used to feel almost permanent. A song would spend a handful of weeks at number one, fade out, and the record books would go untouched for years, sometimes decades. Streaming changed that rhythm entirely, turning old benchmarks into moving targets and giving late bloomers a real shot at rewriting history months or even years after release. What follows are eight songs that didn’t just have a good run. Each one dismantled a record that had stood for a long time, sometimes one that felt untouchable, and in a few cases the ink on the new record is barely dry.
“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X
Few songs have arrived with less fanfare and left with more history than “Old Town Road.” It started as a viral meme song built on a beat the rapper bought for thirty dollars, then snowballed into a genre-bending phenomenon once Billy Ray Cyrus joined the remix. By the summer of 2019, it had become something Billboard analysts hadn’t seen in sixty years of chart data.
The song first took over the top spot on the chart dated April 13 and had ruled for a stunning 19 weeks total, far surpassing Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” which first set the 16-week mark in 1995-96, as well as Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Justin Bieber-featuring “Despacito,” which tied the record in 2017. That 19-week reign stood as the gold standard for years, a number that seemed almost impossible to catch until streaming-era Christmas music came along.
“Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd
Not every chart record is about sitting at number one. Sometimes longevity across the entire chart tells a bigger story, and that’s exactly what “Blinding Lights” delivered after its late 2019 release. The song only spent four weeks at the very top, but it refused to leave the chart entirely for close to two years.
Claiming its 88th week in the Hot 100, “Blinding Lights” eclipsed the previous record holder “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, which stuck around for 87 weeks across 2012-2014. It kept climbing from there, and by the time its run finally ended, it had rewritten the marks for the most weeks spent in the top five, top 10, and top 40, finishing with 90 total weeks on the chart overall.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey’s 1994 holiday classic spent a quarter century as a beloved seasonal favorite before streaming turned it into a chart monster. Once it started returning to number one every December, the song didn’t just visit the top, it camped out there, adding a few more weeks each year like clockwork.
In December 2025, Carey officially broke the record for the longest reign atop the Billboard Hot 100, as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” spent its 20th week at number one, beating the record previously shared by Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” at 19 weeks. The song kept extending its own mark that same season, tallying a record-extending 100th career week at number one for Carey across her Hot 100 leaders, dating to the chart’s inception.
“Last Night” by Morgan Wallen
Country crossovers have always had a ceiling on the Hot 100, and for over four decades that ceiling belonged to Kenny Rogers. His 1980 ballad “Lady” spent six weeks at number one, a run that outlasted disco, hair metal, and half a dozen pop eras without anyone from Nashville coming close.
Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” didn’t just break that record, it shattered it. The crossover country star’s smash “Last Night” became the longest-running solo number one in Billboard Hot 100 history, with 16 weeks atop the chart. That run also came with an added distinction, since the track became the first ever song to top the Billboard Hot 100 and Country Airplay charts simultaneously.
“Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
Some songs peak fast and disappear. “Lose Control” did the opposite, building slowly for nearly two years while gradually reshaping the record books for sheer staying power. It only spent a single week at number one, back in March 2024, yet that modest peak turned out to be almost beside the point.
The track surpassed the run of Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” which ran up 91 weeks in 2021-22, for the most time spent on the chart dating to the Hot 100’s 1958 inception. It kept going from there, eventually becoming the first song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to spend 100 weeks on the chart, while also logging a total of 58 weeks in the chart’s top 10, beating the Weeknd’s record of 57 weeks with “Blinding Lights.”
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
Before Mariah Carey reclaimed her throne in late 2025, one song had briefly stood shoulder to shoulder with “Old Town Road” atop the all-time list. Shaboozey’s breakout hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” climbed the Hot 100 through the summer of 2024 with a steady, almost inevitable pace, powered by a hook built around a Jason Aldean and George Strait interpolation.
By the time its run ended, the song had matched one of the toughest numbers in chart history. It shared the record for most weeks at number one, alongside Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” with 19 weeks at the top. Reaching that number put a country-leaning crossover artist in the same sentence as a record that had already felt untouchable, if only for a season before Carey’s holiday anthem moved the goalposts again.
“Levitating” by Dua Lipa
“Levitating” never topped the Hot 100 outright, peaking at number two, but its staying power turned out to be historic in its own right. Released in 2020 and pushed further by a DaBaby remix, the song kept reappearing on the chart well into 2021, quietly accumulating one of the longest runs by a female artist in chart history.
It charted for 77 weeks, the most for a title by a woman artist in the chart’s archives. That record held solo until Mariah Carey’s Christmas staple finally caught up, with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” claiming its 77th week on the Hot 100, tying Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” as the longest-charting song ever by a female artist before eventually pulling ahead.
“Heat Waves” by Glass Animals
Before Teddy Swims came along, “Heat Waves” was the definitive proof that streaming had permanently changed how chart longevity works. Glass Animals released the song in 2020, and it barely registered at first, then spent well over a year slowly climbing as it found a second life on TikTok and streaming playlists.
By early 2022, that patient climb had turned into a record. “Heat Waves” ran up 91 weeks on the Hot 100 across 2021 and 2022, the most time any song had ever spent on the chart dating to its 1958 inception. The record lasted a few years before “Lose Control” eventually passed it, but “Heat Waves” remains the song most credited with showing the industry that a hit could keep growing long after its official release date had faded from memory.
Taken together, these eight songs map out how differently chart dominance can look. Some, like “Old Town Road” and “Last Night,” did it by owning the number one spot outright for months on end. Others, like “Blinding Lights,” “Lose Control,” and “Heat Waves,” proved that simply refusing to leave the chart can be just as historic as any peak position. What ties them together is timing as much as talent. Streaming rewired the rules of how long a song can matter, and every one of these tracks found a way to exploit that shift, whether through a viral remix, a holiday tradition, or a slow-burn algorithm boost nobody could have planned for. The next record on this list is probably already climbing the chart right now, waiting for its own moment to rewrite the numbers again.
