Chris Stapleton Readies New Radio Single After “Broken Halos” Success
After the #1 success Chris Stapleton had with his previous single “Broken Halos,” his camp has called an audible last minute, and decided to switch up the next song they will send to radio. The rocking and heavy “Midnight Train to Memphis” from his latest album From A Room: Vol. 2 was supposed to be first single from the 2nd From A Room installment. The song was co-written with Mike Henderson and was originally featured on the SteelDrivers self-titled 2008 album when Stapleton was still with the band. “Midnight Train to Memphis” was also featured on a full tilt performance with Sturgill Simpson on Saturday Night Live in late January.
Instead though, Mercury Nashville has decided to go with the much more sedated “Millionaire” as the next radio single. The opening song to From A Room: Vol. 2 was written by well-respected songwriter Kevin Welch. There certainly is a change of pace between the two songs, but the performance on the radio for either one is anybody’s guess. With the fickle way radio has dealt with Stapleton’s singles previously, and with the lack of a solid strategy from Mercury Nashville, who knows how “Millionaire” will be received.
The song will be sent to country radio on April 23rd, along with an add class that also includes the very circumspect “Hotdamalama” from Parmalee, and the Walker Hayes song “Craig.” Hopefully “Millionaire” will find some success, and cancel out any harm the other two singles do. And if nothing else, if the single finds traction, it will be a healthy payday for Kevin Welch who recently was dealing with financial issues after having to take time away from writing and touring to help with his daughter Savannah who lost her leg in an auto accident in November of 2016. Savannah is also a performer, known for her work with the Texas music supergroup The Trishas.
It will also be interesting to see if Stapleton performs “Millionaire,” or a different song when he appears at the 2018 ACM Awards on Sunday, April 15th. Stapleton is up for a field-leading eight awards on the night, including Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song and Single of the Year. Award shows have been very kind to Stapleton over the last few years, as have album sales, with his 2015 Traveller still regularly lingering in the Top 5 on the Country Albums chart.
Radio has been the last holdout to the effort to return more substance to country music. But with the success of Stapleton’s “Broken Halos,” and a slew of more quality singles from some of mainstream country’s biggest names—including Luke Bryan who holds at #1 for a 3rd week with “Most People Are Good”—there are beginning to be glimmers of hope. The success or failure of “Millionaire” may be a good bellwether for where the country radio format might be heading in the second half of 2018.
April 11, 2018 @ 8:29 am
I like the switch up to “Millionaire.” It’ll be interesting to see what radio does with it.
April 11, 2018 @ 8:34 am
“Millionaire” is more in the vein of “Broken Halos,” so the switch makes sense. It seems to be doubling down on the success of the latter. I hope the move works.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:05 am
Awesome news for Kevin Welch. Love this song, I prefer Welch singing it but can’t complain having Stapleton sing it and release it as a single. Great choice by Stapletons team.
April 11, 2018 @ 10:18 am
We shouldn’t overlook that in 2018, Kevin Welch is getting a solo write released to country radio by one of the biggest stars in all of country who just scored a #1.
April 11, 2018 @ 11:22 am
Agreed, this is pretty huge for all involved. With Stapleton plugging Eady on ACL, to his Gary P Nunn cover, this shows that Stapleton is well aware of what’s out there. I get he has spent plenty of time behind the scenes and knows everybody in the business, but this goes to show how he’s cutting his own path. He could have had his pick at any song he wanted or even wrote one of the same caliber, he chose to pick a great song from a great artist. Having it being played on Radio is the icing on the cake and could turn out to put Welch in a comfortable financial position.
This goes to show how important it is that these mainstream artist are paying attention to the smaller guys. Having them at shows, plug artist or even wearing a shirt on stage, it’s marketing that you can’t pay any amount for. We are seeing it more and more and everybody involved is benefiting, including the consumer.
April 13, 2018 @ 3:04 pm
And let’s not forget that Mike Henderson came from Kevin Welch’s band originally, so hey, full circle indeed.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:06 am
They’ve been playing “Midnight Train to Memphis” on WDVE (renowned classic rock formatted radio station in Pittsburgh, PA). Every time they play it, my phone blows up with texts “have you heard of this guy Chris Stapleton?”
April 11, 2018 @ 10:20 am
“Midnight Train to Memphis” is also in big rotation on Americana radio already, which assumed just like rock that it would be the next single. That has me a little scared about the switch up, the whole “don’t pull horses in midstream.”
April 11, 2018 @ 12:58 pm
They have been so befuddled from the get go with Stapleton and any semblance of a coherent radio strategy. I’m not really sure I understand why either. Yeah, he’s different than the average bro but still pick a song and work it. Not that hard.
April 11, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
It’s also part of the sound track for this year’s MLB The Show video game.
April 11, 2018 @ 10:32 am
Ditto with renowned St. Louis classic rock station KSHE. I’ve heard it at least 3 times there, and I don’t listen to them very often.
April 11, 2018 @ 10:52 am
I’m a big fan of Chris but don’t really listen to country radio. Why not just do what other artists do from like Pop. They’ll release one song to Top 40 radio and a different song to Urban radio. So release Midnight Train To Memphis to Rock and Americana radio and Millionaire to Country. Seems like an easy solution to try.
April 11, 2018 @ 1:52 pm
They’re also playing Blackberry Smoke’s “Best Seat in the House”.
April 11, 2018 @ 7:17 pm
I’m going to call up my rock station and start requesting Blackberry Smoke!
April 11, 2018 @ 9:09 am
This is the right choice, should be back to back #1’s. Should peak in the fall.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:12 am
While “millionaires” is a good song, in terms of how radio will treat more traditional country songs, it’s not one of the ones I have been/will be tracking. And so far radio/radio audience still seems seriously resistant to the more traditional country (I know that call out scores for midland for instance have been poor, despite radio PD’s liking them).
April 11, 2018 @ 9:27 am
Millionaire is a good song, but I’ll always associate it more with Chris LeDoux who recorded it back in 2002 for After The Storm.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:33 am
“Midnight Train to Memphis” is getting massive play on the major rock station around here.
Right in between The Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson.
Strange.
April 11, 2018 @ 11:29 am
That has me a bit worried that radio is receiving mixed messages from Stapleton’s label, and may get a little miffed that they’re doing a switcheroo here. Just like Bebe Rexha and others can benefit from spins on pop radio in the charts, so can someone like Stapleton benefit from rock and Americana spins. And for any single to be successful, you have to have a unified front behind one song that can punch through all the noise.
April 11, 2018 @ 12:29 pm
I’m guessing the rock stations starting playing “Midnight Train to Memphis” after the SNL performance because it looks like it peaked already.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:39 am
His singing style is redundant, and while his voice is pleasant – the blues southern rock shtick is getting old to me. All of the songs sound so similar…. which is still much better than 99% of current country radio. The 5 second slide solo was nice, too.
April 11, 2018 @ 3:20 pm
My thoughts exactly. Stapleton is just boring. Yes, he can sing. But so can a lot of people. The writing / passion just has never been there in my mind.
April 12, 2018 @ 9:02 am
Im not a fan although I can recognize he is far better than other stuff on the radio but you nailed it. The voice is annoying, grating and so samey and redundant to me. Its like he starts the songs with the same trope everytime. I couldnt get through more than 15 seconds of this track since his whine is so overdone at this point. Nails on a chalkboard.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:40 am
I just checked the Billboards Top Mainstream Rock Songs Charts and “Midnight Train to Memphis” sits at 33 (however, it’s down this week).
Maybe the plan is to let “Midnight Train to Memphis” do it’s thing on the rock stations and service a different song on country radio.
April 11, 2018 @ 1:01 pm
That kind of thing used to be done a lot. I still remember when ‘Copperhead Road’ made the top ten on the rock charts and how it was a pretty big deal at the time.
April 11, 2018 @ 1:16 pm
That’s how I was first introduced to Charlie Daniels … a rock station. No cuntry station be playing him.
April 11, 2018 @ 9:46 am
Country radio seems fine with authenticity in slow to mid-tempo songs like “Millionaire” and “Broken Halos” right now. But I doubt that will stay true when the upbeat “summer songs” season comes. Late-May/Early-June will see the release of more “Cruise” wannabes, because country radio still isn’t playing upbeat traditional songs, like Midnight Train To Memphis.
April 11, 2018 @ 12:00 pm
Chris Stapleton’s voice and commitment to his songs is just earth-shaking. every time I hear a Stapleton song I’m dumstruck by how much of himself he puts into his singing.
This is just awesome
April 11, 2018 @ 1:43 pm
Chris is a dawg
April 11, 2018 @ 2:25 pm
Such a great song. The first time I ever heard a version of it was on Solomon Burke’s Nashville album, which is really awesome all around. Especially the song he does with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – “valley of tears.” Anyway, I really like this Stapleton version and had no idea Kevin Welch wrote it.
April 11, 2018 @ 4:47 pm
very few in ALL OF MUSIC that can hold a candle to CHRIS.He is the country music jesus Eric church sang about on the CHEIF album.FACT
April 11, 2018 @ 6:50 pm
Been hearing Midnight train to Memphis every time I turn on country radio this past week. Aesome song and Stapelton let’s it Roll!!!
April 13, 2018 @ 6:55 pm
Nope. Nope. Nope. “Millionaire” was ALWAYS the single of choice for country radio. “Midnight Train To Memphis” was/is an AAA radio single.
April 13, 2018 @ 11:16 pm
Okay well don’t break your ankle running to proclaim how right you are, Bjorke. That sure isn’t the impression numerous folks I know in country radio had about “Midnight Train to Memphis.” Not saying you’re not right, but I think there was a wide impression “Midnight Train To Memphis” was going to be the next country single as well. And furthermore, promoting two different singles to two different formats just lends to the picture of confusion with Chris Stapleton’s singles strategy.
April 14, 2018 @ 4:44 am
There is precedent: Zac Brown Band releasing “Heavy Is The Head” being the most recent. The folks I know in radio weren’t told any different. You’re looking for something that just isn’t there.
April 15, 2018 @ 11:53 am
“Midnight Train to Memphis” is on the MLB The Show 18 video game soundtrack. I bought the game for my sons a couple weeks ago & was surprised to hear the song when they were playing the game. I wish they had released it as the next single.
April 16, 2018 @ 2:33 pm
Authentic Country musician and an accomplished artist.