Luke Combs’ ‘Fast Car’ Cover Tops Hot Country Songs Chart: ‘I’m Just Glad This Song Got Another Life’

Jim Asker
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Luke Combs scores his sixth No. 1 on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated Sept. 30) with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s classic “Fast Car.”

The remake reigns after 19 weeks at the survey’s No. 2 spot.

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Chapman’s original hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 (while Combs’ version has reached No. 2). Chapman solely wrote the song, which also won her the Grammy Award for best female pop vocal performance.

“What an awesome way to end the ride for ‘Fast Car’,” Combs tells Billboard. “It has been so cool to see everyone enjoying this song over the past few months, whether it was people who were hearing the song for the first time or people [for whom] it brought back memories of Tracy’s timeless recording. I’m just glad this song got another life because it deserves to be around forever; it will always be one of my favorites. I’m glad we got to park Tracy’s song at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart, where it should be.”

Combs’ cover drew 76.6 million in all-format radio airplay audience and 16.7 million official streams and sold 4,000 in the U.S. Sept. 15-21, according to Luminate.

The song previously topped Country Airplay for five weeks and Adult Pop Airplay for two frames and has reached the top 10 on the Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary charts.

Combs’ sixth Hot Country Songs leader, among 19 top 10s, is his first since “The Kind of Love We Make” led for four weeks after reaching the penthouse in its second week on the chart in July 2022. He previously reached No. 1 with “Forever After All,” for 10 frames after it opened atop the survey in November 2020; “Better Together” (three weeks, starting in February 2021); “Beautiful Crazy” (11 weeks, starting in March 2019) and “When It Rains It Pours” (two weeks, beginning in November 2017).

Combs’ first of 54 Hot Country Songs entries, “Hurricane,” reached No. 3 in May 2017. On Country Airplay, “Hurricane” ruled for two weeks. He rattled off a record 14 straight career-opening No. 1 singles on the list through “Doin’ This” in May 2022. “Fast Car” awarded Combs his 17th Country Airplay No. 1 in July.

With 19 weeks in the No. 2 position on Hot Country Songs, “Fast Car” tied Dan + Shay’s “Tequila” for the most time in the runner-up spot before reaching No. 1. The latter led four frames beginning in February 2019.

Meanwhile, Combs’ “Fast Car” cover is the first take on a pop hit to top Hot Country Songs since Blake Shelton’s version of Michael Bublé’s “Home” led in 2008, after Bublé’s original ruled Adult Contemporary in 2005.

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