Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s classic “Fast Car” pulls into the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated Aug. 12).
Combs makes history on the survey, as the song, which Chapman solely wrote, becomes the first by a lead solo male to have led both the Adult Pop Airplay and Country Airplay charts. It ruled Country Airplay for five weeks starting on the chart dated July 8.
Among all acts, “Fast Car” is only the fifth shared No. 1 on Adult Pop Airplay and Country Airplay.
Songs to Have Hit No. 1 on Both Adult Pop Airplay and Country Airplay:
- “Breathe,” Faith Hill, 1999-2000
- “Need You Now,” Lady A, 2009-10
- “Meant To Be,” Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line, 2018
- “I Hope,” Gabby Barrett (feat. Charlie Puth on its pop remix), 2020
- “Fast Car,” Luke Combs, 2023
The Adult Pop Airplay chart, which began in Billboard’s pages in 1996, measures songs’ weekly plays, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on around 80 U.S. adult top 40 radio stations. Country Airplay, which launched in 1990, tracks airplay audience on around 150 country stations.
On the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100, “Fast Car” rebounds to its No. 2 high, with 77.4 million airplay audience impressions, 21.1 million official U.S. streams and 10,000 downloads sold July 28-Aug. 3.
Combs’ cover has also reignited interest in Chapman’s original, which hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1988. Chapman’s version drew 3.1 million streams and 1.1 million in radio reach and sold 2,000 in the tracking week.
Meanwhile, Combs’ “Fast Car” marks a rare remake at No. 1 on Adult Pop Airplay. It’s just the third singular cover of a pop hit to top the chart, following two in 2004-05: Goo Goo Dolls’ update of Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit” and Sheryl Crow’s interpretation of Rod Stewart’s “The First Cut Is the Deepest.” (Notably, Elton John hit No. 1 in 2021-22 with two medley makeovers of his songs: “Hold Me Closer,” with Britney Spears, and “Cold Heart [Pnau Remix],” with Dua Lipa.)
Chapman recently provided Billboard a statement revealing how she was “honored” to have topped Country Airplay. Combs then replied in kind. “Oh man, ‘Fast Car’ has surprised me more than you can imagine,” he told Billboard. “Tracy Chapman wrote this perfect song that that I first heard with my dad and it has stayed with me since. I have played it in my live show now for six-plus years and everyone – I mean everyone – across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along. That’s the gift of a supernatural songwriter. The success of my cover is unreal, and I think it’s so cool that Tracy is getting recognized and has reached new milestones. I love that she is out there feeling all the love and that she gave me a shout-out! Thank you, Tracy!”
