Zach Bryan has a monstrous week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Sept. 9).
After releasing his new self-titled album Aug. 25, the set soars in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and all 16 songs from the album debut on the Hot 100, led by “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves, which likewise launches at No. 1.
The first Hot 100 leader for both Bryan and Musgraves raked in 33.7 million U.S. streams, 263,000 radio airplay audience impressions (while not being promoted as an official single) and 10,000 paid downloads in its opening week, according to Luminate. It opens as the most streamed song of the week, starting at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart.
The song also becomes the fourth country hit to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2023. (Country songs are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.) The only year, dating to the Hot 100’s 1958 inception, with more country No. 1s was 1975, when five topped the chart: B.J. Thomas’ “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song”; Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”; John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”; Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy”; and Denver’s “I’m Sorry.”
“I Remember Everything” also becomes the first song to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts (the lattermost of which began in 2009).
All 16 songs from Zach Bryan debut in the top 50 of the Hot 100, including five in the top 20 and 13 in the top 40. Here’s a recap (all of which are new entries except for two previously-charting songs, as noted below).
Zach Bryan on the Sept. 9-dated Hot 100:
- No. 1, “I Remember Everything,” feat. Kacey Musgraves
- No. 14, “Hey Driver,” feat. The War and Treaty
- No. 17, “Spotless,” feat. The Lumineers
- No. 18, “East Side of Sorrow”
- No. 20, “Tourniquet”
- No. 22, “Overtime”
- No. 23, “Summertime’s Close”
- No. 24, “Fear and Friday’s”
- No. 29, “Ticking”
- No. 31, “El Dorado”
- No. 37, “Holy Roller,” feat. Sierra Ferrell
- No. 38, “Smaller Acts”
- No. 39, “Fear and Friday’s (Poem)”
- No. 41, “Jake’s Piano – Long Island”
- No. 44, “Tradesman”
- No. 47, “Oklahoman Son”
- No. 76, “Dawns,” feat. Maggie Rogers (holds in place; peaked at No. 42 in February)
- No. 88, “Oklahoma Smoke Show” (down from its No. 81 peak)
Bryan is just the second country act to land at least five songs in the Hot 100’s top 20 simultaneously, after Morgan Wallen, who has placed five in the top 20 twice (nine on the March 18 ranking and five on March 25). Overall, Drake holds the record for the most concurrent top 20 entries, with 15 songs in the top 20 in a single week (Nov. 19, 2022).
Bryan is also just the second country act to chart at least 13 Hot 100 hits in the top 40 in a single week, after Wallen (16; March 18). The only other artists to amass at least 13 in the top 40 simultaneously are Drake (a record 21, twice), Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, Post Malone, 21 Savage, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and Lil Uzi Vert.
Further, with 18 total songs on the Hot 100, Bryan is just the second country act to log that many songs on the chart in a single frame, after Wallen, who holds the record among all acts: 36, concurrent with the chart debut of his album One Thing at a Time in March.
Before this week, Bryan had sent four songs onto the Hot 100, starting in May 2022: his breakthrough hit “Something in the Orange” (No. 10 peak; it made history as the longest-charting country song – 66 weeks – by a male artist); “Dawns,” featuring Maggie Rogers (No. 42); “Oklahoma Smoke Show” (No. 81); and “Burn, Burn, Burn” (No. 99).
Meanwhile, thanks to their featured appearances on Zach Bryan, husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty and Sierra Ferrell each visit the Hot 100 for the first time. (The War and Treaty’s Tanya Trotter makes a notable return: She tallied one solo entry, “Through the Rain” in 1994, under her maiden name, Tanya Blount.)
The latest Hot 100 also marks another milestone for country, in what has been an especially prominent year for the genre, as 20 country songs place in Hot 100’s top 40 for the first time. Plus, 25 country songs rank in the top 50, matching the record initially established on the March 18 chart, when Wallen’s One Thing at a Time debuted.
