Chart Beat
Page: 15
Coldplay has long established itself as a global touring force. By the end of 2024, The Music of the Spheres World Tour had become the most attended tour in history, via 11 legs of international concerts in five continents. Now, the band rules January’s Boxscore recap by breaking new ground with its first shows in India.
Over nine shows between Jan. 9-26, Coldplay grossed $56.6 million and sold 590,000 tickets in January, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. It’s the sixth time that the British quartet has ruled the monthly Top Tours ranking, continuing a cat-and-mouse chase to the record books.
In November, Coldplay scored its fifth win, pulling out of a three-way tie with Beyoncé and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Then, TSO caught up in December with its own fifth victory. Now, Coldplay inches to six. With a packed schedule between April and September, the band is in a better position to match Elton John and Bad Bunny’s record seven before TSO begins its annual holiday run in November.
Coldplay’s January run began with four shows at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City Stadium between Jan. 9-14. Those dates earned $28 million and sold 203,000 tickets, securing No. 1 on Top Boxscores. The band’s last trip to the United Arab Emirates was a one-night engagement on New Year’s Eve of 2016, raking in $4.3 million from 31,300 tickets during the A Head Full of Dreams Tour. The 2025 shows averaged $7 million and 50,800 tickets, marking improvements of 63% and 62%. But considering the expansion to four nights, Coldplay was able to sextuple its prior stop.
Then, the band went to India for the first time in its career, playing three shows in Mumbai on Jan. 18 and 20-21, grossing $12.8 million from 164,000 tickets. Finally, there were two shows at Ahmedabad’s Narrenda Modi Stadium. Those grossed $15.7 million and sold 224,000 tickets.
At more than 110,000 for each night, Coldplay broke the record for the largest stadium shows of the 21st century. The Ahmedabad shows sold 111,581 tickets on Jan. 25 and 111,989 on Jan. 26, narrowly bypassing George Strait’s 110,905 at Kyle Field at Texas A&M last June. Strait’s date remains the bestselling U.S. stadium show ever.
This is Coldplay’s second leg of shows in Asia during the Music of the Spheres World Tour. Between November 2023 and February 2024, it grossed $129.4 million and sold 884,000 tickets from dates in Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and more. Altogether, the entire continent has generated $186 million in grosses for the record-breaking tour, with more shows scheduled in April in Hong Kong and South Korea.
After that, the Music of the Spheres World Tour will continue with 17 shows in the U.S. and Canada, plus 12 in the United Kingdom, scheduled to wrap the trek with 10 hometown shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. Since its 2022 launch, the tour has sold 10.9 million tickets and grossed just under $1.2 billion, making it the best-selling and second highest-grossing tour in Boxscore history.
Coldplay nearly doubles its closest competition, with Luke Combs and SEVENTEEN at Nos. 2-3 with $30.3 million and $28.8 million, respectively. Only three more acts grossed more than $10 million, as the Eagles, Justin Timberlake and ATEEZ follow.
January was a particularly strong month for K-pop groups, with ENHYPEN as the third Korean act in the top 10, at No. 8 with $7.7 million from just two shows. SEVENTEEN and ENHYPEN score with shows in Asia – the former in the Philippines and Singapore and the latter in Japan. ATEEZ had a string of European dates, peaking with more than 22,000 tickets over two nights at London’s O2 Arena.
As is becoming increasingly common since its 2023 opening, Sphere is No. 1 on Top Venues (15,001+ capacity). Both acts who played shows there in January are among the top 10 touring acts, headed by the Eagles at No. 4. Two weekends of dates combined to $18.7 million and 65,600 tickets, pushing the band’s residency to $98 million and 327,000 tickets since its Sept. 20 kickoff. With four February shows still to be reported and more scheduled in March and April, those totals will likely soar beyond $150 million and half a million tickets.
At No. 9, Anyma posts $7.5 million and 52,300 tickets from three shows at the Las Vegas arena. Combined with its five shows in December, the Italian American DJ drove $21 million and 137,000 tickets, marking a successful close to the venue’s first electronic residency.
January is historically a dry month, with Western stadium tours on pause for cold weather. It makes sense then that Asia and Oceania make up nine of the month’s top 10 stadiums, powered by Coldplay and the K-pop acts mentioned earlier, plus Luke Combs with shows in Brisbane and Sydney. They leave room for Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros at No. 8, with $8.9 million from Kygo ($3.3 million on Jan. 25) and Linkin Park ($5.6 million on Jan. 31).
Even indoors, January calendars were light. In November and December, seven arenas eclipsed $10 million in each month, while Sphere is January’s only entry on Top Venues (15,001+ capacity) to gross eight figures.
Radio City Music Hall lores over the Top Venues (5,001-10k capacity) chart with $13.2 million – nearly five times the $2.7 million of Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion at No. 2. The New York theater benefits from the final shows of its Christmas Spectacular, with engagements later in the month from Dave Chappelle, The Giggly Squad, and Hugh Jackman.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA land new No. 1s on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart – Lamar his seventh, SZA her third – as “Luther” rises to the top of the March 1-dated ranking.
“Luther” enjoys its coronation in its 13th week on the tally with 45.2 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Feb. 20, a boost of 6%, according to Luminate.
Originally released as part of Lamar’s album GNX on Nov. 22, “Luther” finally climbs to No. 1 on Streaming Songs after it was performed during Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show set on Feb. 9, plus continued success on user-generated content apps such as TikTok.
Trending on Billboard
Lamar replaces himself atop the survey; “Not Like Us,” also performed during the halftime show, ascended back to the summit on the Feb. 22 list via 49 million streams Feb. 7-13; it ranks at No. 2 on the latest ranking (39.2 million streams, down 20%).
All told, Lamar boasts seven No. 1s on Streaming Songs, which began in 2013. With his seventh ruler, he assumes sole possession of the third-most No. 1s in the chart’s history, breaking out of what had been a three-way tie with Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.
Most No. 1s, Streaming Songs
20, Drake
9, Taylor Swift
7, Kendrick Lamar
6, Ariana Grande
6, Justin Bieber
5, Travis Scott
Lamar first reigned in 2017 with the four-week rule of “Humble.” Four of his No. 1s have occurred in the past year, beginning with the reign of Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar’s “Like That,” which led for three weeks beginning last April.
As for SZA, “Luther” is her third leader, following four weeks at No. 1 for “Kill Bill” in 2022 and 2023 and one frame atop the survey in 2023 for Drake’s “Slime You Out,” on which she’s featured.
Concurrently, as previously reported, “Luther” rises to No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100.
Submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com.
Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the United States.
Or, reach out on Bluesky.
Let’s open the latest mailbag.
Dear Gary,
With “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, it joins the list of songs that have incorporated people’s names in chart-topping titles. The song is, of course, a tribute to the late Luther Vandross, who never topped the chart as a billed artist, although his voice has been heard on multiple No. 1s dating back nearly a half-century.
No. 1 songs with proper names in their titles continue a trend that began soon after the Hot 100 started in 1958. Here’s a (long) look at them below (including one famous group name, in a 2016 hit), while realizing that there’s room for interpretation; Faith is a name, but George Michael didn’t mean it that way in his 1987 hit. Thankfully, others are as obvious as can be: “Venus was her name!”
Thanks,
My name … Jesper TanSubang Jaya, Malaysia
Trending on Billboard
“Tom Dooley,” The Kingston Trio (1958)
“Stagger Lee,” Lloyd Price (1959)
“Venus,” Frankie Avalon (1959)
“Running Bear,” Johnny Preston (1960)
“Cathy’s Clown,” The Everly Brothers (1960)
“Mr. Custer,” Larry Verne (1960)
“Michael,” The Highwaymen (1961)
“Hit the Road Jack,” Ray Charles and His Orchestra with the Raelettes (1961)
“Runaround Sue,” Dion (1961)
“Big Bad John,” Jimmy Dean (1961)
“Johnny Angel,” Shelley Fabares (1962)
“Sheila,” Tommy Roe (1962)
“Sherry,” The 4 Seasons (1962)
“Hey Paula,” Paul and Paula (1963)
“Dominique,” The Singing Nun (1963)
“Hello, Dolly!,” Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (1964)
“Ringo,” Lorne Greene (1964)
”Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” Herman’s Hermits (1965)
“Help Me, Rhonda,” The Beach Boys (1965)
”I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” Herman’s Hermits (1965)
“Hang On Sloopy,” The McCoys (1965)
“Ruby Tuesday,” The Rolling Stones (1967)
“Ode to Billie Joe,” Bobbie Gentry (1967)
“Judy in Disguise (With Glasses),” John Fred and the Playboys (1968)
“Mrs. Robinson,” Simon & Garfunkel (1968)
“Hey Jude,” The Beatles (1968)
“Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet,” Henry Mancini (1969)
“Venus,” Shocking Blue (1970)
“Cracklin’ Rosie,” Neil Diamond (1970)
”Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin (1971)
“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” Paul & Linda McCartney (1971)
“Maggie May,” Rod Stewart (1971)
“Theme From Shaft,” Isaac Hayes (1971)
“Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” Looking Glass (1972)
“Ben,” Michael Jackson (1972)
“Me and Mrs. Jones,” Billy Paul (1972)
“Frankenstein,” The Edgar Winter Group (1973)
“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” Jim Croce (1973)
“Brother Louie,” Stories (1973)
“Delta Dawn,” Helen Reddy (1973)
“Angie,” The Rolling Stones (1973)
“Bennie and the Jets,” Elton John (1974)
“Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (1974)
“Annie’s Song,” John Denver (1974)
“Angie Baby,” Helen Reddy (1974)
“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” Elton John (1975)
“Mandy,” Barry Manilow (1975)
“Lady Marmalade,” Labelle (1975)
“A Fifth of Beethoven,” Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band (1976)
“Sir Duke,” Stevie Wonder (1977)
“MacArthur Park,” Donna Summer (1978)
“Bette Davis Eyes,” Kim Carnes (1981)
“Jessie’s Girl,” Rick Springfield (1981)
“Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” Christopher Cross (1981)
“Jack and Diane,” John Cougar (1982)
“Mickey,” Toni Basil (1982)
“Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson (1983)
“Come On Eileen,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners (1983)
“St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion),” John Parr (1985)
“Oh Sheila,” Ready for the World (1985)
“Sara,” Starship (1986)
“Rock Me Amadeus,” Falco (1986)
“Venus,” Bananarama (1986)
“Amanda,” Boston (1986)
“Jacob’s Ladder,” Huey Lewis & the News (1987)
“Dirty Diana,” Michael Jackson (1988)
“A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme),” Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle (1993)
“Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix),” Los Del Rio (1996)
“Maria Maria,” Santana feat. The Product G&B (2000)
“Ms. Jackson,” OutKast (2001)
“Lady Marmalade,” Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya & P!nk (2001)
“Hey There Delilah,” Plain White T’s (2007)
“Moves Like Jagger,” Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera (2011)
“Black Beatles,” Rae Sremmurd feat. Gucci Mane (2016)
“The Scotts,” The Scotts, Travis Scott & Kid Cudi (2020)
“Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” Lil Nas X (2021)
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast (2022)
“Jimmy Cooks,” Drake feat. 21 Savage (2022)
“Kill Bill,” SZA (2023)
“Luther,” Kendrick Lamar & SZA (2025)
Thanks, Jesper!
Oddly enough for a tribute song with such a title, as fellow longtime “Ask Billboard” contributor Pablo Nelson notes, the name Luther isn’t said in “Luther” (nor is Bill in SZA’s “Kill Bill”).
Meanwhile, five Hot 100 No. 1s other than Lil Nas X’s above include the word “name” in their names:
“Stop! In the Name of Love,” The Supremes (1965)
“A Horse With No Name,” America (1972)
“You Give Love a Bad Name,” Bon Jovi (1986)
“Say My Name,” Destiny’s Child (2000)
“What’s My Name?,” Rihanna feat. Drake (2010)
It shouldn’t be a surprise that so many songs with names in their titles have topped the Hot 100. After all, everyone hears their name in “Happy Birthday to You,” which is listed first in Guinness World Records’ recap of the most frequently sung songs in English.
As for Luther Vandross, he and Richard Marx shared the 2004 Grammy Award for co-writing “Dance With My Father.” In a 2012 visit to Billboard, Marx mused about meeting Vandross at the American Music Awards in 1990, while they were both touring. “You meet somebody and … ‘I could hang with this guy,’” he recalled of his early impressions of the R&B legend. “Then when we both came off the road, we went to dinner and he offered to sing background vocals on my record I was making” — 1991’s Rush Street, whose lead single, “Keep Coming Back,” with prominent runs by Vandross, hit No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
“I said at the dinner, ‘Dude, that’s like if I was having dinner with Michael Jordan and I said, ‘You know … me and my buddies play pick-up basketball in the park on Sundays,’ and Michael Jordan said, ‘Do you need somebody for your team?’ ”
Ultimately, “He was just my pal,” Marx said of Vandross, who passed in 2005. “We spent a lot more time watching movies, going to dinner, just driving around. I was in love with his voice, as everybody was, but I just miss him. He was the funniest guy — hilarious. I just miss my friend. My memories of Luther are, 99%: We were bros.”
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Roberta Flack, who died on Feb. 24 at age 88, by looking at the singer’s second of three No. 1 hits as a recording artist: the instant standard “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” (In case you missed it, here’s a look at her first No. 1, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”)
Roberta Flack could have brought a book or a magazine to read on an American Airlines flight from L.A. back home to New York in 1972. She could have watched the in-flight movie or even taken a nap. Let’s all be grateful that she instead chose to listen to the in-flight audio program, which included a pretty pop/folk ballad recorded by a then-20-year-old singer named Lori Lieberman.
Trending on Billboard
Flack scanned the list of audio selections and learned that the composition, “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” was written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. Gimbel was then best-known for writing English-language lyrics to such global hits as “The Girl From Ipanema” and “I Will Wait for You”; Fox for creating the sunshine pop musical backgrounds on the hit ABC show Love, American Style.
“The title, of course, smacked me in the face,” Flack later said. “I immediately pulled out some scratch paper, made musical staves [and then] play[ed] the song at least eight to 10 times jotting down the melody that I heard. When I landed, I immediately called Quincy [Jones] at his house and asked him how to meet Charles Fox. Two days later I had the music.”
By most accounts, the song was inspired by Lieberman seeing Don McLean perform at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles in November 1971. McLean’s “American Pie” entered the Billboard Hot 100 that month (on its way to No. 1 in January 1972), but Lieberman was more taken by another song in the set, the haunting ballad “Empty Chairs.” The singer jotted some notes and impressions on a napkin. She later described the experience, and how deeply it affected her, to Gimbel, with whom she was working at the time. (Gimbel and Fox had signed her to a five-year production, recording and publishing deal.)
Lieberman’s description reminded Gimbel of a phrase that was already in his idea notebook: “to kill us softly with some blues.” The phrase had appeared five years earlier in a novel by Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar and Gimbel thought it had possibilities. Gimbel drew from Lieberman’s account, crafted the lyrics, and passed them on to Fox, who set them to faintly melancholy music.
Lieberman did not receive a co-writing credit on the song. There is even a dispute over whether, and to what degree, the song was inspired by McLean’s performance. When Dan MacIntosh of Songfacts asked Fox in 2010 about the McLean origin story, Fox said: “I think it’s called an urban legend. It really didn’t happen that way.”
Lieberman had a falling out with Gimbel (who died in 2018) and Fox (who is still living at 84). This backstage drama is intriguing, but mostly irrelevant to the story of Flack’s recording, which quickly became one of the biggest and best (and most celebrated) singles of its era.
Jones, who died less than four months ago, played a key role in this story a second time. In September 1972, Flack was opening for Jones at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Flack was red-hot at the time, having landed million-sellers that year with the classic ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and the ebullient “Where Is the Love,” a silky duet with Donny Hathaway.
When the audience at the Greek kept cheering, Jones advised her to go back out and sing one more song. “Well, I have this new song I’ve been working on,” Flack replied. “After I finished [‘Killing Me Softly’], the audience would not stop screaming. And Quincy said, ‘Ro, don’t sing that daggone song no more until you record it.’”
As usual, Jones’ instincts were correct. Flack recorded the song on Nov. 17, 1972 at Atlantic Studios in New York. Flack arranged the track, Joel Dorn produced it and Gene Paul engineered. Flack also played piano on the track, while Hathaway contributed harmony vocals. The other musicians were Eric Gale (guitars), Ron Carter (bass), Grady Tate (drums); and Ralph MacDonald (congas, percussion, tambourine).
Flack completely transformed the song. Lieberman’s version of the song, produced by Gimbel and Fox and arranged and conducted by Fox, is pretty, but rather bland. Her version plays like a very good demo, which is essentially what it was.
Flack boldly restructured the song. Her recording has a cold open on the chorus “Strummin’ my pain…” Lieberman’s version opens with a long, moody piano solo (which sounds like it could have been featured in Love Story, one of the biggest movies of the era). Then she sings the first verse, only hitting the “Strummin’ my pain” chorus at the 0:51 mark.
Flack also transformed the song from a pop/folk tune to one that drew from a wide range of American music forms – pop, soul and jazz. A 25-second section, which doesn’t appear at all in the Lieberman version, borrows from the scatting tradition. Lieberman’s version ends with a 40-second instrumental outro. In Flack’s version, she is singing until the final note. And Flack sings the song with more passion, bringing out all the drama of the key line, “I felt he found my letters/ and Read Each One Out Loud!”
Flack’s transformation of this song was as complete as Aretha Franklin’s reinvention of Otis Redding’s “Respect” or Ike & Tina Turner’s re-imagining of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” All three remakes show the power of interpretation – just as Lieberman’s largely unsung involvement in the song’s creation shows the importance of inspiration.
“Killing Me Softly” runs 4:46, longer than any other No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in 1973. But it doesn’t seem long or padded as it seamlessly moves from section to section.
Fox has suggested that Flack’s version was more successful than Lieberman’s because Flack’s “version was faster and she gave it a strong backbeat that wasn’t in the original.” According to Flack: “My classical background made it possible for me to try a number of things with [the song’s arrangement]. I changed parts of the chord structure and chose to end on a major chord. [The song] wasn’t written that way.”
Flack’s version was released as a single on Jan. 22, 1973, with a version of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” (drawn from her 1970 album Chapter Two) on the B-side.
It was the top new entry on the Hot 100 (at No. 54) on the chart dated Jan. 27. It reached No. 1 on Feb. 24, displacing Elton John’s first Hot 100 No. 1, “Crocodile Rock.” “Killing Me Softly” reached the top spot in just five weeks, the fastest climb since Sly & the Family Stone’s “Family Affair” also reached No. 1 in its fifth week in December 1971. “Killing Me Softly” held tight in the top spot for four weeks before being bumped to No. 2 by The O’Jays’ exuberant “Love Train.”
But “Killing Me Softly” wasn’t done yet. It returned to the top spot for a fifth and final week before being dislodged for a second time by Vicki Lawrence’s “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Flack’s five-week run at No. 1 was the longest by any single in 1973.
Flack was a perfectionist, which came into play here in at least two ways. Flack rehearsed the song with her band in the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, but she wasn’t satisfied with the background vocals on the various mixes. An executive at Flack’s label, Atlantic Records, assured her it would be a hit song no matter which mix was released. She refused to be rushed, recalling later that she “wanted to be satisfied with that record more than anything else.”
Also, Flack didn’t release an album with “Killing Me Softly” until Aug. 1, 1973, more than six months after the single’s release. That delay must have been agonizing for Atlantic executives. The album, with the shortened title Killing Me Softly, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in September 1973. It would almost certainly have been a No. 1 album if it had been released while the single was being played every hour on the hour on every pop, soul and adult contemporary radio station in the land.
Flack followed “Killing Me Softly With His Song” with a slow and somber Janis Ian ballad, “Jesse.” It stalled at No. 30 on the Hot 100.
At the Grammy Awards on March 2, 1974, Flack became the first artist to win record of the year two years running, after taking home the award in 1973 for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” When Diana Ross announced her as the 1974 winner, a dazed Flack put her hand over her mouth. When she spoke, she simply said, “I’d like to thank the world.” (Since 1974, just two other artists have won back-to-back Grammys for record of the year: U2 triumphed in 2001-02 with “Beautiful Day” and “Walk On,” while Billie Eilish scored in 2020-21 with “Bad Guy” and “Everything I Wanted.”)
Flack won a second Grammy for “Killing Me Softly” – best pop vocal performance, female. (She probably should have won a third, best arrangement accompanying vocalists, but she wasn’t even nominated for that one.) The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Killing Me Softly was also nominated for album of the year (losing to Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions). It marked the first time in Grammy history that Black lead artists won album of the year and record of the year in the same year. Gimbel and Fox won song of the year for writing the song.
Flack re-recorded the song with Peabo Bryson on their 1980 double live album Live & More (its title borrowed from Donna Summer’s 1978 collection).
Many other artists have recorded the song over the years, including Johnny Mathis, on his 1973 album Killing Me Softly With Her Song; Al B. Sure!, on his 1988 album In Effect Mode; and Luther Vandross, on his hit 1994 collection Songs.
Fugees recorded an updated, but still faithful and deeply respectful version of “Killing Me Softly” (they shortened the title) on their second album, The Score, in 1996. Group member Pras made the suggestion to cover the song, which showcased Lauryn Hill on lead vocals.
The song reached No. 1 on both the Pop Airplay and R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts and No. 2 on Radio Songs. It likely would have been one of the year’s biggest Hot 100 hits were it not for rules at the time disqualifying songs not given an official single release. The track won a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a duo/group and an MTV Video Music Award for best R&B video. Flack and Fugees teamed to perform the song on the MTV Movie Awards on June 8, 1996.
Flack’s original track was remixed in 1996 by Jonathan Peters, with Flack adding some new vocal flourishes; this version topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart in September 1996.
Flack returned to the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 for a third and final time in 1974 with the silky “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” But let’s save that story for the next Forever No. 1 installment.
Bad Bunny earns a second No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart from Debí Tirar Más Fotos album, and his 27th overall, as “Baile Inolvidable” rises 3-1 on the chart dated March 1. The tropical song follows two-week champ “El Clúb” (Feb. 8-15 charts).
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“Baile Inolvidable” rolls into the top spot on the overall Latin Airplay chart thanks to 8.3 million audience impressions earned in the U.S. during the Feb. 14-20 tracking week, according to Luminate. It scores an 11% boost from the week prior. The song ejects Myke Towers’ “Otra Noche,” featuring Darell, from the lead (falling to No. 2 with 7.8 million audience, down less than 1%)
Trending on Billboard
“El Clúb,” the first single from his No. 1 album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, continues its run in the top 10, falling 4-10. Meanwhile, Benito has a third song in the region, as his collab with Rauw Alejandro, “Que Pasaria…,” jumps 8-4.
Bad Bunny, who first led Latin Airplay in February 2018, has managed to place at least two No. 1s every year since, with 2020 marking his most rewarding year, placing six rulers then. As Bad Bunny’s collection grows, here’s a look at the number of chart-toppers during his seven-year No. 1 career:
2018, three2019, four2020, six2021, three2022, three2023, four2024, two2025, two (so far)
Beyond its Latin Airplay coronation, the tropical “Baile Inolvidable” ranks a second week at No. 1 on Tropical Airplay. It also adds a seventh week at No. 2 on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which blends airplay, digital sales and streaming data into its formula. There, it takes the Greatest Gainer/Sales honors, with a 2% gain in sales, to 500, which moves it 3-2 on Latin Digital Song Sales. Not the same luck in streaming activity, as the song registers 11.3 million official U.S. streams, translating to an 11% dip in clicks for the tracking week.
Great Strides for Maluma & Fuerza Regida: Elsewhere on the Latin charts, Maluma adds a 13th No. 1 on Latin Pop Airplay with “Cosas Pendiente,” his first champ in over two years. The song improves thanks to 12% gain in audience impressions, to 6.4 million. The song, written by Maluma alongside Edgar Barrera, Keityn, and Casta, is a warm nod to his day-one fans and the first single from upcoming +Pretty +Dirty album.
Fuerza Regida’s “Por Esos Ojos” becomes the biggest streaming gainer on Hot Latin Songs thanks to an 183% gain to 9.2 million official U.S. streams logged during the tracking week, which yields a No. 5 start on Latin Streaming Songs. The song, released Feb. 11, surges 25 ranks, from No. 30 to No. 5 for the group’s 11th top 10 on the multi-metric chart.
The second season of Netflix’s XO, Kitty makes major waves on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind (a Songtradr company), for January 2025, led by Jung Kook’s “Seven” at No. 1.
Rankings for the Top TV Songs chart are based on song and show data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of January 2025.
Jung Kook’s “Seven,” which features Latto, enjoyed a synch in the eighth and final episode of XO, Kitty’s second season, which premiered alongside the other seven episodes on Jan. 16. In fact, it’s one of two songs from that eighth episode; ENHYPEN’s “XO (Only If You Say Yes)” bows at No. 9.
Trending on Billboard
“Seven” earned 12.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams in January 2025 en route to its Top TV Songs coronation, according to Luminate. The tune became Jung Kook’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 when it reigned for a week in July 2023 (it’s also Latto’s lone ruler to date).
In all, XO, Kitty boasts half of Top TV Songs’ 10 positions for January 2025. Chappell Roan’s “Picture You” is the next biggest at No. 3 (10.1 million streams), followed by Dua Lipa’s “Illusion” at No. 5 (5.9 million streams, 1,000 downloads).
Stay tuned for more potential XO, Kitty entries on the chart; the show was renewed in February for a third season.
The top non-XO, Kitty entry for January 2025 belongs to Apple TV+’s Severance, which returned for its second season beginning last month, with one episode premiering each week. It’s The Who’s “Eminence Front” that appears on the survey, entering at No. 2 via 3 million streams and 1,000 downloads after being heard in the third episode (Jan. 31).
“Eminence Front” peaked at No. 68 on the Hot 100 in January 1983.
See the full top 10, which also features music from Will Trent, The Recruit, Landman and High Potential, below.
Rank, Song, Artist, Show (Network)1. “Seven,” Jung Kook feat. Latto, XO, Kitty (Netflix)2. “Eminence Front,” The Who, Severance (Apple TV+)3. “Picture You,” Chappell Roan, XO, Kitty (Netflix)4. “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” Paul Simon, Will Trent (ABC)5. “Illusion,” Dua Lipa, XO, Kitty (Netflix)6. “BILLIE EILISH.,” Armani White, The Recruit (Netflix)7. “Blue Collar,” Drayton Farley, Landman (Paramount+)8. “Pretty Wings (Uncut),” Maxwell, High Potential (ABC)9. “XO (Only If You Say Yes),” ENHYPEN, XO, Kitty (Netflix)10. “Got Me Started,” Troye Sivan, XO, Kitty (Netflix)
Shaboozey orders up a 35th frame atop Billboard’s multi-metric Hot Country Songs chart with his crossover smash, “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
As it holds atop the tally dated March 1, the track breaks out of a tie with Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road,” which led for 34 frames in 2017, to become the sole longest-leading title by a single act since Hot Country Songs became the genre’s singular songs ranking in 1958. Overall, only Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s duet “Meant to Be” has led longer: for 50 weeks, beginning in December 2017.
“A Bar Song” totaled 59.8 million in all-format airplay audience, 16.2 million official U.S. streams and 4,000 sold Feb. 14-20, according to Luminate.
The track, co-written by the Virginian (born Collins Obinna Chibueze), first hit the Hot Country Songs summit last May. It also logged a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and a record-shattering 27 weeks atop the all-format Radio Songs chart.
Trending on Billboard
“A Bar Song (Tipsy),” on American Dogwood/EMPIRE, with country radio promotion by Magnolia Music, additionally ruled Country Airplay for seven weeks beginning last August, the longest reign for an artist’s initial entry on the chart. Plus, it became the first song to crossover to the top five, or even top 10, on Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay.
Meanwhile, when “A Bar Song” initially reached the Hot Country Songs apex, it dethroned Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” marking the first time that two Black artists have led the list back-to-back.
Here’s a look at the 10 longest-leading No. 1s on Hot Country Songs (since 1958):
50 weeks, “Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line, starting December 201735 weeks, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey, May 202434 weeks, “Body Like a Back Road,” Sam Hunt, February 201727 weeks, “I Hope,” Gabby Barrett, July 202025 weeks, “Last Night,” Morgan Wallen, February 202324 weeks, “Fancy Like,” Walker Hayes, July 202124 weeks, “Cruise,” Florida Georgia Line, December 201221 weeks, “10,000 Hours,” Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber, October 201920 weeks, “I Remember Everything,” Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves, September 202319 weeks, “You Proof,” Morgan Wallen, May 202219 weeks, “The Bones,” Maren Morris, March 202019 weeks, “Walk On By,” Leroy Van Dyke, September 1961
After his year-long feud with Kendrick Lamar shook the music world, everyone was waiting on what it would look and sound like when Drake made his proper return to music — not with just a feature appearance or a data dump, but with a full new project. And now we (mostly) have our answer: the rapper released $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, an LP-length teamup with OVO labelmate and longtime collaborator PartyNextDoor, on Valentine’s Day.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The largely R&B-flavored set — though its two best-performing (and Billboard Hot 100 top 10-debuting) tracks so far, “Gimme a Hug” (No. 6) and “Nokia” (No. 10), are more hip-hop and pop, respectively — debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week, with 246,000 units moved in its first frame. That’s a career-best number for PND, though below Drake’s last couple projects, including 2022’s Her Loss with 21 Savage.
Trending on Billboard
How should Drake feel about his comeback numbers? And what does all of it mean for PartyNextDoor? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
1. PartyNextDoor & Drake debut at No. 1 this week with 246,000 first-week units for their joint $ome $exy $ongs 4 U set. Is that number higher, lower or about where you would have expected before the project’s release?
Kyle Denis: It’s a bit lower than I expected. Granted this isn’t a solo rap-forward Drake project, so I wasn’t expecting astronomically high numbers, but I definitely expected them to pretty easily clear 250,000 units. Party was one of two artists to send a 2024 R&B album to the Billboard 200’s top 10 last year – and he didn’t have the Super Bowl in his back pocket; Drake has proven time and time again that he can score an eye-popping opening week. This final tally isn’t a disaster by any means, but it does leave a bit more to be desired considering how long we’ve known this was coming and the fact that it’s Drizzy’s first post-beef project.
Carl Lamarre: It’s slightly less than what I expected. I thought they would have hoovered between 275,000 and 300,000. Either way, a win is a win, and this was a colossal one for the OVO Gang because of the milestones achieved during this stretch. Drake earned his record-tying 14th No. 1 album, placing him in a rarified position with Jay-Z and Taylor Swift, while PND clinched his first-ever chart-topper. It is a gratifying feat, one they should be proud of.
Jason Lipshutz: A little bit higher, especially considering that $$$4U is not a new Drake album but a full-length R&B collaboration, with an artist who is well-known but has never topped the Billboard 200 himself. The closest analog to this project is 2022’s Her Loss alongside 21 Savage, which debuted with 404,000 equivalent album units — but that was a hip-hop album, with a more established star, and did not follow months of diss tracks aimed at Drake’s way. All things considered, this new album bowing with nearly a quarter-million first-week units is highly impressive.
Michael Saponara: It’s probably about where I thought. I projected around 250,000 to 300,000 so it came in around what I expected without having any sort of lead single. It’s a solid number.
Andrew Unterberger: Probably a little higher. Honestly if I was Drake, I’d be prepared to celebrate any chart-topping debut week in the six digits, so for his final number to start with a “2” I think is a pretty strong performance. It’s not 2015 Drake numbers, of course, but it’s just not 2015 Drake anymore.
2. Drake obviously has more at stake with this album, as his first following his endlessly publicized Kendrick Lamar debut, than his collaborator. On a scale from 1-10, how happy do you think he should be with the set’s first-week performance?
Kyle Denis: 7. These first-week numbers prove that, despite what the most overzealous observers say, Drake’s career is far from dead. He comfortably cleared the six-figure mark, charted every song on the Hot 100 and landed two solo top 10 debuts. He also gave his protégé his first No. 1 album and tied the record for most Billboard 200 chart-toppers among soloists (14). Those are undoubtedly wins, and pretty indisputable ones at that.
Now, when these numbers are contextualized within Drake’s career and recent commercial performance, the cracks start to show a bit. $$$4U boasts the lowest opening-week of Drizzy’s career outside of a pandemic-era collection of loosies, a dance album, a pre-pandemic collection of previously leaked tracks and So Far Gone (his last independent release). What’s more? There’s a 100,000+ unit gap between $$$4U and What a Time to Be Alive, the Drake project with the next-highest opening week total. There’s also the fact that Drake – who we used to be able to count on to clog the Hot 100’s top 10 after an album release – could only muster up two top 10 debuts on that chart from this set, both of which were blocked by a whopping four different Kendrick Lamar songs.
Carl Lamarre: Echoing my thoughts from answer 1, about a 5. Sure, he notched his 14th No. 1 album, but his performance was somewhat pedestrian aside from “Gimme a Hug” and “Nokia.” It’s bemusing and, frankly, kind of crazy that we didn’t get more of PND on this album, especially since we were promised a joint effort. Six solo Drake records made this project a bit bloated, and it doesn’t help that PARTY’s lone solo record, “Deeper,” trounces most of them. Either way, Drake is one album away from toppling his GOAT, Jay-Z, for the most No. 1 albums ever for a rapper.
Jason Lipshutz: An 8. Even as a side quest rather than a traditional solo album, $$$4U had a lot riding on it for Drake, as his first commercial bid following months of Kendrick Lamar, and seemingly the entire Internet, dunking on him. Yes, Drake would still be a star, but how big of a star would he be considered if this project was DOA from a charts perspective? Luckily for him, the album still notched a No. 1 debut with a sizable equivalent album units number, and launched every track onto the Hot 100, included a pair of songs in the top 10. Even if $$$4U doesn’t reach the commercial highs of his heyday, it represents another win, and a huge sigh of relief.
Michael Saponara: I think about a 6.5. 246,000 units is nothing to sneeze at, but for Drake, that’s just another day at the office. It’s a noticeable but expected dip from the about 400,000 first-week units For All The Dogs and Her Loss did earlier in the decade. Playing the numbers game, fans’ eyes turned to the battle with Kendrick Lamar’s GNX posting a 317,000-unit first week last year, so if Drake could’ve raced past that, I think $$$4U’s sales would’ve been looked upon with more reverence.
Andrew Unterberger: A 7 feels right. It’d probably be an eight or higher if Kendrick wasn’t still in the midst of his latest victory lap, but given that he still has four of the top five songs in the country right now while Drake couldn’t get higher than No. 6 on the Hot 100 in his debut week definitely taints the triumph a little. But generally speaking, this is about as good a first week for this album as Drake reasonably could’ve hoped for in 2025.
3. The big initial breakout this from the set are “Gimme a Hug” and “Nokia,” which debut at No. 6 and No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Does either of them seem like a likely breakout hit from the project — or do you have your eye on something else from the set?
Kyle Denis: If it’s not “Nokia,” it’s not likely to be anything else barring a random unforeseen TikTok trend. Between the namechecks, the beat switch, the “Babygworllll” ad-lib and its overall pop appeal, “Nokia” should be Drake’s ticket to a legitimate post-beef solo hit.
Carl Lamarre: From a rapping standpoint, I enjoyed “Gimme a Hug” a lot. It had hints of “Family Matters” regarding his flow and delivery. Drake’s lyrical execution was top-notch, and the production was of A-1 quality. Despite the high praise there, “Nokia” is looking like a runaway hit. The internet is salivating over this record, and it has virality potential, as it’s already causing a tizzy on social media. While the production is reminiscent of Honestly Nevermind, the energy and rap cadence have some “Nice for What” elements in there, too. Also, is it just me, or does “Nokia” — especially the record’s second half — remind anyone of Kanye’s “Stronger?”
Jason Lipshutz: “Nokia” is the one. More than its luxurious beat and that ad-jingle hook that snakes through its first half, the song features Drake sounding playful, which has become an increasingly rare occurrence in his catalog. Some of us grew up on Actually Fun Drake Songs, and having a new one — buried in the back half of $$$4U, but discovered by enough listeners to become a quickly growing hit — is a gift worth cherishing.
Michael Saponara: Both should be hits, in my opinion, and show Drake’s range as an artist. On the other hand, my two favorite songs on the album being a pop song and a rap song doesn’t exactly bode well for a 21-track R&B album that arrived on Valentine’s Day. it appears the label is going with “Gimme A Hug” as the spicy record was serviced to radio, but I think “Nokia” seems to be the track people are championing. It was nice to hear Drake having fun again.
Andrew Unterberger: “Nokia,” “Nokia,” “Nokia,” “Nokia,” “Nokia,” “Nokia.” The previous standard bearer for 2020s Drake pop songs actually as fun and exciting as his best 2010s singles had been For All the Dogs‘ “Rich Baby Daddy,” but this one trumps even that SZA- and Sexyy Red-featuring hit. I’ve had about four different hooks from it stuck in my head on loop over the past week and a half — a couple from Drake, and a couple from U.K. producer / hook provider Elkan (where the hell has this guy been?) It seems primed to be Drake’s biggest breakout pop hit in a long time, and even if it doesn’t have the juice to go the distance, it’s so important that he reminded us that this is something he still has in his toolkit, even without a big-name assist.
4. While the set the best-debuting of PartyNextDoor’s career, he’s not on either of the biggest-debuting tracks, and he often seems like an afterthought in discussion of it. What, if anything, do you think the album’s debut performance means for his own career?
Kyle Denis: Party will come out of this with a No. 1 album, and that’s something no one can take away from him. It’s also something that wasn’t necessarily a guarantee before $$$4U arrived, so I won’t discount that win. I don’t know if this means anything for his career outside of that though, especially considering $$$4U doesn’t hit nearly the same highs as his own P4. Given that $$$4U was immediately positioned as Drake’s primary vehicle to regain his cultural and commercial footing post-beef, the album never really had a chance to exist as a sincere moment of collaboration. At absolute best, this album should get more eyes and ears on Party’s music ahead of whatever else he has planned for 2025.
Carl Lamarre: It’s crazy to think PARTY’s first No. 1 came in this fashion. Throughout his career, he’s proven to be a precocious songwriter, capable of stringing together hit records in a flash. Whether it was Rihanna’s “Work” or DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts,” nobody ever questioned PND’s pen game, but for whatever reason, it never translated into equivalent solo success commercially. Still, the tide is turning, and for the better: Seeing him finally land his first top 10 on the Billboard 200 with PND4 last year to now securing his first No. 1 is very promising. With him embarking on his headlining tour and hitting the festival circuit last year, he is embracing his stardom way more than in years past. This could be the start of something more and bigger for the R&B lothario. The future looks bright.
Jason Lipshutz: Sure, the focus is on Drake when it comes to $$$4U, as it was always going to be. That doesn’t mean PartyNextDoor shouldn’t enjoy standing side-by-side with one of the biggest artists of the century on a full-length, or notching the first No. 1 album of his career. While OVO diehards have long embraced PND, the R&B star undoubtedly expanded his audience with this project, which features his typically strong crooning without any of the cultural baggage that his cohort has to deal with. It’s a low-risk, high-reward position, and Party should savor it.
Michael Saponara: Yeah, this definitely felt like a Drake album with PartyNextDoor serving as a supporting actor. I still think it’s a great achievement for PND to be part of a No. 1 album and get to enjoy the success of this moment while delivering on a joint project with one of his mentors and someone fans have been dying for him to work with more often. This should only build off the momentum PND had with P4 last year, but let’s hope he doesn’t go into hiding for a very long stretch so he can continue to parlay his wins.
Andrew Unterberger: More people know PND’s name than did a month ago, and he gets some nice chart wins and streaming numbers out of it. Aside from that stuff, I doubt this album ends up meaning much for his career at all.
5. Drake would obviously love at this point to put the entire Kendrick Lamar feud of the past year behind him and resume his status as one of the top dogs in both hip-hop and pop. Do you think when all is said and done with this album, he will be closer to that goal, further away from it, or at about the same distance?
Kyle Denis: Unless “Nokia” turns into a multi-week No. 1 smash, probably about the same distance. $$$4U likely won’t produce even a fraction of the smashes that GNX has, which it needs to do since the album hasn’t exactly been exalted by either critics or fans. And we still haven’t gotten a solo rap project from Drake yet – that will be the real test anyway.
Carl Lamarre: Hate to be the numbers guy — but musically, this album did nothing to further his career from that standpoint. The gaudy stat and win here is No. 15. Chasing immortality. That should be on Drake’s mind. I’m not saying continue to make lackluster music: “Gimme a Hug,” “Nokia,” “Spiderman Superman,” “When He’s Gone” and “Die Trying” show that the Drake we very much loved and adored the last 15 summers still exists. But if I’m him, I’m thinking bigger, because numbers aren’t fickle. Fans will change, but his place in history won’t — not after landing No. 15 sometime this year with this upcoming solo album.
Jason Lipshutz: About the same distance. While $$$4U should be regarded as a commercial success, it’s also not going to convince any hip-hop fans who sided with Kendrick Lamar that Drake responded with a strong counterpunch; similarly, it’s not a bomb, or backwards step, that diminishes Drake’s current standing within the mainstream. Maybe he goes for the gusto on his next proper album, but for now, I’d guess that $$$4U will amount to Drake holding serve.
Michael Saponara: About the same distance. I thought an R&B album with Party was a good move to distance himself from the battle while utilizing a different weapon in his repertoire. It only would’ve put him further away if the project completely flopped, which it didn’t, and moved him closer to that goal if it had one or two no-doubt smash hits that have him looking down at Kendrick on the charts instead of looking up like he has for much of the last year, and that doesn’t appear to be the case for now either. I ultimately think Drake should be judged much harsher in this discussion when it comes to the rollout of his next solo rap album.
Andrew Unterberger: A little closer, I think. The vultures would’ve been circling if this project had flopped outright, and while we can argue what level of success this was by his standards, a first week in the 200,000s for a hip-hop/R&B album is no flop in 2025. So at the very least, Drake has established he’s not dead and buried as a hitmaker as previously speculated — particularly because it seems like “Nokia” does have some amount of life outside of the project. Now, it’s just a question of what he does next.
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late Roberta Flack by looking at the first of her three Hot 100-toppers: Her singularly exquisite and rapturous reading of the folk ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“When you express your feelings about the first time you ever see a great love, you don’t rush the story,” the legendary Roberta Flack told Songwriter Universe in 2020 — a sentiment applicable to her breakthrough rendition of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in multiple ways.
Trending on Billboard
One is that the song certainly took its time catching on commercially. Flack, who died on Monday (Feb. 24) at age 88, had shown prodigious musical talent as a vocalist and pianist from an early age, becoming one of the youngest Howard University students ever when she was accepted to the HBCU at age 15. By the late 1960s, she was already both a music teacher and a live performer of some renown, setting up residence as the in-house singer at the D.C. restaurant and jazz club Mr. Henry’s — where she was discovered by American jazz great Les McCann, who immediately hooked her up with Atlantic Records. An album was quickly recorded and released: 1969’s First Take, an eclectic and inspired debut whose centerpiece was its soulful rendering of the ’50s folk song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
Initially, the song went nowhere. It was not even released as a single originally, with the label instead opting to release a split of her funky version of McCann’s jazz standard “Compared to What” and a more meditative cover of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s ballad “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” But that single also caught little mainstream attention, and the critically well-received First Take debuted at an underwhelming No. 195 on the Billboard 200 dated Jan. 31, 1970, held at that position for a second week, then dropped off the chart altogether. Flack’s next two albums, 1970’s Chapter Two and 1971’s Quiet Fire, would fare better, both reaching the top 40 — and by the latter’s release, Flack had also found Hot 100 success as a partner with Atlantic labelmate Donny Hathaway, with their duet on the Carole King-penned “You’ve Got a Friend” peaking at No. 29 on the chart in August ’71, just two weeks after James Taylor’s version topped the ranking.
But it was “The First Time” that would, belatedly, mark Flack’s true commercial breakthrough. In October 1971, the recording was featured — in full — during a love montage from the movie Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood’s proto-erotic thriller directorial debut. The film was only a modest hit, but its use of “First Time” made for arguably its most striking moment: Two-thirds of the way through the movie, which predominantly focuses on Eastwood’s radio DJ character David seducing and then being stalked by overzealous fan Evelyn (Jessica Walter), the movie takes a long break from the mounting tension to feature David rekindling his romance with on-and-off girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills). The sequence, of long walks on the beach and through the woods, of making love by the fire and in the grass and even of skinny dipping in the brook, could easily have been mawkish and eye-rolling — but soundtracked by the spellbinding “Face,” it instead served as the film’s emotional climax, and increased public demand for the song to the point where it was finally released as a single, three calendar years after first appearing on First Take.
The other way that Flack certainly didn’t rush the story of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was in her version’s peculiar arrangement, and its decidedly nontraditional vocal interpretation. Dozens of “First Time”s had already been released by the time of Flack’s spin — dating back to when British songwriter Ewan MacColl first penned the song for Peggy Seeger (half-sister of Pete) to sing back in 1957 — but most of them ran somewhere in the two-to-three-minute range, moving briskly from one verse to the next. Flack slowed the song’s tempo to a candlelit crawl, let the bookending instrumental section stretch out at both ends, and sunk her teeth so deep into the vocal that she turned it from a love song into something more closely resembling a choral hymn.
By the time she was done with it, the album version ran nearly five-and-a-half minutes; producer Joel Dorn asked in vain for her to quicken and tighten it up, saying there was no way the song would become a hit in its current state. “Of course he was right,” Flack would later comment, “until Clint got it.” Still, when Eastwood first reached out to Flack to use her song, she assumed she would need to re-record a peppier version to make it more soundtrack-ready — this was still the era of Paul Newman and Katharine Ross frolicking on a bicycle to “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” Eastwood, a jazz aficionado and part-time musician himself, instead assured her that he wanted the song exactly as it was.
In truth, once you hear Roberta Flack’s take on “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” it’s close to impossible to imagine it any other way. Upon entering the song with the title phrase — nearly 40 seconds in, after the fire is lit by some gentle acoustic strumming and atmospheric cymbal brushing — Flack immediately makes the song her own. While most previous renditions had essentially combined “First Time” into a quick “firstime,” Flack takes great pains to enunciate each “t” — “The firsT… Time….” — and then lingers on each word of “…ever I saw your face…” about a half-beat longer than you’d expect, letting the phrase spill all over the measure, in a way that no doubt infuriated those who’d later transcribe it to sheet music.
Flack’s voice at first is mighty but restrained. By the end of the second line, however — “I thought the sun roooose in yoouuuurrrr eyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeees” — she’s in full flight, with a soaring, piercing delivery that fully catches the epiphany of the moment. But by the third line, “And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave,” she’s already pulling back a little in the smiling afterglow — and by the final line, “To the dark and endless skies… my love…” it’s back to an intimate near-hush. It’s a whole emotional journey and narrative arc in the course of of one compact verse — well, compact in the number of words, though Flack’s vocal contortions stretch the four lines (with one repetition) out to a minute-21 run time.
And so “The First Time” goes for its five-plus minutes. It’s not hard to understand Dorn’s instinctive commercial hesitation with the recording: Not only is it molasses-slow and Led Zeppelin-long, but the structuring of “First Time” is absurdly unconventional for a pop song. It’s just three nearly identical verses and no chorus, with minimal band backing, and only two total mentions of the full title phrase — one at the beginning and one at the end. There’s no particular hook or refrain to speak of, either vocally or instrumentally, and no attention-grabbing shifts in dynamics, no swelling orchestral climax or show-stopping closing vocal runs. Anchored by anything less than one of the great vocal performances in all of 20th century popular music, “First Time” should have been a complete nonstarter on the charts.
But, well, guess what. Flack renders “First Time” with a painter’s detail and a preacher’s passion, a vocal of absolutely disarming clarity and unnervingly visceral feeling. Her vocal elevates the song far beyond even its folk roots to something far more traditional, a canticle, a spiritual. (Flack has referred to the song as “second only to ‘Amazing Grace’” in its perfection.) The song reflects the ecstasy and fulfillment of romantic and sexual union no problem, but also feels like it has its sights set on capturing something even deeper, more elemental — despite the song’s obvious references to physical love (“the first time ever I kissed your mouth,” “the first time ever I lay with you”), Flack said she connected with the song due to its universality, feeling it could just as easily be about “the love of a mother for a child, for example.” Her later-revealed claim that her performance on the record was most directly inspired by her love for her recently deceased pet cat feels so unexpected that it almost has to be true.
Billboard Hot 100
Billboard
It’s not surprising that Flack’s “First Time” would absolutely knock viewers sideways when showcased — again, in its 5:22 entirety, almost like a mid-movie music video — during such a sentimental stretch of Play Misty for Me. Consumers and radio programmers snapped up the single (with a minute lopped off its runtime, mostly taken from its ends) upon its early 1972 release; the song debuted at No. 77 on the Hot 100 dated March 4, and topped the charts just six weeks later, knocking off America’s three-week No. 1 “A Horse With No Name.” It topped the listing for six weeks total — making for both a rapid rise and a long reign by early-’70s standards — before giving way to another slow song: The Chi-Lites’ “Oh Girl.”
The song would ultimately top the year-end Hot 100 for 1972, and establish Flack as a commercial powerhouse for the era; First Take even re-entered the Billboard 200 shortly after and topped the listing itself for five weeks. It ended up being perfect prelude for the April ’72 release of Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, her first full LP alongside Hathaway, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the top five hit “Where Is the Love?,” soon a signature song for the duo. Flack’s triumphant 1972 was later commemorated at the 1973 Grammys, where “First Time” took home both record and song of the year, and “Love” also captured best vocal performance by a duo, group or chorus.
Flack would go on to have many more hits — including two further No. 1s across the next two years — and escape what could have been a rather intimidating shadow cast by her breakout smash with impressive ease. But as far as her legacy goes as both a vocalist and a musical interpreter, she may have never topped “The First Time,” simply one of the most transcendent and timeless bondings of singer with song in all of popular music. “I wish more songs I had chosen had moved me the way that one did,” she told The Telegraph in 2015. “I’ve loved every song I’ve recorded, but that one was pretty special.”
Drake and PartyNextDoor blast onto the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated March 1), thanks to the pair’s new collaborative album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.
The set debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 246,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (Feb. 14-20), according to Luminate. PartyNextDoor earns his first leader, while Drake adds his 14th, tying Jay-Z for the most among rappers. He also joins Jay-Z and Taylor Swift for the most No. 1s among soloists; among all acts, only the Beatles have more, with 19.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
All 21 songs from the project debut on the Hot 100, including two solo-billed Drake tracks in the top 10: “Gimme a Hug” (No. 6) and “Nokia” (No. 10). Below is a recap.
Trending on Billboard
Rank, Artist Billing, Title:
No. 6, Drake, “Gimme a Hug”
No. 10, Drake, “Nokia”
No. 18, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “CN Tower”
No. 21, PartyNextDoor, Drake & Yebba, “Die Trying”
No. 26, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Something About You”
No. 29, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Moth Balls”
No. 30, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Somebody Loves Me”
No. 31, PartyNextDoor, “Deeper”
No. 35, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Spider-Man Superman”
No. 37, Drake, “Crying in Chanel”
No. 40, Drake, “Small Town Fame”
No. 43, Drake, “Raining in Houston”
No. 45, Pimmie, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Pimmie’s Dilemma”
No. 47, Drake, “Brian Steel”
No. 60, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Lasers”
No. 63, PartyNextDoor, Drake & Chino Pacas, “Meet Your Padre”
No. 66, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Celibacy”
No. 70, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Greedy”
No. 73, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “When He’s Gone”
No. 74, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “OMW”
No. 83, PartyNextDoor & Drake, “Glorious”
Thanks to 20 new entries on the chart (one song, “Deeper,” is credited solely to PartyNextDoor), Drake extends several of his historic records on the Hot 100, spanning the chart’s 66-year history:
Most Hot 100 Hits: 358Most Top 10 Hits: 80Most Top 20 Hits: 139Most Top 40 Hits: 216Most Top 10 Debuts: 64Most Top 20 Debuts: 115Most Top 40 Debuts: 182Most Cumulative Weeks Spent in the Top 10 (all titles combined): 389
Meanwhile, thanks to her appearance on “Pimmie’s Dilemma,” Pimmie earns her first career entry on Billboard’s charts. Pimmie is, notably, the only vocalist on the cut. The unsigned Houston singer-songwriter has released 10 solo songs, including her debut six-track EP, Bittersweet, in February 2024.
Plus, Yebba scores her third Hot 100 hit via her billing on “Die Trying.” She previously charted with another Drake collab, “Yebba’s Heartbreak” (No. 24 peak in 2021), and as featured on Ed Sheeran’s “Best Part of Me” (No. 99, 2019).