glass animals
Most songs wouldn’t be the No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart – or any other genre-based chart of a similar ilk, for that matter – two years after its initial release.
But “Heat Waves,” Glass Animals’ still-inescapable No. 1 of the year, isn’t most songs.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
A year after “Heat Waves” climbed to No. 2 on the year-end ranking (alongside Glass Animals’ own first-time rule on the 2021 Top Rock & Alternative Artists survey), the Dreamland tune lifts to No. 1 for 2022, staving off challenges from songs released in 2021, 2020 and even 1985. Which is of course emblematic of the music industry as a whole as 2022 comes to a close: old can be new, two years isn’t necessarily too long a runway against which to gauge a song’s success, and what seemed to work to break an act years ago may not be part of the playbook anymore.
Thank TikTok and other short-form video apps especially. The year-end Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart’s top 10, after all, is full of success stories from that corner of the Internet – and there’s even more to discover in the top 20, the top 30 and so on.
“Heat Waves” famously cracked the code in 2021, driving the song to an eventual 37-week reign on the weekly Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list that began in September 2021 and only concluded for good in June 2022.
“Heat Waves’” tremendous success fuels Glass Animals’ finish at No. 1 on the 2022 Top Rock & Alternative Artists recap.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
The No. 2 Hot Rock & Alternative Songs title of the year, GAYLE’s “Abcdefu,” initially blew up on TikTok in late 2021 and climbed to No. 2 on the weekly survey. Imagine Dragons and JID’s “Enemy,” the No. 3? It did well on TikTok alongside its radio and streaming success after its initial premiere as the theme song to Netflix’s Arcane: League of Legends.
Speaking of Netflix: count the film and TV streaming service as one of the other main drivers of success on the Billboard charts in 2022. It singlehandedly caused the return of 1985’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” previously a No. 30 hit for Kate Bush that year on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, it wasn’t so much a return to form as it was a new cultural high for the song, which eventually peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and ruled Hot Rock & Alternative Songs for 11 weeks once the reign of “Heat Waves” had ended.
“Hill” wasn’t a flash in the pan brought about by a quick sync in film or TV, as is sometimes seen in the entertainment industry. It was reserviced to radio, playing a part in prolonging its impact alongside the song’s return in Stranger Things’ second part of its fourth season later in the summer. All told, it’s the No. 4 song on the year-end Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list and ranked as the No. 1 on the year-end Rock Digital Song Sales tally, while alternative radio stations embraced it to the point that it appears at No. 17 on the Alternative Airplay Songs year-end survey.
And that wasn’t all for Stranger Things. Released a year after “Hill” in 1986, Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” boasted similar virality with its sync in the back-end of the fourth season, reaching the Hot 100 for the first time (peaking at No. 35 in July) and crowning the weekly Hot Hard Rock Songs chart for nine weeks, a run that drove the song to be No. 1 on the latter’s year-end ranking while Metallica itself is the year’s Top Hard Rock Artist. All that for a band that last released an album of fully new material in 2016, while Bush last did so in 2011.
Other TikTok and streaming successes include Zach Bryan and Steve Lacy, who rank as the Nos. 1 and 2 artists on the New Top Rock & Alternative Artists chart for 2022, respectively. Both, in addition to rock and/or alternative cred, create music difficult to neatly assign to just one overarching genre – Bryan in the country and folk corners of the industry, Lacy with material spanning pop, R&B and soul.
Bryan’s chart success was buoyed not only by his 34-song major label debut American Heartbreak and subsequent EP Summertime Blues (the former crowning the weekly Top Rock & Alternative Albums survey for eight weeks) – he also boasted entries in the chart year from the self-released DeAnn from 2019 and Elisabeth from 2020.
In addition to ranking at No. 1 on the new artists rundown, Bryan also appears at No. 3 on the Top Rock & Alternative Artists list for 2022.
Lacy, meanwhile, sported chart hits from 2022 album Gemini Rights as well as the 2017 TikTok trender “Dark Red,” reaching the top 10 of the year-end Rock Streaming Songs list twice, with “Bad Habit” at No. 3 and the aforementioned “Red” at No. 10. “Habit” even climbed to No. 1 on the Hot 100, reigning for three weeks late in the year.
Bryan, Lacy and Bush are three of six soloists in the top 10 of Top Rock & Alternative Artists, exemplifying the continued rise of single-person acts on the rock and alternative charts. They’re joined by Billie Eilish, GAYLE and Machine Gun Kelly at Nos. 5, 6 and 8, respectively. In no other year since Top Rock & Alternative Artists (formerly Top Rock & Artists) began in 2011 did more than four soloists reach the top 10.
By the way, Eilish was no slouch in 2022. She’s No. 1 on the Top Alternative Artists chart for 2022 and boasts the No. 1 on the year-end Top Alternative Albums ranking: Happier Than Ever, initially released in August 2021 and the No. 5 entry on the 2021 recap.
The year-end radio tallies see Red Hot Chili Peppers return in a big way following a pair of albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, the band’s first LPs since 2016’s The Getaway and the pair that marks the return of guitarist John Frusciante to the fold.
“Black Summer,” the lead single from the first release, comes in as the No. 1 Top Rock & Alternative Airplay song of the year and the No. 2 Alternative Airplay song, while also appearing at No. 6 on the year-end Top Mainstream Rock Airplay list.
The band is kept from No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay recap by the aforementioned “Enemy” from Imagine Dragons and JID, a juggernaut that’s now spent over a year on the weekly list, including nine weeks at No. 1 early in the year. Imagine Dragons last crowned the year-end Alternative Airplay song ranking in 2017 with “Believer.”
The Black Keys nab the No. 1 on Adult Alternative Airplay Songs for the year with “Wild Child,” the band’s first to do so since “Fever” in 2014, while Spoon ranks atop the artist-based survey after a trio of hits at the format, one of which – “The Hardest Cut” ruled for three weeks. And at Mainstream Rock Airplay, it’s perennial heavyweight Three Days Grace who takes top artist and song honors with “So Called Life,” their first time ruling the latter since “Break” led 2010’s year-end tally.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” reigns as the No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, following its sizzling, record-breaking run on the weekly ranking, which blends streaming, radio airplay and sales data.
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Meanwhile, Bad Bunny tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists recap. He charted all 22 newly released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti on the Hot 100 in the album’s explosive first chart week in May, including four in the top 10.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
“Heat Waves” tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart after it completed the longest climb to the weekly Hot 100’s summit in the chart’s history: 59 weeks.
The first Hot 100 leader (and entry) for British quartet Glass Animals – Dave Bayley, Edmund Irwin-Singer, Drew MacFarlane and Joe Seaward – debuted on the Jan. 16, 2021-dated chart and spent five weeks at No. 1 this March-April. Released in June 2020, the track subsequently topped weekly alternative, pop and adult radio airplay tallies, and, helping spark its multi-format crossover, connected prominently on TikTok.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
“The song is about nostalgia and the past, and remembering and missing people,” Bayley mused upon the single’s Hot 100 coronation. “I think through the last couple years, and still now, people have been missing their loved ones, and not everyone’s been able to just go visit their parents, or their best friend. It’s been quite difficult … that’s my hunch as to why people have gravitated towards this song.
“I almost feel like it gives us a little bit of breathing room,” Bayley added of the song’s success. “I think there’s often a lot of pressure to keep putting things out. But because this has kept going, it’s given us the confidence to just keep doing what we were doing.”
“Heat Waves,” released on Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic Records, went on to spend a record 91 weeks on the Hot 100 overall.
“When I wrote this song, I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly,” Bayley further shared when “Heat Waves” rewrote the Hot 100’s new longevity mark. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe.”
“Heat Waves” is the first year-end Hot 100 No. 1 by a group (of more than two members) since The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” in 2009. Plus, until this year, no British group had led the year-end list since The Police with “Every Breath You Take” in 1983. (Among duos, U.S.-based Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped the 2013 tally with “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz; among non-solo British acts, in between Glass Animals and The Police, Wham! wrapped at No. 1 for 1985 with “Careless Whisper.”)
“Heat Waves” is also the No. 1 title on the 2022 year-end Streaming Songs chart.
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” places at No. 2 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, after it ruled the weekly Hot 100 for 15 weeks, the fourth-longest command in the chart’s history. The single also tops the year-end Billboard Global 200, Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Pop Airplay Songs charts.
The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” ranks at No. 3 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart and leads the year-end Radio Songs and Adult Pop Airplay Song tallies; Adele’s “Easy on Me” finishes at No. 4 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs survey and is the No. 1 title of the year on Adult Contemporary Songs; and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” places at No. 5 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking.
Rounding out the top 10 of the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart: Jack Harlow’s “First Class” (No. 6); Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 7); Bieber’s “Ghost” (No. 8); Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin” (No. 9); and Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” (No. 10), also the top title on the year-end Digital Song Sales chart.
While Lipa landed the No. 1 spot on the 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart with “Levitating,” John scores his highest yearly placement since “Candle in the Wind 1997″/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight” was No. 8 in 1998 (after finishing at No. 1 in 1997).
Bad Bunny crowns Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart. He sent all 22 newly-released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti, released on Rimas Entertainment, onto the Hot 100 in the album’s first chart week in May, including four in the top 10. Among those four, “Me Porto Bonito,” with Chencho Corleone, finishes highest on the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap, at No. 20.
Bad Bunny also rules the year’s overall Top Artists chart, while Un Verano Sin Ti is 2022’s No. 1 title on the Billboard 200 Albums year-end retrospective.
Doja Cat places second on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart, having notched three new top 10s on the weekly Hot 100 during the year, followed in the top 10 by Styles (No. 3); Sheeran (No. 4); Morgan Wallen (No. 5); Taylor Swift (No. 6); Bieber (No. 7); Drake (No. 8); Future (No. 9); and Lil Baby (No. 10).
Meanwhile, Republic Records tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Labels chart. The label defends its 2021 title, after it also led during the last decade in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
Glass Animals set a new record on the Billboard Hot 100 this week thanks to their smash single “Heat Waves,” and lead singer Dave Bayley gave Billboard his exclusive reaction via social media.
“I just found out some amazing news, that ‘Heat Waves’ has broken the record for the longest-running Hot 100 single of all time, and I’m a little bit speechless,” the frontman said in a video posted to Billboard‘s Instagram. “But I wanted to make a little video just to say thank you so, so much for making that happen.
“I think a lot of you probably know that when I wrote this song, I was writing about someone who I loved very much and miss very much, and it’s particularly beautiful for that reason.” he continued. “To see the song spread so much love and connection around the world, and you all made that happen. So thank you. And thank you to everyone who’s helped the song reach so many people. It really has meant so much over the last couple of years, I can’t even begin to explain it.”
Before signing off with “lots of love, bye-bye for now,” Bayley also teased that he’s just about ready to start working on new music to finally follow the band’s 2020 album Dreamland.
With its historic chart accomplishment at 91 weeks and counting, “Heat Waves” surpassed The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” which had previously spent 90 weeks on the Hot 100. Other long-running singles have included Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” (87 weeks), AWOLNATION’s “Sail” (79 weeks), Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” (77 weeks) and more.
Watch Bayley express his disbelief and gratitude at the continuing success of “Heat Waves” below.
After a staggering 91 weeks, Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” is now solely the longest-charting hit in the Billboard Hot 100‘s 64-year history.
On the latest Oct. 22, 2022-dated Hot 100, “Heat Waves” passes the 90-week run of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (in 2019-21), which had held the record since August 2021.
“Wow, all I can say is wow,” Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley marveled to Billboard about the band’s feat. “Many of you know when I wrote this song I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe.”
As “Heat Waves” adds a new record to its repertoire, here is a breakdown of the song’s biggest stats, as of Billboard charts dated Oct. 22, 2022.
91: Record number of weeks that “Heat Waves” has spent on the Hot 100, dating to its debut on the chart dated Jan. 16, 2021.
37: Number of weeks “Heat Waves” spent in the top 10 of the Hot 100, the fifth-most all-time, after “Blinding Lights” (57 weeks in the region), The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” (44), Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” (41) and Post Malone’s “Circles” (39).
57: Number of weeks “Heat Waves” logged in the top 20 of the Hot 100, tied for the fourth-most with “Stay,” after “Blinding Lights” (80 weeks in the tier), “Levitating” (62) and “Circles” (60).
76: Number of weeks “Heat Waves” has tallied in the top 40 of the Hot 100, the second-most after “Blinding Lights” (86).
59: The record number of weeks that “Heat Waves” took to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, as it began a five-week domination in March.
12: The number of U.S.-specific Billboard charts on which “Heat Waves” has hit No. 1. It topped the Hot 100, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs, Hot Alternative Songs, Radio Songs, Alternative Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay, Alternative Streaming Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales, Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts.
37: Number of weeks that “Heat Waves” spent at No. 1 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts. Only Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes” has spent more time atop Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs (65 weeks on both). “Heat Waves” holds the record on the Hot Alternative Songs, which launched in June 2020.
3.3 billion: Total cumulative audience for “Heat Waves” on U.S. radio, according to Luminate.
1.3 billion: Total on-demand official U.S. streams for “Heat Waves,” audio and video combined.
255,000: Total U.S. downloads sold for “Heat Waves.”
11: Number of countries in Billboard‘s international charts menu in which “Heat Waves” has hit No. 1: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic/Czechia, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovakia and Switzerland.
2: Weeks that “Heat Waves” has not appeared on the Hot 100, dating to its debut. The song entered at No. 100 on Jan. 16, 2021, and fell off the ranking for two weeks, before re-entering at No. 91 that Feb. 6. The song has, thus, appeared on the Hot 100 over a span of 93 weeks since its debut. (It was released in June 2020.)
28: Total number of songs that have topped the Hot 100 since “Heat Waves” debuted on Jan. 16, 2021 (excluding “Heat Waves”). In chronological order, the leaders are 24kGoldn’s “Mood,” featuring iann dior (which was in its eighth and final week at No. 1); Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” Drake’s “What’s Next”; Cardi B’s “Up”; Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon; Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)”; Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open”; Polo G’s “Rapstar”; The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Save Your Tears”; Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U”; BTS’ “Butter” and “Permission To Dance”; The Kid LAROI and Bieber’s “Stay”; Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Future and Young Thug; Coldplay and BTS’ “My Universe”; Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby”; Adele’s “Easy On Me”; Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”; Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and Encanto Cast’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”; Harry Styles’ “As It Was” (which dethroned “Heat Waves” upon its debut); Future’s “Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems; Harlow’s “First Class”; Drake’s “Jimmy Cooks,” featuring 21 Savage; Lizzo’s “About Damn Time”; Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul”; Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl”; and Steve Lacy’s current leader “Bad Habit.”
1,266: Total number of songs that have charted on the Hot 100 alongside “Heat Waves” since its debut.
4: Total number of No. 1 hits that Drake has earned on the Hot 100 since “Heat Waves” debuted on Jan. 16, 2021, the most among all acts in that span. BTS has earned three leaders in that window, while Bieber, Future, Harlow, Lil Nas X and Rodrigo have each earned two.
60: Total number of entries that Lil Durk has tallied on the Hot 100 since “Heat Waves” debuted, the most among all acts. Drake is next with 53, followed by Lil Baby (49), YoungBoy Never Broke Again (48) and Taylor Swift (41).
66: Total number of weeks that “Heat Waves” spent on the Hot 100 alongside The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Save Your Tears,” the most of any song over the former’s run on the chart. Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” follows with 64 shared weeks, then The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” (63).
12: Total number of songs to debut at No. 100 on the Hot 100 and hit No. 1. They are: Wilbert Harrison’s “Kansas City” (in 1959); Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel” (1960); The Highwaymen’s “Michael” (1961); Steve Lawrence’s “Go Away Little Girl” (1963); Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves A Woman” (1966); Vicki Lawrence’s “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” (1973); UB40’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (1993); Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss,” featuring T-Pain (2007); Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” featuring Charlie Puth (2015); “Heat Waves”; and, as of two weeks ago, Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit.”
3: Total number of songs to chart in the Hot 100’s history with “heat wave” in their titles. Martha & The Vandellas’ “Heat Wave” was the first in 1963 (No. 4 peak), followed by Linda Ronstadt’s cover of that classic (No. 5, 1975) before Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves.”
134 degrees Fahrenheit: The hottest recorded heat wave in history. Furnace Creek Ranch in California’s Death Valley recorded a high temperature of 134.1°F (or 58°C) on July 10, 1913, the highest ambient air temperature recorded on earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
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