Slowest climb to No.1 on the US singles chart

It took an incredible 59 weeks for “Heat Waves”, the slow-burning alt-pop smash by Glass Animals (UK), to reach No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. By replacing Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” at the top on 12 March 2022, “Heat Waves” obliterated Mariah Carey’s 35-week trek to the summit with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (on 21 December 2019).

“Heat Waves” made its Hot 100 debut, at No.100, on 16 January 2021 before falling off the chart after just one week. It re-entered at No.91 on 6 February 2021 and has remained on the Hot 100 ever since, fuelled by its popularity on social media platforms including TikTok and streaming services such as Spotify, where it had amassed 1.3 billion streams by 8 March 2022 (the day Billboard’s Hot 100 chart dated 12 March was published). Chart positions: 100-91-86-69-64-65-61-57-56-57-50-44-41-39-42-34-33-42-37-25-24-21-19-25-27-35-32-30-31-31-34-33-23-33-15-16-15-15-12-14-13-10-10-8-7-8-9-8-15-7-3-3-3-3-3-4-2-2-1. On its long journey to No.1, “Heat Waves” set new Hot 100 records for the slowest climb to the Top 10 (42 weeks, on 13 November 2021) and the Top 5 (51 weeks, on 15 January 2022).

“Heat Waves” was only the third-longest-running hit on the Hot 100 on 12 March 2022, behind Dua Lipa’s No.2 hit “Levitating” (69 weeks) and “Save Your Tears” by The Weeknd & Ariana Grande (61 weeks), which, by comparison, climbed to the peak on 8 May 2021 after 20 weeks on the chart.

BBC music correspondent Mark Savage reported: “There are slow-burning hits, then there’s “Heat Waves” – a song that took longer to reach room temperature than an ice-age mammoth.” Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger added: “Every so often, you get a record-setter that blazes so far past the previous holder that it makes you wonder if you’re talking about a different chart altogether.”

Glass Animals are Dave Bayley (vocals/guitar), Ed Irwin-Singer (bass guitar/vocals), Drew MacFarlane (guitar/vocals) and Joe Seaward (drums). The quartet’s second studio album, How to Be a Human Being, was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Prize. The follow-up, Dreamland, featuring “Heat Waves”, debuted and peaked at No.2 in the UK on 20 August 2020.

Despite forming in Oxford as far back as 2010, Glass Animals were nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy in 2022, alongside The Kid LAROI, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas.