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Harry Styles has released many solo songs in the years since One Direction parted ways. He is the group’s breakout star and has seen a high level of career success. Styles won Album of the Year in 2023 and has many acclaimed songs. His most popular song isn’t his top-rated, though.

Styles has released four solo albums since 2017. His most popular song, by a long shot, is “As It Was” from his 2022 album Harry’s House. It has well over 4 billion Spotify streams. It is not his highest-rated song, though.

Research conducted by Betway found that his 2017 song “Sign of the Times” is the highest-rated song. It has a rating of 4.12 on RateYourMusic, while “As It Was” has a rating of 3.73. While it has 2 billion Spotify streams, just half of what “As It Was” has, Betway gives both songs an index score of 91.

Betway found that “Adore You,” “Golden,” “Falling,” and “Watermelon Sugar” were also among Styles’ top-rated songs. 

A collaborator shared the process of writing the Harry Styles song

“As It Was” was one of the biggest songs of 2022. His co-writer, Ben Homewood, shared how the song came about.

“The story of ‘As It Was’ is very of the moment,” he told Music Week. “It’s interesting in the context of Harry’s other biggest song, which is ‘Watermelon Sugar.’ That one took a while and ‘As It Was’ was more speedy, right out of the gate. Harry was sitting on the Moog One and I liked what he was playing, so I sat down and played as he started to write the melodies and the lyrics. Tom [Hull aka Kid Harpoon] did a half-time beat around it, we were like, ‘No, it’s not right.’ So then Tom played the double time beat, which felt very good.”

Homewood said Styles believed the song would be a success from the beginning.

“Harry had the vision for it to be the lead single,” he said. “I’m very impressed at how he saw that it was what his audience wanted, and also people in general – it’s not just his fans who have taken to the song. When it came out on Spotify and I pressed play I got a good feeling in my stomach like, ‘I like that people are hearing this song.’”

He recently released new music

Styles released his fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally this month. He said that his approach to this album was new because he doesn’t feel that he has to be “tortured” to make good music.

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Harry Styles Drives Growing Interest in a Classic, ‘Effortless’ Haircut

“One of the things I really loved in your book about running was that it freed me from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul,” Styles told novelist Haruki Murakami in a conversation for Runner’s World. “Your point is that being healthy makes you able to be an artist for a long time, that you can be a structured, healthy person and make great work. So I have a lot of gratitude to you for that.”

He took time away from work in 2024, which he said helped him develop his new album.

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