Morgan Wallen & Luke Combs Make for Country Hits at Nos. 1 & 2 on Hot 100 for First Time in 42 Years

Wallen’s “Last Night” leads for a 12th week, while Combs’ “Fast Car” pulls into the runner-up spot.

Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” logs a 12th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

Plus, Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” rides to No. 2, up from No. 3, on the Hot 100. Thanks to “Last Night” and “Fast Car,” country hits infuse the chart’s top two positions simultaneously for the first time in over 42 years.

Elsewhere, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down,” at No. 3 on the Hot 100, hits No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart, marking each artist’s first leader on the all-format airplay list and dethroning Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” after 18 weeks on top, a run tied for the second-longest in the chart’s history.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated July 1, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (June 27). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Wallen’s “Last Night,” released on Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records, drew 72.2 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 4%) and 29.8 million streams (up 1%) and sold 7,000 downloads (down 3%) in the June 16-22 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The song, which first led the Hot 100 in March, becoming Wallen’s initial leader on the ranking, posts a 14th week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart; rises 3-2 on Digital Song Sales, following a week on top; and holds at its No. 4 high on Radio Songs.

Additionally, “Last Night” tops Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which employs the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100, for a milestone 20th week – surpassing “You Proof” (May-December 2022) for Wallen’s longest rule among his seven Hot Country Songs No. 1s. “Last Night” is now one of only seven titles to have led Hot Country Songs for 20 or more weeks since the chart became an all-encompassing genre reflection in 1958; Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be” spent a record 50 frames at No. 1 in 2017-18.

“Last Night” concurrently leads Country Airplay for an eighth week – tying for the chart’s second-longest command ever, below “You Proof” (10 weeks) – and bullets at its No. 8 high on both Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, having become Wallen’s ninth No. 1 on Country Airplay and his first top 10 on the two pop lists.

Plus, “Last Night” posts a fourth week atop Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart, having ranked at No. 1 each week since the survey returned.

“Last Night” is from Wallen’s album One Thing at a Time, which adds a 14th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The album and song have, respectively, led the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously for 10 weeks – making the set just the fourth ever to have topped the Billboard 200 for at least that long while one or more of its songs have ruled the Hot 100. It’s the first LP to achieve the feat in over 30 years.

Most Weeks for Albums & Their Songs Topping the Billboard 200 & Hot 100 Simultaneously:

  • 13: Soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever; “Stayin’ Alive” (4; Bee Gees), “Night Fever” (8; Bee Gees), “If I Can’t Have You” (1; Yvonne Elliman), 1978
  • 12: Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard soundtrack; “I Will Always Love You,” 1992-93
  • 10: Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time; “Last Night,” 2023
  • 10: Michael Jackson, Thriller; “Billie Jean” (7), “Beat It” (3), 1983

Luke Combs’ version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” (which hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in August 1988) ascends to a new No. 2 Hot 100 high, from No. 3, with 51.3 million in radio reach (up 21%), 21.2 million streams (up 4%) and 10,000 sold (down 3%) – as it rises 2-1 on Digital Song Sales, marking Combs’ third leader on the list.

With Wallen’s “Last Night” at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and Combs’ “Fast Car” at No. 2, country hits (as defined by titles that have reached Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, where they also currently place at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively) rank in the Hot 100’s top two simultaneously for the first time in over 42 years – since the chart dated March 7, 1981, when Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” and Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” placed at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. (The latter two songs also teamed up in the top two on the charts dated Feb. 21 and 28, 1981.)

A pair of country songs appearing in the Hot 100’s top five for the first time in nearly a quarter-century continues the genre’s surge this year; as analyzed by Hit Songs Deconstructed, country tied pop as the most prominent primary genres in the chart’s top 10 in Q1 2023, marking country’s best such showing in over a decade.

Also notably, with “Last Night” at No. 1 and “Fast Car” No. 2 on Streaming Songs, this week marks the first in which the two most-streamed songs in the U.S. are country titles.

Similarly, “Last Night” and “Fast Car” rank at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on Country Airplay – as the Hot 100 and Country Airplay boast the same top two for the first time (dating to the Country Airplay chart’s inception in 1990; the Hot 100 began in 1958). “Fast Car” also bullets in the top 25 of Adult Contemporary, Adult Pop Airplay and Pop Airplay.

Meanwhile, Chapman, who solely wrote “Fast Car,” achieves a new highest Hot 100 rank as a songwriter: “Give Me One Reason,” which she also penned solo, and which became her other top 10 as a recording artist, hit No. 3 in June 1996.

Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” rebounds to its No. 3 Hot 100 high, from No. 4. It concurrently climbs to No. 1 on Radio Songs (87.3 million, up 1%), marking each artist’s first leader on the airplay survey; it’s Rema’s first entry and Gomez’s first No. 1 among nine top 10s. “Calm Down” unseats Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” after 18 weeks atop Radio Songs, a dominance tied for the second-longest in the chart’s archives (which date to 1990). The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” notched a record 26 weeks at No. 1 in 2020, while “Flowers” equaled the 18-week reign of Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” in 1998.

Rema released the original version of “Calm Down” in February 2022 as a single from his debut solo LP, Rave & Roses. Its remix with Gomez arrived last August, and that version’s official video premiered in September. The song concurrently tops the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 43rd week, extending the longest reign since the ranking began over a year ago (in partnership with music festival and global brand Afro Nation).

Cyrus’ “Flowers” dips 2-4 on the Hot 100, after eight weeks at No. 1 beginning upon its debut in January.

Lil Durk’s “All My Life,” featuring J. Cole, keeps at No. 5 on the Hot 100, after it launched at its No. 2 best. It tops the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a fifth week each.

Toosii’s “Favorite Song” holds at No. 6 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 5; Taylor Swift’s “Karma,” featuring Ice Spice, rises 9-7, three weeks after it vaulted to its No. 2 high following the release of its remix with Ice Spice; and SZA’s “Kill Bill” slips 7-8, after it became her first No. 1, for a week in April, as it tallies a 27th week atop the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage’s “Creepin’ ” drops 8-9, after reaching No. 3, and Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” repeats at No. 10 after reaching No. 4 – the best rank ever for a regional Mexican song – as it logs a 12th week at No. 1 on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart.

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated July 1), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (June 27).

Source: billboard.com