Well, that was… fast (sorry, I had to).
Luke Combs has officially scored his 16th #1 hit at country radio with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which he included on the tracklist for his most recent studio album Gettin’ Old.
It peaked at the top spot of the Billboard Country Airplay chart this week, which is one of two charts labels use to officially track their songs performance (along with the Mediabase chart).
It’s Luke’s 15th #1 single on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and technically his 17th time peaking at the top of that chart if you count his feature on Jameson Rogers’ “Cold Beer Calling My Name,” which also went #1:
“Fast Car” has been an abolsute juggernaut at country radio, flying up the charts at an insane pace pretty much completely organically, so much so that his label actually sent it to Top 40 pop and Hot Adult Contemporary radio, as well.
It’s currently sitting at the #2 spot over there, right behind his friend and fellow country superstar Morgan Wallen with his multi-week #1 “Last Night.”
With those two at the #1 and #2 spots on that chart, it marks the first time since 1981 that two country songs are sitting at the top two positions U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and stands to easily be the biggest hit of Luke’s career thus far when it’s all said and done.
Needless to say, he’ll likely score a Top 40 mainstream hit here very soon too, probably in the next week or two.
Like I’ve said plenty of times before, basically everything Luke touches and sends to country radio becomes a huge hit, but this has been even more special to watch as it’s happened at lighting speed, only taking 11 weeks to climb to the top.
Luke previously said that the song was his “first favorite song,” so cutting an official cover in the studio was nostalgic for him if nothing else:
“I mean, ‘Fast Car’ probably my first favorite song probably ever. I think that song came out in ’88 or ’89… I was born in ’90.
And so I remember listening to that song with my dad in his truck when I was probably four. He had a cassette, a tape of it, and we had this old brown camper top F-150, wasn’t even four by four…
But we rode around in that thing, and he had a tape cassette player in there. And I have the original cassette — my dad brought it to me a couple years ago.”
Originally written and recorded by Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” was released in 1988 as the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut studio album, and won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Of course, that version is absolutely stunning, and there’s clearly something special about Luke’s rendition that is resonating very deeply both with country fans, and fans well outside of the country genre, too.
Hey, a great song is a great song, no matter what genre, year or decade you hear it in.
Congratulations to Luke on another massive hit, go turn this up…
“Fast Car”
