Cage the Elephant Lands 11th Alternative Airplay No. 1 With ‘Neon Pill’

Kevin Rutherford
·2 min read

Cage the Elephant notches its 11th No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart as “Neon Pill” jumps to the top of the April 6-dated survey.

The song becomes the band’s first leader since “Skin and Bones” reigned for four weeks beginning in February 2021.

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Cage the Elephant first topped the Alternative Airplay chart in 2010 with “Back Against the Wall” — and their nine No. 1s during the 2010s marked the most among all acts in that span.

The group takes sole possession of the fifth-most leaders in the Alternative Airplay chart’s 35-and-a-half-year history, breaking out of a tie with twenty one pilots.

Most No. 1s, Alternative Airplay:
15, Red Hot Chili Peppers
12, Foo Fighters
12, Green Day
12, Linkin Park
11, Cage the Elephant
10, twenty one pilots
8, U2
8, Weezer
7, The Black Keys
7, Imagine Dragons

“Neon Pill” concurrently tops Adult Alternative Airplay for a third week, having become Cage the Elephant’s sixth No. 1 at the format. It also lifts 29-27 on Mainstream Rock Airplay.

On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, the song bullets at No. 4, after reaching No. 3, with 6.3 million audience impressions, up 4%, March 22-28, according to Luminate.

On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart (dated March 30, reflecting consumption March 15-21), “Neon Pill” placed at No. 39. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 572,000 official U.S. streams.

The song is the lead single and title track from Cage the Elephant’s sixth studio album, due May 17 on RCA Records. It follows 2019’s Social Cues, which debuted at No. 3 on the Top Alternative Albums chart that May and has earned 471,000 equivalent album units to date.

All Billboard charts dated April 6 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, April 2.

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