Let us all shed a tear for Luke Combs who now faces a Christmas that can’t possibly be as joyful as this week has become. Where to start?
His new album, What You See Is What You Get, not only tops the Billboard 200 (ranking all genres), but is also the best-selling one of all genres in Canada, Australia and England.
Put into numbers, that amounts to 173,000 equivalent albums sold in the US and 74 million on-demand streams, the latter figure making it the largest streaming week ever for a country album.
To add to the fireworks, Combs’ current single — “Even Though I’m Leaving” — has just reached No. 1 on the country airplay chart after a brisk 15-week scramble.
And let us not forget that Combs was just crowned CMA’s male vocalist and his “Beautiful Crazy” was named song of the year.
Santa couldn’t deliver that many gifts that fast if Rudolph had a rocket suppository.
Elsewhere on the charts, there are two returning albums: The Essential Elvis Presley, back at No. 15, and Burl Ives’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, sliding into No. 22.
There are also two new songs and one returnee: Chris Lane’s “Big, Big Plans” (No. 57), Ashley McBryde’s “One Night Standards” (No. 60) and Cody Johnson’s “Nothin’ on You” (No. 58), respectively.
The No. 2 through No. 5 albums, in that order, are Combs’ This One’s for You, Miranda Lambert’s Wildcard (last week’s No. 1), Old Dominion’s Old Dominion and Dan + Shay’s Dan + Shay.
Marching in directly behind “Even Though I’m Leaving” within the Top 5 songs lineup are Old Dominion’s “One Man Band,” Thomas Rhett’s “Remember You Young,” Chris Janson’s “Good Vibes” and Keith Urban’s “We Were.”
Brantley Gilbert and Lindsay Ell’s “What Happens in a Small Town,” last week’s No. 1 song, now stands at No. 11.
Are those Christmas bells I hear ringing or is my tinnitus back?