Already their most successful single to date, Glass Animals have just smashed the record for time spent on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, after a whopping 59 weeks of travel to the top of the mountain.
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The British band's breakthrough track, taken from their third studio album, Dreamland, arrived in the early summer of 2020 via Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic Records, while the full album would see delays due to global social justice movements surrounding the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis in May of the same year.
"in order to respect and support the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement,” Glass Animals put the album release on the back burner, choosing to offer up "Heat Waves" as a placeholder as well as their own compassionate views regarding the still-open wound.
"Heat Waves" is about "realizing you can’t make everyone happy and realizing it’s ok to be defeated by something. We are often expected to 'be strong' and to swallow our sadness. Failing to do that is seen as weakness. So we try to cover up our feelings and hide inside of TV shows or video games or drink or drugs, but being vulnerable should be a positive thing," singer Dave Bailey said about the song upon its release.
The track's blend of cheerful optimism mixed with desperation certainly showed up on cue, striking a chord with listeners across the Pop and Alternative spectrums, while also finding its way into countless TikTok posts and streaming playlists. But it's all come together in March of 2022. After spending 59 weeks on the Hot 100 debuting in the very last spot, Mariah Carey's record of 35 weeks on the chart with her fan-favorite “All I Want for Christmas Is You” set in December of 2019, has officially been obliterated.
Other singles that have had similarly epic climbs to the top of the chart include Los Del Rio’s “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” at 33 weeks, Lonestar’s “Amazed” at 31 weeks, and John Legend’s “All of Me” at 30 weeks -- just to mention a few. Additionally, “Heat Waves” is only the 23rd single to have spent 59 weeks or more on the Hot 100 in general. For those interested in even more numbers and mathematical equations that add up to Glass Animals' epic rise to the top, Billboard has everything you need.
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To top it all off, Dave, Edmund, Drew, and Joe of Glass Animals have been nominated for a best new artist GRAMMY at this year's awards ceremony, set to take place on Sunday, April 3 following a postponement from its initial January 31 date. The show, hosted by Trevor Noah, will air at 8PM ET on the CBS Television Network and will be available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.
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