A new country act has entered the Spotify billions club.
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 788 million monthly active users, 306 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 1,400 tracks have passed the elusive one billion-stream threshold on the platform. Out of those 1,200+ songs, until today, only 22 of them fell 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 the late, great Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” 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 Zac Brown Band’s 2008 breakout hit, “Chicken Fried,” which is now the 23rd country song in history to reach the exclusive threshold.
Of course, Zac Brown Band has been one of the most fascinating country bands when viewing their career from a wide lens. Before they were seemingly constantly surrounded by controversy, ranging from their odd ventures into pop and EDM in the studio to drama regarding Brown’s personal life out of the studio, there’s no denying that the Georgia-based group was once one of the best bands in the genre’s history. This was cemented early in their career when they snagged the all-genre Best New Artist award at the 52nd Grammys, also going on to win Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for “As She’s Walking Away” with Alan Jackson in 2011 and Best Country Album for Uncaged in 2013.
As we know, however, it was “Chicken Fried” that laid the groundwork for their early success. Written by Brown himself and Wyatt Durrette, the track was released as ZBB’s debut single on June 16, 2008. It would quickly catch fire for the band, reaching #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, before snagging Brown and Co. a batch of their first award show nominations, including the Grammys’ Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and the CMA’s Single and Song of the Year.
Recently, the song has also captured notable records, being one of the Top 40 highest-selling country songs of all time with an 8x Platinum certification from the RIAA, and most notably being named the most popular song on country radio for the past 20 years.
Shockingly, “Chicken Fried” is now the third-oldest country song to surpass one billion streams on Spotify. Despite being released just 18 years ago, it’s only behind Parton’s “Jolene” from 1973 and Rascal Flatts’ 2006 cover of “Life is a Highway.”
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 With Me (Taylor’s Version)” – Taylor Swift
- “Body Like a Backroad” – Sam Hunt
- “Wagon Wheel” – Darius Rucker
- “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha
- “Wasted On You” — Morgan Wallen
- “Life is a Highway” — Rascal Flatts
- “Fast Car” — Luke Combs
- “Jolene” – Dolly Parton
- “Heading South” – Zach Bryan
- “You Should Probably Leave” – Chris Stapleton
- “Chicken Fried” – Zac Brown Band
“Chicken Fried”
