetta’s production credits on the latest Hot 100:
Rank, Artist Billing, Title (co-producers in addition to Bunetta)
- No. 5, Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
- No. 7, Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” (Infamous, Ammo)
- No. 9, Sabrina Carpenter, “Taste” (John Ryan, Ian Kirkpatrick)
- No. 33, Teddy Swims, “The Door” (Ammo)
- No. 44, Gracie Abrams, “That’s So True” (Gracie Abrams, Aaron Dessner)
- No. 66, Sabrina Carpenter, “Good Graces” (John Ryan)
- No. 67, Thomas Rhett, “Beautiful as You” (John Ryan, Ammo, Dann Huff)
Bunetta has been churning out Hot 100-charting hits for over a decade. His first was One Direction’s “One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks),” which debuted and peaked at No. 13 in March 2013. He produced 18 more Hot 100 hits for the group, all with co-producer and frequent collaborator John Ryan. Of those 19 One Direction songs, four reached the top 10: “Best Song Ever” (No. 2, 2013), “Story of My Life” (No. 6, 2013), “Drag Me Down” (No. 3, 2015) and “Perfect” (No. 10, 2015).
Bunetta and Ryan, who ranks at No. 6 on Hot 100 Producers, have been longtime production partners. Along with their collaborative work on songs by Carpenter, Teddy Swims and One Direction, the pair also produced solo hits by 1D’s Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson as soloists.
In 2018, Billboard reported that Bunetta and Ryan signed a deal with Big Deal Music Group to form a music company, Big Family, focusing on pop songwriters. Last month, fresh off the success of his work with Carpenter and Swims, Bunetta signed a global deal with Sony Music Publishing
Bunetta has produced or co-produced 39 total songs that have charted on the Hot 100 in his career. Of those, 19 have reached the top 40, seven have hit the top 10 and one (“Lose Control”) rose to No. 1. He has also produced or written songs for Benson Boone, Fifth Harmony, COIN, Kelsea Ballerini and Hey Violet, among others.
Notably, Bunetta isn’t the first member of his family to chart on the Hot 100. His father, Peter Bunetta, was credited as a producer on multiple Hot 100-charting songs in the 1980s, recorded by stars including Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle, The Temptations, Kenny G and Michael Bolton. Two of those tracks by Robinson reached the top 10 in 1987: “Just To See Her” (No. 8) and “One Heartbeat” (No. 10).
Billboard launched the Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019, while alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Billboard Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
The full Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts and full genre rankings can be found on Billboard.com.
