Morgan Wallen’s ‘Thought You Should Know’ Debuts at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs Chart

Jim Asker
·2 min read
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Morgan Wallen scores his record-extending fourth No. 1 debut, and his fifth leader overall, on Billboard‘s airplay-, streaming- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart as “Thought You Should Know” rockets in atop the May 21-dated list.

The track, released May 6 on Mercury/Republic/Big Loud Records, also starts at the summit on Country Streaming Songs and Country Digital Song Sales. Wallen co-wrote it with Nicolle Galyon and Miranda Lambert, and Joey Moi produced it. (It’s dedicated to Wallen’s mother, Lesli.)

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“Thought” opens with 17.3 official U.S. streams in the week ending May 12, according to Luminate. It enters as Wallen’s eighth No. 1 and fifth arrival at the apex on Country Streaming Songs.

The track sold 18,700 and bows as Wallen’s sixth No. 1 on Country Digital Song Sales, as well as his third leader on the all-format Digital Song Sales tally.

“Thought” dethrones Wallen’s own “Wasted on You” on Hot Country Songs, as the latter descends to No. 2 after adding its second week at No. 1 on the May 14 ranking. Wallen becomes the first act to replace himself atop the survey with a No. 1 debut.

Only 12 songs have premiered at the Hot Country Songs pinnacle since the chart’s inception as an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958, with Wallen boasting four of them. Previously, his “Don’t Think Jesus” launched atop the April 30 list, after “Wasted on You,” his current single being promoted to country radio from his 2021 LP Dangerous: The Double Album, premiered at No. 1 that January, and the set’s “7 Summers” started on top in August 2020. His first Hot Country Songs chart-topper, “Whiskey Glasses,” completed a 30-week trek to No. 1 in May 2019.

(One other act has achieved multiple No. 1 Hot Country Songs entrances: Taylor Swift, with “All Too Well [Taylor’s Version]” last November and “Love Story [Taylor’s Version]” in February 2021.)

Meanwhile, Dangerous rules Top Country Albums for a record-extending 58th week, up 6% to 53,000 equivalent album units, and “Wasted on You” hops 11-7 on Country Airplay (18.7 million impressions, up 18%). Wallen adds his sixth top 10 on the latter chart – with the first five having hit No. 1; “Wasted” follows Dangerous‘ “Sand in My Boots,” which led for a week in February.

Additionally, with “Thought” at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and “Wasted” at No. 2, Wallen is the first artist this decade to claim the chart’s top two spots simultaneously. The only other artists to have achieved the feat: Dan + Shay, for eight weeks in 2018-19; Florida Georgia Line (two, 2018); Luke Bryan (nine, 2014); Swift (one, 2012); and, long before the list’s adoption of its current methodology, Willie Nelson (two, 1982) and Buck Owens (three, 1964).

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