Scotty McCreery is celebrating a Strait flush…
The 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican country singer’s latest track “Damn Strait” has risen to the No. 1 spot on the July 23-dated Billboard Country Airplay chart.
That gives the former American Idol champion his fifth total and consecutive No. 1 on the chart.
In the tracking week ending July 17, the song drew 27.2 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
McCreery has notably topped Country Airplay with each single that he has released since he signed with Triple Tigers Records in 2017.
“My first country music concert was George Strait, and along with my love for Elvis [Presley], he inspired me to become a country music singer myself,” says McCreery. “When I did American Idol, George called me and requested I sing his [1995] hit ‘Check Yes or No,’ and I still sing it from time to time in concert. Now, having my fifth straight No. 1 on a song that pays tribute to George, while at the same time being a classic country heartbreaker such as he might have sung, is such a full-circle moment that means the world to me. Trent Tomlinson and Jim Collins wrote a clever song that reaches beyond name-dropping Strait hits to tell a meaningful story.”
“Damn Strait” is the sophomore single from McCreery’s album Same Truck, which arrived at its No. 10 high on Top Country Albums last October, marking the seventh top 10 for the Garner, N.C., native. He earned his third and most recent No. 1 set with Seasons Change in March 2018.
Same Truck lead single “You Time” became McCreery’s fourth Country Airplay No. 1 for a week last October. He first ruled Country Airplay with “Five More Minutes” (one week, March 2018) and led again with “This Is It” (two, February 2019) and “In Between” (one, June 2020).
McCreery first appeared on Country Airplay with the No. 15-peaking “I Love You This Big” in August 2011 and has posted two top 10s in addition to his No. 1s: “See You Tonight” (No. 8, March 2014) and “Feelin’ It” (No. 10, December 2014).
On the multi-metric Hot Country Songs chart, “Damn Strait” ranks at No. 8, after hitting No. 6 in June. It drew 4.6 million U.S. streams and sold 2,000 downloads in the week ending July 14.
Meanwhile, as the song crowns Country Airplay, it’s just the fourth No. 1 to namecheck another artist in its title. Eric Church’s “Springsteen,” his ode to Bruce Springsteen, was boss of the chart for two weeks in 2012; Brad Paisley’s “Old Alabama,” featuring Alabama, reigned for two frames in 2011; and Joe Diffie’s “Bigger Than the Beatles” topped the chart for two weeks in 1996. (Strait and Alabama boast 26 and seven No. 1s, respectively, since the survey began in 1990.)
