Country on the Hot 100 in 1999, 2000...

Hykker wrote: RoknRobnLoxley wrote: --The Hot 100 will now be song driven, no more double-A-sided singles. Sales will be assigned to the most popular airplay side. The less popular airplay side will only chart based on its airplay. Are physical singles still being issued (other than perhaps promos)? Seems to me the concept of a 2 sided hit went away with 45s, or at least physical singles.

The physical single is a very rare event that is virtually extinct. Maroon 5 & Cardi B's Girls Like You was not on Red Pill Blues for example and was issued as a digital single and hit #1 based on the video streaming as well.

You can't really have a 2 sided hit anymore (not in the traditional 1960's/1970's way.) I would say the two instances most recently that hit #1 are more remix issues of the same song replacing the original versions:

Perfect by Ed Sheeran had a few weeks before Ed and Beyonce's Remix Duet took its place for the remaining weeks at #1. Technically the Duet with Beyonce could be the A side while the album cut would also represent the A side.

Old Town Road by Lil Nas X rose to #1 and then during its #2 week through its current #13 week has Billy Ray Cyrus added through its remix. Technically the Remix with Billy Ray could be the A side while the eventual album cut would also represent the A side.

So in the sense of a traditional 45 no, but there are some instances where the remix (Me Gente)(Despacito) is clearly the winner (A-side, preferred by radio and streaming) and the original versions clearly relegated to hits in their own right as Me Gente finished top 20 before the remix and Despacito outside the top 40 before Justin Bieber joined the remix.

Edited by PopArchivist

As others have stated above, after Billboard started to incorporate airplay data from country stations in compiling the Hot 100 on December 5, 1998, numerous non-crossover country songs started making the Top 40 of the Hot 100, most of them solely from country airplay. The number of non-crossover country songs reaching the Top 40 of the Hot 100 significantly fell once Billboard started to include digital sales data in compiling the Hot 100 on February 5, 2005.

Here are a few stats I happen to have handy. Between these two dates (December 5, 1998 and February 5, 2005) a total of 121 songs reached #1 in country airplay. Of these, only two ("Right On The Money" by Alan Jackson and "Kiss This" by Aaron Tippin) did not reach the Top 40 of the Hot 100. (Of course, many country songs that did not reach #1 in country airplay also made the Top 40 of the Hot 100.) Just a few weeks after Billboard started incorporating digital sales data in compiling the Hot 100, Craig Morgan's "That's What I Love About Sunday" was #1 in country airplay for four weeks but only reached #51 on the Hot 100. Before the end of that year, five other songs would reach #1 in country airplay but not make the Top 40 of the Hot 100. Last year, of the 33 songs that reached #1 in country airplay, 17 did not reach the Top 40 of the Hot 100.

The inclusion of streaming data in Billboard's secret Hot 100 formula (which, I understand, is guarded at Fort Knox next to the Colonel's secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices and Cadbury's technique of getting the caramel inside the chocolate squares) does not seem to be significantly affecting the number of country songs that reach the Top 40 of the Hot 100 but does seem to be affecting how high some of these songs are charting. Three current country songs, "Whiskey Glasses" by Morgan Wallen, "God's Country" by Blake Shelton, and "Beer Never Broke My Heart" by Luke Combs, have each reached #22 or higher on the Hot 100. I don't believe any of these three songs are receiving any significant non-country airplay.