Here’s something mind-bending to consider. The Top 40 Song of Summer might very well be by Morgan Wallen. The Country song of summer is likely to be by Post Malone. Less than a week after Memorial Day, the pair’s collaboration, “I Had Some Help,” is already top-five at Country after three weeks. It’s No. 12 at CHR and No. 11 at Hot AC.
At Country, “I Had Some Help” is already the presumptive Song of Summer winner for many. One PD says that the only stopper is if it peaks too fast, although it’s hard to imagine that particular song falling victim to the churn at No. 1, even if it gets there in six weeks or less. It’s also worth noting that two years ago, thanks to “Fancy Like,” Country became a format where not all the hits were visible by Memorial Day.
So think of this year’s field as the Country Songs of Summer 2024. (I’ve collected them on this playlist.) Country superstars have been coming forth with uptempo titles on an almost weekly basis, among them Lainey Wilson’s “Hang Tight Honey,” Thomas Rhett’s “Beautiful as You,” and Kane Brown & Marshmello’s “Miles on It.”
“Miles on It” is particularly noteworthy considering that Brown’s summer song two years ago was “Like I Love Country Music.” Brown, Wallen, and Luke Combs were Country’s three new cornerstone artists, but Brown had a CHR presence first, which seemed to create some Country-PD resistance. But last summer, Wallen and Combs had pop hits, too. So two years after having to make a “committed to Country” record, it’s significant that the hit with Marshmello isn’t just a parallel song for CHR, but a song being worked simultaneously to both formats.
There are a few songs bending the boundaries between Country and Dance this summer–Dasha’s “Austin” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” (There’s also a UK entrant, Janet Devlin’s “Emotional Rodeo.”) When PDs in all formats grappled with Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” this winter, Country/Dance was a genre that gained a significant entrant every year or two. Now it’s a sound code. It also helps that the station that has been most aggressive on the Dasha and Shaboozey songs, KYGO Denver, is also one of the format’s most dominant.
(It’s interesting to take stock of “Texas Hold ’Em” now. For some Country stations, airplay never got beyond nights. It wasn’t a power at CHR either, but it did get to No. 7, compared to No. 29. When “Cowboy Carter” turned out to be more than a Country project, some stations seemed to take that as permission to move on. But it brought that type of record from weddings to the radio, perhaps with the help of streaming.)
I’ve created a playlist of Country’s Summer Songs of 2024, featuring all of the new songs highlighted here, as well as Zac Brown Band’s “Tie Up” and other recent uptempo or otherwise summery hits from Luke Combs, Dierks Bentley, Jelly Roll, LOCASH, Lee Brice, Riley Green, Chayce Beckham, and many more. As is usually the case, there are three holdovers from our Summer Songs of 2023 listing, thanks to Chris Young, Hardy, and Megan Moroney. (Beckham’s song this year is at least new; “23” was in contention for three straight summers.)
Scotty McCreery’s “Fall of Summer” is also in it for the long haul. Like Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” a fall hit, the “summer” title is sort of a lyrical misnomer, although that rarely keeps Henley out of the Classic Hits “Summer Songs Weekend.”
In Top 40, the field of summer contenders was dominated by “flips” of established hits last summer. Last year, those songs tended to cancel each other out at pop. But Canada is sending Country both a major remake (a Country version of “Blinding Lights” from hitmaker Tebey) and a surprising/not-surprising reworking by Tim & the Glory Boys, both also on this year’s playlist. We’ll add songs as the summer progresses.
Last year, writing the Top 40 and Country “Song of Summer” stories in succession, there was no question of which format had the stronger ratings or the stronger field. CHR PDs weren’t thrilled about having so much Country crossover. This year, CHR has its own strong competitors, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” but thanks to Wallen, Shaboozey, and Brown, this probably won’t be the summer Top 40 stops playing Country crossovers.
There has also been some recent grumbling from Top 40 PDs about the number of CHR hits coming from Triple-A. That’s something that Country should keep an eye on also. In the mid-’90s, it was not (yet) Country acts like Hootie & the Blowfish and Sheryl Crow that allowed Top 40 to reclaim audience after Country’s early-’90s boom. Hozier’s “Too Sweet” is serving the function at Top 40 that Hootie’s “Only Wanna Be with You” did in 1995. So maybe he’ll be a Country artist in a decade.
Big CHR success stories are still the exception, but last month was good to WHTZ (Z100) New York, KIIS Los Angeles, and others. So it’s good that Country’s summer contenders remains strong. A decade ago, Country’s strength with “Cruise,” “Wagon Wheel,” and others didn’t (yet) mean that CHR was in a doldrums, as it usually does. It would be interesting if this was a summer when more than one current music format could again thrive.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com