Blake Shelton nabs his 36th top 10 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, as “Minimum Wage” lifts 11-10 in its 21st week on the list dated June 12. In the week ending June 6, the song gained by 9% to 16.4 million impressions, according to MRC Data.
The track is the sophomore single from Shelton’s 12th full-length, Body Language, which opened at No. 3 on the June 5-dated Top Country Albums chart with 24,000 equivalent album units.
Body Language lead single “Happy Anywhere,” featuring Gwen Stefani, led Country Airplay in December, becoming Shelton’s 28th leader (and Stefani’s second). It hit No. 3 on the airplay-, sales- and streaming-based Hot Country Songs chart.
Shelton first hit the Country Airplay top 10 with “Austin,” which started a five-week domination in August 2001. With 36 top 10s, he ties Garth Brooks for the ninth-most since the chart launched in January 1990. George Strait leads with 61, followed by Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw (58 each); Alan Jackson (51); Keith Urban and Toby Keith (42 each); Brooks & Dunn (41) and, the top female artist in the category, Reba McEntire (37).
On Hot Country Songs, “Minimum Wage” ranks at No. 14 after hitting No. 12 a week earlier. It drew 4.7 million U.S. streams and sold 3,000 downloads in the week ending June 3.
‘FOREVER’ AND TWO WEEKS Luke Combs’ “Forever After All” tops Country Airplay for a second week (35.5 million impressions, up 10%). Of Combs’ record 11 consecutive career-opening No. 1 singles, the song is his 10th to reign for multiple weeks. Fittingly, “One Number Away” is so far his lone leader to miss the mark, leading for a week in June 2018.
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE Country-rock band Blackberry Smoke scores its fifth Top Country Albums top 10, as You Hear Georgia, produced by Dave Cobb, enters at No. 5 with 13,000 equivalent album units (12,000 in album sales). The set, a nod to the group’s home state, follows Find a Light (No. 3, April 2018); Like an Arrow (No. 1, one week, November 2016); Holding All the Roses (No. 1, one week, February 2015); and The Whipoorwill (No. 8, September 2012).
The new set concurrently starts atop Americana/Folk albums, marking the group’s second No. 1, following Like an Arrow, and at No. 7 on Top Rock Albums. It debuts at No. 4 on the all-genre Top Album Sales list.
THOMAS REMEMBERED The late B.J. Thomas, whose career endured for more than five decades, shows on Country Digital Song Sales (which began in January 2010) for the first time, led by “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” which debuts at No. 17. It sold 1,900 downloads, up 1,959%, in the week ending June 3. Thomas died May 29 at age 78 after battling lung cancer.
The 1969 classic became Thomas’ first leader on any Billboard survey, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and seven frames atop Adult Contemporary.
Plus, Thomas’ “Hooked on a Feeling” (a rerecorded version) opens at No. 23 on Country Digital Song Sales with 1,600 sold, up 2,625%. The original reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 in January 1969.
Thomas enjoyed notable success in the country format. He scored his first Hot Country Songs entry in 1975 with “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” which led the chart that May. The single sold 1,200 in the tracking week, a surge of 2,885%. In 1975-2000, he notched 16 Hot Country Songs appearances, including three No. 1s among five top 10s.
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