Hot Country Songs

Billboard began compiling the popularity of country songs with its January 8, 1944, issue. Only the genre's most popular jukebox selections were tabulated, with the chart titled "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records".{{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=Michael|title=Popular Music in America:The Beat Goes On|date=1 January 2012|publisher=Cengage Learning|location=Chapter 30 Honky Tonk|page=125|isbn=978-1133712602|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cf0JAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT143|access-date=25 April 2018|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404213346/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cf0JAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT143|url-status=live}}

For approximately ten years, from 1948 to 1958, Billboard used three charts to measure the popularity of a given song. In addition to the jukebox chart, these charts included:

• The "best sellers" chart – started 15 May 1948, as "Best Selling Retail Folk Records".
• An airplay chart – started 10 December 1949, as "Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys".

The juke box chart was discontinued in June 1957. Starting with the 20 October 1958, issue, Billboard began combining sales and radio airplay in figuring a song's overall popularity, counting them in one single chart called "Hot C&W Sides". The chart was published under the title Hot C&W Sides through the 27 October 1962, issue and "Hot Country Singles" thereafter, a title it would retain until 1990.{{cite book|title=Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs: 1944–2005|page=ix|first=Joel|last=Whitburn|author-link=Joel Whitburn|publisher=Record Research|date=2005|isbn=9780898201659}}

On 20 January 1990, the Hot Country Singles chart was reduced from 100 to 75 positions and began to be compiled entirely from information provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a system which electronically monitors radio airplay of songs.{{cite magazine|title=R&B Enjoying Rare Dominance Over Rap|magazine=Billboard|date=24 April 2004|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mxAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68|access-date=25 April 2018|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404213348/https://books.google.com/books?id=mxAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68|url-status=live}} Four weeks later, on February 17, the chart was retitled "Hot Country Singles & Tracks". Beginning with the January 13, 2001, issue, the chart was reduced from 75 to 60 positions, and all songs on the chart at the time had their tally of weeks spent on the chart adjusted to count only weeks spent at No. 60 or higher.{{cite magazine|last=Jessen|first=Wade|date=January 13, 2001|title=Country Corner|magazine=Billboard|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/00s/2001/BB-2001-01-13.pdf}} Effective April 30, 2005, the chart was renamed "Hot Country Songs".

Starting in 1990, the rankings were determined by Arbitron-tallied listener audience for each spin that a song received. The methodology was changed for the first chart published in 1992 to tally the amount of spins a song received, but in January 2005, the methodology reverted to the audience format. This change was brought on because of "label-sponsored spin programs" that had manipulated the chart several times in 2004.{{cite journal|date=20 November 2004|title=Country returns to audience-based chart|page=88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehMEAAAAMBAJ|access-date=15 March 2016|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404213437/https://books.google.com/books?id=ehMEAAAAMBAJ|url-status=live}}

The Hot Country Songs chart methodology was changed starting with the 20 October 2012, issue to match the Billboard Hot 100: digital downloads and streaming data are combined with airplay from all radio formats to determine position. A new chart, the Country Airplay chart, was created using airplay exclusively from country radio stations. Following the change, songs that were receiving airplay on top-40 pop were given a major advantage over songs popular only on country radio, and as an unintended consequence, such songs began having record-long runs at the top of the chart. The first song to benefit from this change was Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which had been declining in popularity but shot up to number one on the chart the first week the change took effect and stayed there until it set an all-time record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo female.{{cite news|last1=Jessen|first1=Wade|title=Taylor Swift Makes Country Songs History|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/1481551/taylor-swift-makes-country-songs-history|access-date=5 April 2018|work=Billboard Magazine|publisher=Billboard Musix|date=6 December 2012|archive-date=17 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517062549/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/1481551/taylor-swift-makes-country-songs-history|url-status=live}} This was followed almost immediately by Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise", which had the longest stay at number one of any song in the country chart's history (24 weeks),{{cite magazine|last=Jessen|first=Wade|title=Florida Georgia Line's 'Cruise' Sets Record For Longest No. 1 Run On Hot Country Songs|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/5447163/florida-georgia-lines-cruise-sets-record-for-longest-no-1-run-on|access-date=August 18, 2013|magazine=Billboard|date=August 1, 2013|archive-date=August 7, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807054448/http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/5447163/florida-georgia-lines-cruise-sets-record-for-longest-no-1-run-on|url-status=live}} until it was surpassed by Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" in 2017 (34 weeks). The record was subsequently broken by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line's "Meant to Be" in 2018 (50 weeks).

Billboard has not explicitly defined how it determines which songs qualify for the country chart and which ones do not, only that "a few factors are determined (...) first and foremost is musical composition" and that a song must "embrace enough elements of today's country music" to qualify. The 1990–2012 chart did not have such ambiguity, being objectively measured by airplay from specifically identified country stations alone. A later statement from Billboard elaborated on what those "few factors" entailed: "most notably the song's musical composition, but also how the song is marketed and promoted, the musical history of the artist, airplay the song receives and how the song is platformed on streaming services".{{Cite web|url=https://qz.com/quartzy/1592928/old-town-road-is-only-the-third-country-song-in-30-years-to-make-it-to-make-it-to-no-1/|title="Old Town Road" is only the third country song in 30 years to make it to make it to number one|date=11 April 2019|access-date=16 April 2019|archive-date=5 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191005134255/https://qz.com/quartzy/1592928/old-town-road-is-only-the-third-country-song-in-30-years-to-make-it-to-make-it-to-no-1/|url-status=live}} The 2019 country rap record "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X was a subject of controversy over this ambiguous standard after it initially appeared on the country chart, where it debuted and peaked at number 19, before Billboard took the song off subsequent charts, claiming it had made a mistake in including it. The song gained popularity through viral memes rather than radio, as only one country station, Radio Disney Country, had played it at the time of the charting.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-810844/|title=Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' Was a Country Hit. Then Country Changed Its Mind|author=Elias Leight|date=March 26, 2019|access-date=March 27, 2019|magazine=Rolling Stone|archive-date=June 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190613075635/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-810844/|url-status=live}}

These are the songs with 16 or more weeks at number one. Fifteen songs accomplished this feat between 1946 and 1964 (including on the country charts published by Billboard prior to the launch in 1958 of what is now the Hot Country Songs listing), but none did so again until after the 2012 reformulation; between the nine-week run of "Almost Persuaded" by David Houston in 1966 and the chart's reformulation in 2012, no song spent more than eight weeks atop the chart. Prolonged runs became commonplace again in 2012. {{as of|2025|April|26|df=US}}, thirteen songs from this period have topped the chart for at least 16 weeks, and the seven longest chart runs have all been since 2012.

Note: Songs marked {{dagger}} achieved the listed run on the Most Played in Juke Boxes chart (published 1944–58). Songs marked {{double-dagger}} achieved the listed run on the Best Sellers on Stores chart (published 1948–58). Songs marked § achieved the listed run on the Most Played by Jockeys chart (published 1949–58). All these songs also had shorter runs at number one on the other charts not indicated. In 1958 the three charts were merged to create Hot C&W Sides (now Hot Country Songs).

With at least 50+ weeks at # 1. As of the issue of Billboard dated April 12, 2025

George Strait has the most number one hits, at 44.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/george-strait/chart-history/csi/|title=George Strait|magazine=Billboard|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-date=2020-10-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030124251/https://www.billboard.com/music/George-Strait/chart-history/CSI|url-status=live}} Dolly Parton has the most number ones of any female artist, with 25.{{Cite magazine|url = https://www.billboard.com/artist/dolly-parton/chart-history/csi/|title = Dolly Parton|magazine = Billboard|access-date = 2021-12-01|archive-date = 2022-06-19|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220619051656/https://www.billboard.com/artist/dolly-parton/chart-history/csi/|url-status = live}}

• List of number-one country hits (United States)
• American Country Countdown
• List of years in country music
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Hot country chart
• Country Airplay

{{Reflist}}

• Whitburn, Joel. Top Country Songs 1944-2005 - 6th Edition. 2006.

• [http://www.billboard.com/charts/country-songs Billboard Hot Country Songs chart] – online version.

{{Hot Country Songs}}

{{Billboard charts}}

Category:American country music

Category:Billboard charts