Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” Now Longest #1 in Country History
Florida Georgia Line’s songs “Cruise” is now arguably the biggest song in this history of country music.
Arguably yes, because music charts aren’t always the best gauge of cultural impact, and you can certainly question the validity of “Cruise” as a country song to begin with. But all qualifiers aside, “Cruise” has now spent longer at the #1 position of Billboard’s “Hot Country Songs” chart than any other song in that chart’s 70 year history. 22 weeks, and counting. The distinguished names that populate the longest ever #1’s include Hank Snow, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold….and Florida Georgia Line, and Florida Georgia Line now holds the trump card above all of these Country Music Hall of Famers on the charts. In fact you have to go all the way back to 1961 to find another song that held the #1 position for more than even 8 weeks.
Looking at the chart below of the top ten longest charting #1’s in the history of country music, the legendary names and songs Florida Georgia Line will now forever be ahead of, and how long it has been since a any song has entered this chart, illustrates just what a historic anomaly Florida Georgia Line and “Cruise” have become.
Simply put, “Cruise” is a behemoth, and there’s no reason to think that just because it now holds the distinction of being the longest-charting #1 that it will simply fade into the sunset. And the song’s success is not just confined to chart performance. Sales wise the song is on its way to being certified 5-times Platinum, with 5,100,000 songs sold at last count—an astronomical number considering this feat was accomplished in the blossoming of the free download/streaming age of music.
So what does all of this mean?
Big awards awaiting Florida Georgia Line
You can almost guarantee that Florida Georgia Line will win “Vocal Duo of the Year” and “Single of the Year” at next November’s CMA Awards. And now they have to be considered nominees, if not front runners for “Album of the Year” and the prestigious “Entertainer of the Year” award. The ACM Awards a few months later might be a similar case, barring another breakout superstar trumping Florida Georgia Line’s success. And don’t just look at them as the story of one song. Their 2nd single “Shine On” had some impressive commercial and chart success, and their 3rd single “‘Round Here” is already #7 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and rising. Their album Here’s To The Good Times has also now claimed multiple weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. Florida-Georgia Line is winning the day in all sectors of country music right now.
Scott Borchetta has done it again.
Once again, the “Country Music Anti-Christ” has taken a virtual unknown all of the way to the very top of the country music mountain. Just like he did with Taylor Swift, he took a chance on an unproven act, and it has paid off in spades. In fact one irony about all of this Florida Georgia Line success is that it in many ways is outshining Taylor Swift. Certainly “Cruise” is, selling almost 2 million more songs than Taylor’s biggest single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” from her latest album, and “Cruise” is continuing to sell at a faster pace. Florida Georgia Line isn’t just the king of the hill, so is Scott Borchetta and Big Machine Records. They are on a massive winning streak that is showing no signs of ending soon.
Florida Georgia Line is the perfect mono-genre specimen.
They’re rock, they’re country, they’re hip-hop. Add some of their remixes, they could even be considered to touch on the fringes of EDM. Florida Georgia Line is all things to all people, and if you were looking for one band to symbolize the emergence or arrival of the mono-genre, it would be them. Has Billboard’s new chart rules aided in the success of “Cruise” and Florida Georgia Line? Of course. But don’t discount the commercial and cultural impact of this song and band either. For all we know, “Cruise” may have shattered this #1 Billboard chart record without the help of the new rules. It has sold that well, and stayed strong for that long.
Billboard’s chart rules are re-writing the history books.
When Billboard’s new chart rules went into effect boosting the chart performance of songs like “Cruise,” Saving Country Music put its full resources behind an attempt to persuade Billboard to reconsider some of its decisions. Much of this effort was met with apathy from music fans, including this site’s readership. At the time my assertion was this could completely re-shape the country music landscape, and result in the re-writing of history books like we now see with “Cruise.” The song trumping legacy recordings from Hall of Famers is the reason this issue mattered. Now by complaining about the rules, we look like sore losers. But nonetheless, the advantage “Cruise” had over classic country recording because of plays in the pop realm is one of the reasons we are seeing this anomaly.
At the same time, we also cannot discount the cultural impact of this song. There are songs that have sold more copies over the years in country, but not in a period like this where consumers are streaming songs more and more instead of buying them, and the whole music industry is in a recessionary environment. There also has to be another big song that resonates with music fans to knock a #1 out of that spot, and as of yet, we have not seen that song. Just as much as Florida Georgia Line has benefited from the new chart rules, so could another country crossover song and knock it out of the top spot. #1 songs are judged by their peers at that given point in history, not by the history of the genre. If anything, the success of “Cruise” also speaks to how country music at the moment is failing to produce songs that resonate with a wide audience, and just how much “Cruise” does resonate.
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Florida Georgia Line is no longer the next big thing in country music, they are the big thing, period. And this isn’t their high water mark, this is their foundation.
August 1, 2013 @ 8:50 am
Are you sure this is a “country” song?
August 1, 2013 @ 9:02 am
Look, we can tell ourselves this song isn’t country all we want, and tell ourselves none of this matters. But the simple fact is whenever a schoolkid goes to Billboard or Wikipedia or somewhere else to research what the biggest songs in the history of country music were, Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” is going to be right there at the very top, above a slew of Hall of Famers. That is why this matters more than anything. This is how this history of country music will be told.
I’ll even go as far as this: As long as Florida Georgia Line has moderate success for the next 10-12 years, they’re probably now shoe-ins for the Hall of Fame themselves because of this song’s success. And who knows where this ends. What is the big song that is going to depose “Cruise?” It could spend another 5-6 weeks on the chart, maybe longer.
October 13, 2013 @ 1:10 pm
greetings from kelowna,b.c.canada,
could you please tell me the total number of weeks
that “cruise” by FGL spent at #1.
thank you,
robert cosar
August 1, 2013 @ 9:02 am
That table is quite the eye opener. My first thought was that this is about as legitimate as calling Barry Bonds the all time home run king. But in one way, it’s even worse. At least Barry Bonds was a great ballplayer destined for first ballot HOF before he roided up.
August 1, 2013 @ 9:05 am
“Cruise” is the very first single Florida Georgia Line ever released. It would be like a rookie shattering the most home runs in the history of baseball in a player’s first year.
August 2, 2013 @ 9:47 am
Actually it would be more like a rookie shattering the single season home run record. As disturbing a statistic as this is, their single has merely been number one longer than any other single. It hasn’t been number one longer than, say, all George Strait’s singles have spent at the top of the charts put together. Let us pray that that’s impossible.
August 1, 2013 @ 9:47 am
Can we correct this tragedy or will good music forever be bound to the underground? Our world is plagued with musical ignorance. I wish the CDC would develop a vaccine for this.
August 1, 2013 @ 9:49 am
This sucks.
Any way someone could edit that Wiki article, put an asterisk next to Cruise, and go * = ‘since the way the chart is determined drastically changed’?
August 1, 2013 @ 10:10 am
Back in October of 2012 when Billboard changed its chart rules, I put the full resources of Saving Country Music behind opposing and decrying the new rules as eventually giving rise to this very problem. I tried as best I could to explain to people why this mattered, and specifically to them, and very few people listened. Mostly my campaign was met with apathy, sometimes even laughter, except from of all people, Carrie Underwood fans, and one reporter from the New York Times who called me up to interview me.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/billboard-changes-country-chart-rules-boosts-crossover-songs
https://savingcountrymusic.com/how-billboards-new-chart-rules-effect-you
And especially here:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/a-critical-time-in-country-music
“Over the last few months, and the last few weeks specifically, we have been going through a country music Cambrian Explosion of sorts, with massive, earth-moving events completely re-shaping the style and infrastructure of a genre that has been around for over 70 years. Arguably there”™s been more significant events in a short period than any other time in country”™s history.”
But one of the things I find most curious about the recent string of current events is how it has been received in certain sectors of the country music population. The country music underground was virtually birthed out of the rapid move to pop in country that was ushered in around the late 90”²s, early 2000”²s. Without the fervor and dissension around the direction of Music Row and mainstream country music, there may have never been as strong of support for acts like BR549, Hank Williams III, and Dale Watson. For a decade the underground was the sector of country music organizing against the intrusion of pop in country and trying to preserve country”™s roots.
But where are those voices now? As these historic issues have been presenting themselves one after another in recent months, Saving Country Music has not only had to work overtime to at least attempt to cover them from an independent viewpoint (let alone attempt to organize against them), but to fight off a strange form of active apathy that militantly wants to not give a shit.
Meanwhile where is there support for attempting to preserve the roots of the music coming from? Carrie Underwood fans of all places. Carrie Underwood fans! They have been making front page headlines for being against Billboard”™s new chart rules, even when as Billboard”™s Editorial Director Bill Werde points out, Carrie Underwood could very easily be one of the beneficiary”™s of the new system. Carrie”™s fans”™ reaction wasn”™t based soley on their self interests, but for better interests for the entire country genre.
The Billboard issue has had massive reverberations throughout the music industry, with fans of R&B, rap, and rock up in arms that artists with “Crossover” pop appeal are virtually entrenched in the top positions on Billboard”™s charts. Spin called the new rules “clueless.” The biggest paper in the world, The New York Times interviewed me to get my point of view, even though many of my readers found the issue boresome.”
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So folks, THIS is why these issues and causes are important, because eventually they’re going to lead to the rewriting of the history books. Now all it looks like is that we’re poor sports, bitching about the rules of the game—a loser’s cry. The rules are the rules now. We had a chance to change them, and failed. Nobody signed the petition. Nobody cared. And now, THIS is the result. I hope people remember this the next time they claim I’m crying wolf.
August 1, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Pass me the razor blade
August 1, 2013 @ 10:11 am
The visual I had was sticking my head in the oven. Guess I’m a little squeamish.
November 25, 2013 @ 5:37 am
Remember: Down the road, not across the street if you’re going the razor-route.
August 1, 2013 @ 10:40 am
There’s so much shit going around country music right now that I don’t even know where to point my finger and direct my anger. We’ve got hip hop artist coming in and raping the genre, white trash rappers trying to knock the door down, pop groups lip syncing on stage, Tim McGraw trying to figure out if he’s a mud bogging redneck or a Project Runway host, and the whole place is littered with empty Corona bottles from the latest Kenny Chesney concert that just rolled through. Country music is barely hanging on by a Don Williams album.
August 1, 2013 @ 11:21 am
or by a “Saving Country Music” thread
August 1, 2013 @ 12:02 pm
“Florida Georgia Line is no longer the next big thing in country music, they are the big thing, period.”
Oh, hot dog. Of all things to become an unstoppable juggernaut…
Across-the-board unifying figures are so rare in our increasingly fragmented pop culture, especially in the music world. It’s a shame that the “BABY, YOU A SONG” guys are the “best” we can do nowadays in that regard. :p
August 1, 2013 @ 12:08 pm
Honestly, I think the “monogenere” is here to stay. Game over we lost. The trick now is to use the new avenues out there to expose good music to as many folks as possible. In this day and age if you want good music it’s out there the country music anti-christ be dammned. We do not need Nashvegas not even a little bit. Buffett proved one thing years ago songs about partying at the beach the lake etc. always strike a chord with lots of folks because it reminds them of fun times. “cruise” simply proves that formula will always work.
August 1, 2013 @ 1:55 pm
This is sad news, but the way they tabulate the charts is why this nightmare set to music can do this.
August 1, 2013 @ 2:45 pm
All that time at #1 and I’m not even sure their guitars have strings on them.
August 1, 2013 @ 3:24 pm
They’re certainly not plugged in.
August 1, 2013 @ 3:00 pm
I can’t even tell you how many friends’ comments, facebook posts, etc., I’ve heard that go something like this: “I normally don’t like country music, but I LOVE Florida Georgia Line.”
Countless children and teenagers are being brainwashed that rural/country living is nothing more than big trucks, light beer, field parties and cutoffs. Nothing matters but partying and consumerism. On one hand I want to laugh off FGL and hick hop artists as goofballs, but when I see firsthand the impact this type of bullshit has on our culture, i feel a little reactionary.
August 2, 2013 @ 8:47 pm
And I’ve seen the same comments about artists making country music who have never remixed a song. Also people generally like and talk about whatever radio plays. With Cruise being on pop and county radio, naturally it gets the most talk.
August 2, 2013 @ 6:50 am
Things change, and we adjust:
The live ball replaced the dead ball in Major League Baseball in 1920. Home Run Baker is still considered a pretty damn good slugger.
The MLB season went from 154 games to 162 games in 1961. Ask Roger Maris how easy it is for fans to forget that.
The NBA added the shot clock in 1954, the three-pointer in 1979. College in 1985 and 1980. Pete Maravich is still a legendary scorer.
SAT scores changed from a max of 1600 to 2400 in 2005. People who took the test in 2004 and earlier didn”™t suddenly get dumber.
The list could go on and on . . .
I predict FGL will simply be buried under the wave of new, longer records yet to come. Crossover hits always sell better. Always have, always will. We (as a rule) don”™t like crossover songs. Get over it.
I stopped watching MLB after the travesty of the cancelled World Series in 1994. Instead I go to a minor league game. I like it better. I like outlaw country better, too. Glad we live in a world with choices.
(As a side not, in the cover band I”™m in, I have been forced to do ”˜Cruise”™. I sing backing vocals, and in protest my lyric always goes, ”˜Babe you know this song, makes me wanna roll my windows down, and pyoo-ook.”™)
August 2, 2013 @ 8:54 pm
Things change but pop isn’t going more country. Country is going more pop and it was already too pop before this change. It’s no longer crossover when artists are remixing songs for pop radio and making pop and rap songs to begin with like Luke’s new song, it’s jumping the fence.
August 2, 2013 @ 8:10 pm
Hey Trigger, I was wondering what your thoughts were on this blog post, where a guy took Billboards new methodology and applied it to other major crossover pop country hits to see how long they would have been at number one under the new methodology, and how they stack up to Cruise.
http://www.mjsbigblog.com/the-meaningless-florida-georgia-line-billboard-hot-country-songs-record-who-really-has-the-biggest-country-hit.htm
August 2, 2013 @ 9:02 pm
I did see it. Covering a festival at the moment. Will read it more in-depth when I get chance.
August 2, 2013 @ 8:39 pm
I”l repeat what I saw and said when Billboard’s unfair new Hot Country chart rules started. I bet some labels (probably Big Machine and their bigger partner Universal (the biggest label in the world that controls most music, most being pop)) asked Billboard to change the rules in their favor the help them make country music more pop and reward and encourage artists for doing so. Also to further promote those artists like this Billboard article does:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/5447163/florida-georgia-lines-cruise-sets-record-for-longest-no-1-run-on
No matter how they spin it, a huge portion of Cruise airplay and sales came from the Nelly remix pop radio plays. It doesn’t matter if it was 1%, 50% or 99%, including pop airplay for the Hot Country chart screws over every country artist not making pop music or remixing. It’s also similar to the Hot 100 chart they already had, where Cruise peaked at #4.
All while keeping many country songs from hitting #1, top 5 or 10, or even just entering the Hot Country chart. Also keeping many from charting well at country radio since radio plays what the pop mongers (“gorillas”) are pushing.
If there were no Billboard Hot Country chart change, maybe there would be no Nelly remix.
On July 16, 2012, Florida Georgia Line signed with Republic Nashville, part of the Big Machine Label Group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Georgia_Line
In October 2012 Billboard changed the Hot Country chart rules.
The Nelly remix, produced by Jason Nevins, was released to iTunes on April 2, 2013 and to pop radio on April 16, 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_%28song%29
This mess is the worst thing to happen to country music, ever, since it’s strongly biased against, promotes pop over and kills country. How can we get more country fans to sign this petition?
Billboard, Stop the Use of Multi-Format Airplay in Determining ‘Hit’ Country, R&B, Rock Songs
http://www.change.org/petitions/billboard-stop-the-use-of-multi-format-airplay-in-determining-hit-country-r-b-rock-songs
Since this puts steel, fiddle, banjo etc. musicians out of work they should sign it too.
What else can we do?
August 3, 2013 @ 9:20 am
As music director for a country station, I take a bit of offense at people who want to blame this all on country radio. The radio plays it because people are buying and requesting it. This run at #1 is being driven almost entirely by sales, as the song is still in the top 10 of the iTunes sales charts.
The fact of the matter is that Cruise spent all of one or two weeks at number one on Mediabase. That’s the chart radio uses. Billboard has very little connection to anything we do. Even less so since they changed their chart rules. On the radio the song has spent most of the year as a recurrent (light rotation) and in the near future will be no more common on the radio than any other hit from recent years.
August 18, 2013 @ 1:37 pm
I find the country song to be on the upper side of mediocre with the remix being terrible. The song is very catchy and with enough drawl and partying. I find myself to enjoy the song. I agree that Florida-Georgia Line are the next big country duo following Brooks & Dunn and Sugarland. They have made history, and I’m proud of them for that. Not many singers/groups find big success with their first single, so for F-GL to get this big with their first single is amazing.
Going off-topic here, another fairly new country artist I also have been following since his first single is Hunter Hayes. A talented musician and a good singer-songwriter, though his first single “Storm Warning” was a small hit, his second single “Wanted” propelled him into country stardom at only 21. Unless something tragic happens, he’s got a good long career ahead of him.
October 2, 2014 @ 12:54 am
You need to check, sure I’m movin on held number one for a total of 26 weeks.
October 2, 2014 @ 7:51 am
Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” is the longest #1 in history. At this point dozens upon dozens of articles and outlets have run stories predicated on this certified fact, including Billboard who tabulates these things. “I’m Movin’ On” held the position for 21 weeks. This was also certified from Billboard.