AJR achieves its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated Feb. 27), rising 2-1.
The song completes the longest trip to the top among groups in the chart’s 25-year history: 43 weeks. It bests the 36-week climb for The Script’s “Breakeven” in 2009-10. Among all No. 1s, “Bang!” trails only the 45-week ascent of Maren Morris’ “The Bones” in 2019-20.
“Bang!” previously became AJR’s first top 10 on the Pop Airplay chart, reaching No. 6 in December. It hit No. 2 on Alternative Airplay last June, marking the fourth top 10 for the brother trio of Adam, Jack and Ryan Met.
The song also became AJR’s first top 10 on the all-genre, airplay-, sales- and streaming-based Billboard Hot 100, where it rose to No. 8 in January.
“Bang!” is from AJR’s album Ok Orchestra, due March 26, the follow-up to the act’s first Billboard 200 top 10, 2019’s Neotheater. The new set’s next single, “Way Less Sad,” could debut on Adult Pop Airplay as soon as next week (on the chart dated March 6).
“This journey has been so strange,” AJR told Billboard in a statement when “Bang!” hit the Hot 100’s top 10. “There’s never really been a moment of this band blowing up. It’s really been one day at a time, one year at a time, friends telling other friends. For it to culminate with something as weird as ‘Bang!’ feels so gratifying.”
