Hot 100 First-Timers: Country Upstart Zach Top Debuts With ‘I Never Lie’

Zach Top charts his first song on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Sept. 28) as “I Never Lie” debuts at No. 95.

Released in April on Leo33, the song enters with 4.9 million U.S. official streams (up 16%), 261,000 radio audience impressions and 1,000 downloads sold in the Sept. 13-19 tracking week, according to Luminate.

“I Never Lie” also ascends 26-23 for a new high on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart. It’s one of two Top songs on the survey, as “Sounds Like the Radio” rises 41-37, becoming his second top 40 hit.

“I Never Lie” appears on Top’s debut full-length, Cold Beer & Country Music. In a February interview with Billboard, in which he was named Country Rookie of the Month, he explained co-writing the album with Carson Chamberlain, formerly the late Keith Whitley’s bandleader and steel guitar player. “How we met was kind of hilarious,” Top shared. “In late 2018, he emailed me and said he wanted to work with me. I had archived the email, and my girlfriend at the time – now my wife – called me a few weeks later and said, ‘Do you remember that email from this Chamberlain fellow? I’m sending you his Wikipedia link. I think we need to email him back.’

“I did and met him in early 2019, started flying to Nashville every month to do co-writes with him and then he’d set me up on other co-writes,” Top said. “It was full circle because I love Keith Whitley and he was best buds with Keith.”

Cold Beer & Country Music jumps 111-90 on the Billboard 200, reaching the chart’s top half for the first time, and 21-18 on Top Country Albums.

Top, from Sunnyside, Wash., first appeared on Billboard’s charts in January, when “Sounds Like the Radio” debuted on Country Airplay. It holds at its No. 20 high on the latest list.

Both of Top’s breakout hits have benefitted from TikTok. “I Never Lie” has soundtracked over 25,000 clips on the platform to date, while “Sounds Like the Radio” has been used in over 3,000.

Top is currently supporting Lainey Wilson on her Country’s Cool Again Tour. He kicks off his headlining Cold Beer & Country Music Tour in January.

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