Morgan Wallen’s ‘Last Night’ Claims 16th Week Atop Hot 100, the Most Ever for a Non-Collaboration

Gary Trust
·8 min read
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Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” adds a 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The song breaks out of a tie with Harry Styles’ “As It Was” for the sole longest No. 1 run for a non-collaboration, while overall tying for the second-longest reign in the Hot 100’s 65-year history.

Plus, SZA’s “Snooze” jumps from No. 15 to No. 10 on the Hot 100, becoming her eighth career top 10, and the fifth on her album SOS.

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The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Aug. 19, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Aug. 15). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Wallen’s “Last Night,” released on Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records, drew 59.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (down 11%) and 26.3 million streams (down 2%) and sold 5,000 downloads (down 22%) in the Aug. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.

As “Last Night” leads the Hot 100 for a 16th week, it surpasses Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” from 2022, for the longest command ever for a song by an act with no accompanying artists.

Among all songs, “Last Night” matches the second-longest rule in the Hot 100’s history, which dates to the chart’s Aug. 4, 1958, inception.

Longest-Leading Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s:

  • 19, “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, beginning April 13, 2019

  • 16 (to date), “Last Night,” Morgan Wallen, March 18, 2023

  • 16, “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber, May 27, 2017

  • 16, “One Sweet Day,” Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, Dec. 2, 1995

  • 15, “As It Was,” Harry Styles, April 16, 2022

  • 14, “Uptown Funk!,” Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, Jan. 17, 2015

  • 14, “I Gotta Feeling,” The Black Eyed Peas, July 11, 2009

  • 14, “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey, June 4, 2005

  • 14, “Candle in the Wind 1997”/“Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” Elton John, Oct. 11, 1997

  • 14, “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix),” Los Del Rio, Aug. 3, 1996

  • 14, “I’ll Make Love to You,” Boyz II Men, Aug. 27, 1994

  • 14, “I Will Always Love You,” Whitney Houston, Nov. 28, 1992

“Last Night” also passes “As It Was” for the longest No. 1 Hot 100 stay of the 2020s so far. Here’s an updated look at the longest-leading hits each decade (with songs, on average, having logged longer No. 1 runs since Luminate data began contributing to the chart in late 1991).

Longest-Leading Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s by Decade:

  • 2020s: 16 weeks (to date), “Last Night,” 2023

  • 2010s: 19 weeks, “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, 2019

  • 2000s: 14 weeks, “I Gotta Feeling,” The Black Eyed Peas, 2009 / “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey, 2005

  • 1990s: 16 weeks, “One Sweet Day,” Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, 1995-96

  • 1980s: 10 weeks, “Physical,” Olivia Newton-John, 1981-82

  • 1970s: 10 weeks, “You Light Up My Life,” Debby Boone, 1977

  • 1960s: 9 weeks, “Hey Jude,” The Beatles, 1968 / “The Theme From A Summer Place,” Percy Faith and His Orchestra, 1960

  • 1950s: 9 weeks, “Mack the Knife,” Bobby Darin, 1959

“Last Night” first led the Hot 100 in March, becoming Wallen’s initial No. 1 on the chart, and has logged a record-tying five distinct stays on top: March 18; April 15-22; May 6-July 8; July 22; and Aug. 12-19.

The song rebounds to No. 1, from No. 3, for an 18th week atop the Streaming Songs chart; rises 7-4 following a week atop Digital Song Sales; and dips 4-6, after reaching No. 2, on Radio Songs.

The single also tops Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which employs the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100, for a 25th week, the sole fourth-longest domination since the chart became an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958; Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” spent a record 50 weeks at No. 1 in 2017-18.

“Last Night,” which crowned the Country Airplay chart for eight weeks and crossed over to No. 5 peaks on both Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, additionally claims an 11th week atop Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart, having led each week since the list returned. (Meanwhile over the weekend, Wallen made news for his hairstyle change. Mull it over here.)

Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” notches a fifth week at its No. 2 Hot 100 high.

Notably, after topping Country Airplay for five weeks, “Fast Car” leads Adult Pop Airplay for a second frame and becomes Combs’ first top 10 on Pop Airplay (12-10). It’s the first song by a lead solo male to have hit No. 1 on both Country Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay and reached the Pop Airplay top 10; among all acts, four songs previously achieved the feat, as it follows Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope” (featuring Charlie Puth on its pop remix; 2020); “Meant To Be” (2018); Lady A’s “Need You Now” (2009-10); and Faith Hill’s “Breathe” (1999-2000).

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” pushes to a new No. 3 Hot 100 high, from No. 4, four years after its release on her 2019 album Lover, as it’s now being promoted as a single, while she has been performing the song on her The Eras Tour. It likewise climbs to new No. 3 bests on both Radio Songs (68.1 million, up 6%) and Digital Song Sales (7,000, up 85%), while rebounding 19-5, also a new highpoint, on Streaming Songs (18.2 million, up 14%), as it wins the Hot 100’s Sales and Streaming Gainer awards.

Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” ascends 6-4 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 3, as it posts an eighth week atop Radio Songs (88 million, down 1%). It tops the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a  milestone 50th week, extending the longest reign since the ranking began over a year ago.

Gunna’s “Fukumean” lifts 7-5 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 4, while ruling the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a fourth week each.

Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” rises 9-6 on the Hot 100, five weeks after it debuted as her third No. 1; Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” twirls 10-7 for a new high; Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World,” with Aqua, holds at No. 8, after reaching No. 7, as it takes top Airplay Gainer honors (26.1 million, up 54%); and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” returns to the top 10 (12-9), after it led for eight weeks beginning in January.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, SZA’s “Snooze” surges 15-10, with 61.9 million in radio reach and 1,000 sold (each sum essentially even week-over-week) and 10.4 million streams (down 1%).

The song is SZA’s eighth career Hot 100 top 10 and the fifth on her album SOS, after “Kill Bill,” which led for a week in April, marking her first No. 1; “Nobody Gets Me” (No. 10, December 2022, concurrent with the set’s launch atop the Billboard 200 albums chart); “I Hate U” (No. 7, December 2021); and “Good Days” (No. 9, February 2021).

SZA has also hit the Hot 100’s top 10 as featured on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” (No. 3, July 2021); with Kendrick Lamar on “All the Stars” (No. 7, March 2018); and as featured on Maroon 5’s “What Lovers Do” (No. 9, November 2017).

Meanwhile, Babyface is one of the co-writers and co-producers of “Snooze.” (SZA solely wrote the lyrics.) The legendary talent, who has notched five Hot 100 top 10s as a recording artist and first reached the region in the 1980s, places in the top 10 as a writer for the first time since Drake’s “Fair Trade,” featuring Travis Scott, hit No. 3 in September 2021. “Fair Trade” samples Charlotte Day Wilson’s 2019 single “Mountains,” which Babyface co-wrote.

Apart from samples, Babyface appears in the Hot 100’s top 10 with a newly composed song for the first time since P!nk’s “Most Girls,” which he produced and co-wrote, hit No. 4 in November 2000. (That also marked his last top 10 rank as a producer until “Snooze.”)

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated Aug. 19), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Aug. 15).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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