Morgan Wallen Claims Record Top 9 Spots on Hot Country Songs Chart
Written by djfrosty on March 14, 2023
Morgan Wallen makes history on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, claiming the survey’s top nine positions. He soars past his prior record, as he monopolized the top three in two prior weeks, in February and December.
Wallen’s 90% share of the Hot Country Songs top 10 is also a new record, besting his six in the top 10 for a week in January 2021. Both of his last two albums have sparked those sums in their debut chart weeks: his latest LP One Thing at a Time and Dangerous: The Double Album.
Released March 3, Wallen’s 36-track One Thing at a Time launches as his second No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, as well as the biggest week by equivalent album units (501,000 March 3-9, according to Luminate) for any album, among all genres, in 2023.
Meanwhile, the LP’s “Last Night” becomes Wallen’s first No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. He also holds five of the chart’s top 10 – becoming the first core country act to own half the tier in a single week.
Additionally, Wallen rewrites the record for the most songs simultaneously charted on the Hot 100, as he sends 36 songs onto the survey – the entirety of One Thing at a Time. Of those 36 songs, 27 are debuts, also a new one-week record.
On both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, Wallen’s triumphs mark notable milestones for country. Wallen is the first male artist with back-to-back country No. 1s on the Billboard 200 since 2019, when Thomas Rhett notched his second in a row with Center Point Road, following 2017’s Life Changes. Plus, One Thing at a Time logs the largest week for any country album by a male artist since the Billboard 200 began tracking titles by equivalent album units in December 2014.
On the Hot 100, “Last Night” is the first No. 1 on both that chart and Hot Country Songs by a solo male unaccompanied by any other acts in over 42 years, since Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” ruled Hot Country Songs for a week in January 1981 and the Hot 100 for two weeks that February-March.
One Thing at a Time opens as Wallen’s third No. 1 on Top Country Albums. 2018’s If I Know Me reigned for two weeks in 2020 and Dangerous: The Double Album dominated for a record 97 weeks, as it’s supplanted at the summit by One Thing at a Time.
“Last Night,” meanwhile, leads the streaming-, airplay- and sales-fueled Hot Country Songs chart for a fifth week, having become his seventh No. 1.
Here’s a rundown of Wallen’s unprecedented nine tracks in the latest Hot Country Songs top 10:
- No. 1, “Last Night,” thanks to 47.5 million streams (up 59), 10.8 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 81%) and 18,000 sold (up 12%) March 3-9
- No. 2, “Thought You Should Know” (after it led for a week upon its debut in May 2022)
- No. 3, “You Proof” (after it ruled for 19 weeks, starting with its debut in May 2022)
- No. 4, “Thinkin’ Bout Me” (debut)
- No. 5, “One Thing at a Time” (after it debuted at its No. 2 high in December)
- No. 6, “Ain’t That Some” (debut)
- No. 7 “Everything I Love” (first week in top 10, after it debuted in February)
- No. 8, “Man Made a Bar,” featuring Eric Church (debut)
- No. 9, “I Wrote the Book” (a new high, after it debuted at No. 10 in February)
Notably, Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place” ranks at No. 10 on Hot Country Songs, the only non-Wallen tune in the top 10. It places at No. 3 on Country Airplay (30.1 million in audience, up 8%) and drew 15.5 million streams (up 5%) in the tracking week.
Of the 36 cuts on One Thing at a Time, 35 rank on the latest (50-position) Hot Country Songs chart, a new one-week record. The previous high? Wallen’s 27 on the Jan. 23, 2021, survey, when Dangerous made its chart start. The only song from One Thing at a Time not on the latest list is “Don’t Think Jesus,” which debuted at No. 1 in April 2022 and spent 20 weeks on the tally through September.
With four new top 10s on the newest Hot Country Songs chart, Wallen has logged 12 from One Thing at a Time: the nine currently in the region, as well as “Jesus,” “Tennessee Fan” (now at No. 29) and “Days That End in Why” (No. 34). He ups his career count to 23 top 10s, a run that began with the No. 5-peaking “Up Down,” featuring Florida Georgia Line. Dating to his first week in the top 10 (May 12, 2018), Wallen’s 23 top 10s are the most among all acts, outpacing Luke Combs (16 in that span) and Kane Brown and Rhett (11 each).