Zach Bryan Helps Bruce Springsteen Make His First Ever Appearance on the Country Charts
Bruce Springsteen has landed his first-ever country hit, as “Sandpaper,” the Boss’s collaboration with Zach Bryan on the country superstar’s album The Great American Bar Scene, opened at Number 26 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart this week.
The song also debuted at 71 on the Hot 100 chart, marking Springsteen’s first song on the chart since “Working On a Dream” in 2009. Country has long had influence on Springsteen’s sound, with Hank Williams’ music a major inspiration for Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Per Billboard, the song garnered about 7.1 million streams last week, along with another 1,000 downloads. The Great American Bar Scene, which dropped on July 4, came in at Number 2 this week just behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, earning about 137,000 units. Sixteen other songs from Bryan’s album entered the Hot 100 this week as well, Billboard said.
Bryan and Springsteen first performed “Sandpaper” before its release during Bryan’s concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in March.
Springsteen’s country chart debut comes at a time of major interest for the genre from the rest of the pop music scene. Country act Shaboozey, who collaborated on two of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tracks, secured the Number One slot on the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts last week with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”.
Post Malone is going full country as well, readying the release of F-1 Trillion next month. The album’s first single, I Had Some Help featuring Morgan Wallen, is one of the year’s biggest songs, having spent six weeks atop the Hot 100 since it came out in May.