To absolutely no one’s surprise, Luke Combs runs the table this week, with his This One’s for You returning to the top of Billboard’s country albums chart and his single, “Beautiful Crazy,” holding at No. 1 on the country airplay rankings for the second week in a row.
This One’s for You has so far spent 91 weeks on the albums chart.
No new albums come aboard this week, but there are four new songs — Thomas Rhett’s “Look What God Gave Her” leading the pack with a No. 20 debut, followed by Jason Aldean’s “Rearview Town” (No. 54), Chris Janson’s “Good Vibes” (No. 57) and Dierks Bentley’s “Living” (No. 58). Rascal Flatts’ “Back to Life” re-enters at No. 42.
The seven returning albums are Tim McGraw’s 35 Biggest Hits (No. 16), Johnny Cash’s The Greatest: The Number Ones (No. 38), Ultimate Dolly Parton (No. 44), Alabama’s The American Farewell Tour (No. 47), Jimmie Allen’s Mercury Lane (No. 48), the eponymous Lee Brice (No.49) and Keith Urban’s Ripcord (No. 50).
Occupying the No. 2 through No. 5 album slots, in that order, are Florida Georgia Line’s Can’t Say I Ain’t Country (last week’s No. 1), Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour, the self-titled Dan + Shay and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller.
The remaining Top 5 songs are Jordan Davis’ “Take It From Me,” Scotty McCreery’s “This Is It,” Aldean’s “Girl Like You” and Luke Bryan’s “What Makes You Country.”
For those of you who forage on data about the writers of these hits, it’s worth noting that the insatiable Ashley Gorley has co-writing credits on seven of this week’s Top 60 songs — Bryan’s “What Makes You Country,” Chase Rice’s “Eyes on You,” Eli Young Band’s “Love Ain’t,” Brice’s “Rumor,” Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You,” Janson’s “Good Vibes” and Bentley’s “Living.”
To date, Gorley has scored around 40 No. 1 singles and seems destined for a niche in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
