Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” is the biggest country hit of all time

Cruise

Florida Georgia Line with Nelly

Writer(s): Brian Kelley, Tyler Hubbard, Joey Moi, Chase Rice, Jesse Rice (see lyrics here)


Released: August 6, 2012


First Charted: August 11, 2012


Peak: 4 US, 7 RR, 13 AC, 6 A40, 124a CW, 75 UK, 38 CN (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, -- UK, 11.3 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.13 radio, 280.7 video, 302.42 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

The duo of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, known as Florida Georgia Line, burst on to the country scene in about as big a way as a recording artist can. “Cruise,” their lead single from their EP, It’z Just What We Do, was first released in August 2012, but was also included in their first full-length album, Here’s to the Good Times, released that December.

Thanks to a change in Billboard chart methodology, at the year-mark, the song can boast a year later to being the biggest country song of all-time. In December, the song hit #1 on the Billboard country charts, a position it had held for a whopping 17 weeks a year after its release. More significantly, however, are the 22 weeks it has logged on the country airplay chart, separating it from a three-way tie for songs which had spent 21 weeks at the pinnacle: Eddy Arnold’s “I’ll Hold You in My Heart Till I Can Hold You in My Arms” (1947), Hank Snow’s “I’m Moving On” (1950), and Webb Pierce’s “In the Jailhouse Now” (1955).

With 5 million in sales, it also snagged the title of best-selling song by a country duo in digital history WK and ranks as the third best-selling country song in digital history behind Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” and Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” BB Since then, it has been certified at 11 million by the RIAA. A remix featuring rapper Nelly has also kept the song in the pop limelight, where the song took longer than any other song in the 55-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 to reach the top 5 (although the record was soon broken by the 43 weeks Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive” took to do the same).

Roughstock’s Matt Bjorke called it “a feel-good song from a band that likes to have a good time.” WK Billy Dukes of Taste of Country said of the duo that “their formal training shows in the tight execution of this lyric-heavy summer song.” WK Finally, Liv Carter of Urban Country News said it was a “disposable, yet enjoyable, country summer song which will not only enjoy a healthy chart run, but find itself on radio playlists for many more summers.” WK


Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Florida Georgia Line
  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Nelly
  • B1 Billboard “Florida Georgia Line’s ‘Cruise’ Ties for Longest No. 1 Run On Hot Country Songs” (24 July 2013).
  • B2 Billboard “One Direction Blasts Onto Hot 100 at No. 2, Robin Thicke Still No. 1” (31 July 2013).
  • WK Wikipedia
  • YM Yahoo! Music


First posted 8/6/2013; last updated 11/2/2021.

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