Better than “Body Like a Backroad,” I guess.
Despite some competition from Apple Music, there’s no doubt that Spotify has remained the top streaming platform since its official launch in the United States in July 2011. With over 696 million monthly active users, 276 million of whom pay for premium, the platform has become nothing short of a staple in terms of music consumption nowadays. Boasting over 100 million songs available to be streamed right now (excluding Garth Brooks’ entire discography, of course), Spotify has nearly every notable song ever released over the past century.
Out of all the songs throughout the history of music, a little over 1,200 tracks have passed the elusive one billion-stream threshold on the platform. Out of those 1,200+ songs, until today, only 16 fall under the country category.
While some of these tracks can hardly be considered country, including the likes of Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be,” you do have some actual quality songs present on the list. These, of course, include Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” and “I Remember Everything,” Luke Combs’ “Beautiful Crazy” and “When It Rains It Pours” and Chris Stapleton’s double-diamond hit, “Tennessee Whiskey.”
Today, we have another entry into the billion-stream club: none other than Rascal Flatts’ cover of “Life Is a Highway” from the hit Pixar film Cars, which is now the 17th country song in history to reach the exclusive threshold. Amazingly, it is now the oldest country song to reach one billion on the platform as well, being released on June 6, 2006.
Say what you will about the song itself and Rascal Flatts as a group, there’s absolutely no denying how big a hit “Life Is a Highway” has been since its release in 2006. As a cover of Tom Cochrane’s 1991 single, the song had a massive crossover, frequently being played on country and pop radio, as well as Disney-focused stations.
This allowed it to become the band’s second Top 10 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #7 in July 2007. Though it was never issued as a single to country radio, “Life Is a Highway” would receive unsolicited airplay which allowed it to peak at #18 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart as well. Additionally, it would become one of the highest-selling country songs of all time, currently being certified 8x platinum by the RIAA.
A full list of country songs with a billion streams on Spotify is as follows:
- “Something in the Orange” – Zach Bryan
- “Last Night” – Morgan Wallen
- “Tennessee Whiskey” – Chris Stapleton
- “Beautiful Crazy” – Luke Combs
- “When It Rains It Pours” – Luke Combs
- “I Remember Everything” – Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves
- “Love Story” – Taylor Swift
- “I Had Some Help” – Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen
- “Whiskey Glasses” – Morgan Wallen
- “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey
- “Meant To Be” – Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line
- “10,000 Hours” – Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber
- “You Belong To Me (Taylor’s Version)” – Taylor Swift
- “Body Like A Back Road” – Sam Hunt
- “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha
- “Wagon Wheel” – Darius Rucker
- “Life Is a Highway” – Rascal Flatts
“Life Is a Highway”
