Foo Fighters match Tom Petty, solo and with the Heartbreakers, for the most top 10 songs in the 40-year history of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Making a Fire” jumps 15-9 on the survey dated July 17.
“Fire” is the Dave Grohl-led rockers’ 28th top 10, dating to their first in 1995, when “This Is a Call” peaked at No. 6.
Petty accumulated 28 top 10s (including nine from solo albums) between 1981 — when the chart started — and 1999, topping all acts for over two decades before Foo Fighters tied the mark.
Most Top 10s, Mainstream Rock Airplay
28, Foo Fighters
28, Tom Petty (solo and with the Heartbreakers)
27, Shinedown
26, Five Finger Death Punch
26, Godsmack
26, Van Halen
24, Aerosmith
24, Metallica
Both the Foos and Petty also rank among the acts with the most No. 1s in the chart’s history, each with 10, tying for sixth all-time. Shinedown leads with 16.
“Fire” is the fourth track from Medicine at Midnight, Foo Fighters’ 10th studio album, to reach Mainstream Rock Airplay. Preceding properly promoted singles “Shame Shame” and “Waiting on a War” ruled for six and two weeks, respectively, while “No Son of Mine” peaked at No. 32.
Concurrently, “Fire” climbs to a new No. 15 high on Adult Alternative Airplay and bullets at No. 29 on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay tally, it rises 16-14 with 2.8 million audience impressions, up 23%, according to MRC Data.
Medicine at Midnight debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts dated Feb. 20 and has earned 163,000 equivalent album units to date.
