New-‘Found’ Success: Stephen Sanchez Crowns Hot Rock & Alternative Songs

Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You” hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart for the first time, topping the list dated March 18.

The song, steeped in the tradition of early rock ballads from the 1950s and ’60s, lifts 2-1 in its 51st week on the chart on the strength of 30.1 million radio audience impressions, 9.3 million official streams and 2,000 downloads sold in the United States March 3-9, according to Luminate.

Concurrently, the track, released on Mercury/Republic Records, tops the Rock Digital Song Sales chart for a second week. (Sanchez recently mused, “I just love that it’s under Mercury Records, an old-school label, and this is an old-school song. That’s just so cool.”)

The 51-week trek of “You” to No. 1 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs is the second-longest in the ranking’s history, behind only Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” which reached the top in its 60th frame in September 2021.

Most Weeks Between Debut & First Week at No. 1, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs:
60 weeks, “Heat Waves,” Glass Animals (Sept. 11, 2021)
51, “Until I Found You,” Stephen Sanchez (March 18, 2023)
47, “Ride,” twenty one pilots (June 25, 2016)
43, “Let Her Go,” Passenger (Jan. 25, 2014)
40, “Something in the Orange,” Zach Bryan (Feb. 4, 2023)
40, “Pompeii,” Bastille (March 1, 2014)
39, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It,” Panic! at the Disco (July 6, 2019)
39, “Whatever It Takes,” Imagine Dragons (April 7, 2018)
35, “Stressed Out,” twenty one pilots (Jan. 9, 2016)
32, “Ex’s & Oh’s,” Elle King (Oct. 31, 2015)

“You” is Sanchez’s first Hot Rock & Alternative Songs ruler, having become his first entry on the survey. It debuted at No. 34 on the March 12, 2022, chart and has steadily risen thanks to its virality on such shortform video services as TikTok (which does not presently contribute directly to Billboard’s charts), as well as its continued rise at radio.

The song peaked at No. 4 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in September and reached No. 10 on Pop Airplay in December. Still growing at adult radio, it bullets at its No. 6 high on Adult Pop Airplay and ranks at No. 14 on Adult Contemporary (boosted by a duet version with Em Beihold). On the all-format Radio Songs list, it rebounds 28-23.

“You” appears at No. 29 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, after hitting No. 23 in January.

Sanchez’s follow-up single, “Evangeline,” debuted at No. 39 on Adult Alternative Airplay (dated March 11). Meanwhile, he has over 40 tour dates scheduled through December.

“I grew up on ’50s music,” Sanchez recently told Billboard. “My grandpa has this amazing property in San Jose, California, and there are two barns on either side and the house in the middle. It’s on top of this hill, and you can oversee all of San Jose. In the mornings, [growing up, my family] would make me breakfast, and then they would tell me to go out in the barn and pick through vinyl. My grandpa is 85 years old at this point, so the only records he has are from the ’50s and ’60s. I would pick through vinyl and just get inspired. Even now, I still do that every time I go up there.”