Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” Exceeds 1 Billion Streams On Spotify
on Aug 13, 2024
Chris Stapleton Becomes The Second Solo Country Artist To Have A Song Reach One Billion Streams On Spotify
Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” has joined an elite club after surpassing one billion streams on Spotify.
Stapleton is only the fourth country artist to have achieved this feat. Dan + Shay’s “10,000 hours” collaboration with Justin Bieber and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” with Bebe Rexha reached the milestone in past years.
More recently, Morgan Wallen became the first solo country artist to have a song that exceeded one billion Spotify streams with his hit track, “Last Night.”
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Stapleton followed up right behind him, becoming the second solo country singer to have a song surpass one billion streams on Spotify. That song, of course, was his version of “Tennessee Whiskey.”
Spotify also added the song to its “Billions Club” playlist, which contains all the songs with one billion streams on the platform.
The History Behind “Tennessee Whiskey”
“Tennessee Whiskey” is not an original Stapleton song. Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove wrote the track, which was first released by David Allan Coe in 1981. His version reached the 77th spot on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Then, George Jones offered up his take on “Tennessee Whiskey” in 1983. His rendition claimed the #2 spot on the Hot Country Songs chart and was also a #1 country hit in Canada.
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As mentioned previously, Stapleton released his version of “Tennessee Whiskey” in 2015. The song was featured on his debut album, Traveller, which was released in May of that year.
But “Tennessee Whiskey” took off months later. Its climb up the charts occurred after Stapleton sang it and “Drink You Away” with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 CMA Awards. This performance is often referred to as Stapleton’s breakout moment.
After the CMA Awards, Stapleton took “Tennessee Whiskey” to the #1 spot on the Hot Country Songs chart. It also peaked at the 20th position on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
The RIAA has since certified the song 14x Platinum for the sale of 14 million units. Now, it has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify as well!
Revisit Stapleton and Timberlake’s CMA Awards performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” in the video below.
