BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Jimmy Buffett attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted … [+]
On September 1, Jimmy Buffett died from skin cancer, which he had been battling privately. His fans didn’t know he was sick, and the news came as a terrible shock to millions. In the days following his passing, his followers have been streaming and buying his music in droves, and all that attention has helped the musician score his first No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts. Sadly, he never got to see the accomplishment, but the wins count toward his legacy nonetheless.
Impressively, Buffett doesn’t just score one No. 1 hit this week. The singer-songwriter’s name appears in the top spot on three Billboard charts. Before this frame, he had reached the summit on albums-focused tallies, but none of his singles had risen to the peak position on any lists published by the music magazine that look only at tunes.
Perhaps most impressively, Buffett rules the Digital Song Sales chart this week. The tally ranks the bestselling tunes in the U.S. each week, which is different from the main songs in the country, the Hot 100. That list takes into account streams and radio airplay, but Buffett’s music performed best on the sales-only rankings this frame, which is common among recently-deceased stars.
“Margaritaville” stands out as the bestselling song in America this week, and it wins by several thousand copies. Buffett’s most memorable hit returns to the tally at No. 1, having previously made it onto the list a few years back. According to data shared by Luminate, the tune sold 16,265 copies.
In addition to the Digital Song Sales chart, Billboard also publishes several weekly rankings that focus on the bestselling tracks in different genres. Since “Margaritaville” rules as the top-selling tune of any style, it stands to reason that it’s also the bestseller in its genre-specific rosters.
Buffett also hits No. 1 on both the Country Digital Song Sales and Rock Digital Song Sales charts at the same time with “Margaritaville.” It’s not often that tracks are labeled as two different styles at once, but Billboard has classified the cut as both rock and country, so it succeeds on the two lists simultaneously.
With more than 16,000 sales in just the past week, “Margaritaville” stands out as not just one of the top-selling tracks in America, but a proper hit. All those purchases help the smash return to the Hot 100 as well this week. The single, which once climbed into the top 10 during its heyday in the late ‘70s, is back on the list at No. 38.
