Oliver Anthony Music’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Notches Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Gary Trust
·8 min read
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Oliver Anthony Music’s viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. A week earlier, the song rocketed in on top, making the singer-songwriter the first artist ever to launch atop the survey with no prior chart history in any form. It now takes over as the most-streamed song of the week, continues as the top-selling track and is gaining in radio airplay.

Plus, Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” jumps from No. 15 to No. 5 on the Hot 100, marking her seventh career top 10.

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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 Sept. 2, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Aug. 29). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

“Rich Men North of Richmond” drew 22.9 million streams (up 31%) and sold 117,000 downloads (down 20%) in the Aug. 18-24 tracking week, according to Luminate. Not being promoted to radio, the song also tallied 2.3 million airplay audience impressions (up 310%).

The single logs a second week at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart and surges 4-1 on Streaming Songs. Notably, it makes a rare second-week gain in streams for a No. 1-debuting Hot 100 hit: Of the 34 songs to premiere atop the Hot 100 this decade, it’s just the second to increase in streams (17.5 million to 22.9 million) in its second week, following Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” (43.2 million to 62.7 million) on the charts dated May 29-June 5, 2021 – and Rodrigo’s hit was boosted by the No. 1 Billboard 200 arrival of her debut album, Sour.

As previously reported, “Richmond” also debuts on Country Airplay at No. 45, with 90% of its overall airplay (2 million of 2.3 million in reach) from the chart’s panel of reporting stations.

“Richmond” has become a lightning rod for both the right and left politically since its official release Aug. 11, even spurring the opening talking point in the first Republican presidential primary debate last Wednesday, Aug. 23. (“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” Anthony responded in a YouTube clip.)

The track by the Farmville, Va.-based singer-songwriter and former factory worker, born Christopher Anthony Lunsford (whose stage name honors his grandfather, Oliver Anthony), first drew buzz online, including on TikTok, where he boasts 2.1 million followers (up from 1.5 million a week ago), prior to its Aug. 11 posting on the radiowv YouTube account, which spotlights unsigned Americana and country acts in the Virginia/West Virginia region.

“Richmond” concurrently tops Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, for a second week.

The song has also, unsurprisingly, sparked the curiosity of chart fans. Jesper Tan, of Subang Jaya, Malaysia, wrote in noting that Oliver Anthony Music is just the second act with “music” in its name to top the Hot 100, following C+C Music Factory with “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” in 1991. Tan also shouts out the two No. 1s with “music” in their titles: “Play That Funky Music,” by Wild Cherry, in 1976 and “Music,” by Madonna, in 2000.

Plus, Jeff Lerner points out that “Richmond” is only the eighth Hot 100 No. 1 to name-check a U.S. city in its title (two are odes to Philadelphia), and the first since 1985:

  • “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Oliver Anthony Music (2023)

  • “Miami Vice Theme,” Jan Hammer (1985)

  • “Philadelphia Freedom,” Elton John (1975)

  • “The Night Chicago Died,” Paper Lace (1974)

  • “T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia),” MFSB (1974)

  • “El Paso,” Marty Robbins (1960)

  • “The Battle of New Orleans,” Johnny Horton (1959)

  • “Kansas City,” Wilbert Harrison (1959)

(Lerner adds that The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville,” from 1966, “is not on this list as lyricist Bobby Hart has insisted that he wrote the song about a fictional town, not the real city of Clarksville, Tenn.” Meanwhile, Baauer’s 2013 No. 1 “Harlem Shake” also doesn’t count, as Harlem is a neighborhood in New York City. The last city at all named in the title of a Hot 100 No. 1 prior to “Richmond”? Cuba’s capital, as Camila Cabello’s “Havana,” featuring Young Thug, led in 2018.)

Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” posts a seventh week at its No. 2 Hot 100 high, where it’s steady in rank, and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” holds at No. 3, following 16 weeks at No. 1 – the most ever for a non-collaboration. Thanks to “Richmond,” “Fast Car” and “Last Night,” country hits (as defined by those that have hit Hot Country Songs) claim the Hot 100’s top three spots in a single week for only the third time, following the same songs a week earlier and Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” “Last Night” and “Fast Car,” at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, on the Hot 100 dated Aug. 5.

“Last Night,” meanwhile, tops Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart for a 13th week, having led each week since the list returned.

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” keeps at No. 4 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 3.

Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” roars 15-5 on the Hot 100, with 22.6 million in airplay audience (up 37%), 21.1 million streams (up 49%) and 5,000 sold (up 81%), as it takes top Streaming and Sales Gainer honors.

The song, which debuted at No. 15 on the Hot 100 two weeks earlier and has since ridden a wave of virality on TikTok, becomes Doja Cat’s seventh top 10, following “Vegas” (No. 10 peak, October 2022); Post Malone’s “I Like You (A Happier Song),” on which she’s featured (No. 3, October 2022); “Woman” (No. 7, May 2022); “Need To Know” (No. 8, November 2021); “Kiss Me More,” featuring SZA (No. 3, July 2021); and “Say So,” featuring Nicki Minaj (No. 1, one week, May 2020).

Meanwhile, “Paint the Town Red” samples Dionne Warwick’s standard “Walk on By,” which hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1964. Thanks to its inclusion, legendary late songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David appear in the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time since Twista’s “Slow Jamz,” featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, reigned for a week in 2004; that song samples Luther Vandross’ cover of Warwick’s fellow 1964 release “A House Is Not a Home.”

Bacharach, who passed away Feb. 8, wrote seven Hot 100 No. 1s, which reigned in four distinct decades (the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and 2000s). David died in 2012. Notably, the Songwriters Hall of Fame annually presents (this year to Post Malone) the Hal David Starlight Award, which, according to the organization, is given to “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs.”

“Paint the Town Red” concurrently bounds to the top of the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (5-1) and Hot Rap Songs (4-1) charts. Doja Cat earns her second No. 1 on the former, following “Say So,” and her first on the latter list.

Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” descends 5-6, after reaching No. 3, on the Hot 100, as it claims a 10th week atop the Radio Songs chart (83.5 million, down 3%). It tops the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 52nd week, extending the longest command since the ranking began over a year ago.

Gunna’s “Fukumean” repeats at No. 7 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 4, and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” falls 6-8, after it debuted as her third No. 1 in July.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10 are two hits from the soundtrack Barbie: The Album: Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” dips 8-9, after reaching No. 7, although it wins the chart’s top Airplay Gainer award (57.7 million, up 16%), and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World,” with Aqua, descends 9-10, also after climbing to No. 7.

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated Sept. 2), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Aug. 29).

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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