Connie Francis' "Pretty Little Baby" was relegated to the B-side of a single when the American singer originally released the song in 1962. But this year it went viral as the soundtrack to hundreds of thousands of online videos, and it now ranks alongside contemporary acts like Doechii and Billie Eilish on YouTube's list of Top 10 songs used to accompany short videos on the platform.
This blast from the past stands out on YouTube's 2025 annual list of trending videos, songs, creators and cultural moments released on Tuesday – a list otherwise dominated by tracks from the hit animated movie KPop Demon Hunters and MrBeast, who has has now appeared on YouTube's year-end top content creator lists for six consecutive years.
New for 2025: Personalized trends reports
YouTube, which started sharing annual user trends with its "2010 YouTube Rewind: Year in Review," video, also announced its first-ever personalized service for 2025. YouTube Recap enables users to see and share a summary of their individual viewing and listening habits throughout the year. In a blog post, YouTube said users asked for the new feature, citing social media posts by influential content creators like Marques Brownlee (who, under the moniker MKBHD is a popular technology reviewer.) Other streaming services have already implemented similar offerings, such as Spotify's Wrapped, Apple Music's Replay and Amazon Music's Delivered.
Also trending on YouTube
YouTube's top trending topics of the year include the dystopian South Korean Netflix drama Squid Game, Labubu soft toys and user-generated offerings on the Roblox online gaming platform, such as Grow a Garden, a farming-themed game where participants plant and harvest crops to earn in-game currency.
The lists highlight how very popular conservative political views are online, with Shawn Ryan, Joe Rogan and Theo Von among the top 10 podcasts, and the late influencer Charlie Kirk making both the top U.S creators list and the top U.S. trending topics list.
Meanwhile, joining KPop Demon Hunters on the top songs list are two appearances by Kendrick Lamar ("Luther" with SZA, and "tv off") and two Bruno Mars collaborations – one with Lady Gaga ("Die With A Smile") and another with Rosé ("APT"). According to YouTube's end-of-year trends summary, user-generated content based on "APT" helped the track become the fastest KPop music video to reach 1 billion views on YouTube.
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.
Copyright 2025 NPR
