Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” Sets Record For Longest Climb To #1
Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” has hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track now holds the record for the longest climb to the top spot — it has logged 59 weeks on the chart. The previous record-holder was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which spent 35 nonconsecutive weeks on the chart before finally ascending to #1 in 2019.
“Heat Waves” came out as a single in June 2020, a couple months prior to the release of Dreamland, the album it’s featured on. Its first week on the Billboard Hot 100 was on the chart dated January 16, 2021; it went off for two weeks and then returned and has been gradually climbing up ever since. It first reached the Top 10 in November 2021; in January, it reached the Top 5.
Some other fun facts courtesy of Billboard: It’s the first #1 track credited to a sole writer and producer (the band’s Dave Bayley) since Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” in 2014. “Heat Waves” joins a group of 10 other singles that debuted in the #100 spot and made it all the way to #1 — the most recent entry into that club was Wiz Khalifia and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again” in 2015. And the band is only the second act ever to hit #1 with the word “glass” in their name — the last act to do that was Looking Glass with “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” in 1972.