Lee Brice Breaks Country Songs Longevity Record
Brice's "Love Like Crazy" passes the mark previously established by late legend Eddy Arnold with "Bouquet of Roses" in 1948-49.
Lee Brice‘s “Love Like Crazy” rewrites the mark for most weeks spent on Billboard’s Country Songs chart, as the Curb Records single rises from No. 5 to No. 3, its highest rank to-date, in its 55th week on the survey.
The song bests the 54-week stay of Eddy Arnold‘s “Bouquet of Roses,” which debuted the week of May 15, 1948, and reigned for 19 weeks at No. 1.
Billboard’s Country Songs chart launched the week of Jan. 8, 1944.
“It’s so cool to look back and see the life of this song and how it just kept growing and growing,” Brice tells Billboard. “To beat a record that has been around that long is amazing.
“The Curb promotional staff did a great job and I’m so thankful.”
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Curb Records founder/chairman Mike Curb echoes Brice’s pride in cultivating “Love Like Crazy,” the label’s latest song to log a lengthy run on a Billboard chart.
“Curb Records had the thrill of having the first single on the Billboard Hot 100 for a year with ‘December 1963 (Oh What a Night)’,” says Curb, noting the then-record longest stay on the Hot 100 when the 4 Seasons‘ track notched its 52nd of 54 total weeks on the Jan. 28, 1995 chart. The song inked twin 27-week chart lives in 1976 (No. 1, three weeks) and 1994-95 (No. 14).
“We also held the record for the longest-running song on the Hot 100 for the first 50 years of the chart with ‘How Do I Live’ by LeAnn Rimes,” says Curb. Rimes’ ballad logged the chart’s longest run (69 weeks, 1997-98) until Jason Mraz‘s “I’m Yours” remained on the list for 76 weeks from May 2008 through October 2009.
“We never dreamed that we would have a song like Lee Brice’s recording of ‘Love Like Crazy’ that would break the all-time record that was held by our close friend Eddy Arnold for more than 60 years,” says Curb.
“This was a team effort that everyone at our company will always be proud of.”
“Love Like Crazy” entered the Nielsen BDS-based Country Songs radio airplay chart at No. 58 the week of Sept. 5, 2009, with 352,000 audience impressions on 13 reporters. This week, on the chart dated Sept. 18, 2010, the song’s 29.5 million in weekly audience – on all 126 panelists – ups its combined total to 525 million impressions throughout its chart life.
The song has sold 503,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its parent album of the same name has sold 55,000 copies. The set debuted and peaked at No. 9 on Country Albums in June.
While ceding the chart longevity record to Brice, Arnold, who passed away one week shy of his 90th birthday in 2008, retains the marks for most weeks tallied at No. 1 (145) and most top 10s (92) in the 66-year history of Country Songs.
All charts on Billboard.com will be refreshed Thursday (Sept. 9).
Additional reporting by Wade Jessen