Morgan Wallen Tops Hot Country Songs With ‘Last Night,’ Claims Chart’s Top 3 Spots
Morgan Wallen monopolizes the top three positions on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart (dated Feb. 18), which measures streaming, airplay and sales.
Since the chart launched as an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958, Wallen is the only artist to accomplish the triple, having first claimed the top three on the chart dated Dec. 17, 2022.
Wallen’s “Last Night” leaps 7-1 after its first full week of tracking (Feb. 3-9), with 29.7 million U.S. streams, 285,000 in airplay audience and 14,000 sold, according to Luminate. It was released Jan. 31.
On the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Last Night” rockets 27-3, becoming Wallen’s fifth – and highest-charting – top 10.
Directly below “Last Night” on Hot Country Songs are Wallen’s former No. 1s “Thought You Should Know” (5-2) and “You Proof” (4-3).
“Thought” garnered 14 million clicks (up 31%) and sold 4,000 (up 2%) in the latest tracking frame; it debuted atop the list last May. On Country Airplay, “Thought,” which is Wallen’s current single being promoted to country radio, lifts 3-2 for a new best (32.2 million, up 16%).
“You Proof” drew 25.1 million in all-format airplay, 13.8 million streams (up 8%) and 2,000 sold (up 11%). It ruled Hot Country Songs for 19 frames starting last May and crowned Country Airplay for a record 10 weeks beginning in October.
“Last Night” becomes Wallen’s seventh Hot Country Songs leader and the fourth No. 1 from his 36-track LP One Thing at a Time, due March 3. The set’s first leader, “Don’t Think Jesus,” dominated for a week in April 2022.
Wallen is the first artist to score as many as four Hot Country Songs leaders from one album since Brad Paisley rattled off five from his aptly titled 5th Gear in 2007-08: “Ticks,” “Online,” “Letter to Me,” “I’m Still a Guy” and “Waitin’ on a Woman.” (The chart was then fueled solely by radio airplay before it transitioned to its current multi-metric methodology in October 2012.)
Also on Hot Country Songs, Wallen’s“I Wrote the Book,” likewise released Jan. 31 as a preview track from One Thing at a Time, bounds 16-10, awarding the singer-songwriter his 19th career top 10. It marks the eighth song to hit the tier from the new album:
“Don’t Think Jesus” (No. 1, one week)
“Thought You Should Know” (No. 1, one week)
“You Proof” (No. 1, 19 weeks)
“One Thing at a Time” (No. 2)
“Tennessee Fan” (No. 5)
“Days That End in Why” (No. 7)
“Last Night” (No. 1, one week to-date)
“I Wrote the Book” (No. 10)
Wallen first appeared in the Hot Country Songs top 10 with the No. 5-peaking “Up Down,” featuring Florida Georgia Line, in 2018. He first led with “Whiskey Glasses,” for two weeks in 2019.
Meanwhile, Wallen’s previous LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, rules Top Country Albums for a record-extending 94th week, up 8% to 46,000 equivalent album units.
Jim Asker
Billboard