Taylor Swift lands 1 and 2 on Revised Country Songs Chart.
Taylor Swift lands 1 and 2 on Revised Country Songs Chart. [She is also at 10 and 34] and she breaks down singing “Ronan”
The Billboard brand has delivered the world’s most trusted and most widely quoted country music charts for nearly seven decades, and the exhaustive work we’ve done over the past couple of years to revolutionize our country singles charts is realized today as we launch the most comprehensive, immediate and accurate country singles rankings since our first one rolled off the presses during World War II.
From those first few country chart weeks in 1944 — with dueling versions of “Pistol Packin’ Mama” by Al Dexter & His Troopers and Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters 00 to the phenomenal consumer penetration that lifts Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” to No. 1 on the revised Hot Country Songs rankings today, the Billboard brand again pioneers a new era in country music chart-keeping.
“The way people consume music continues to evolve and as a result so do our charts, which now track the many new ways fans experience, listen to and buy music,” says Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard Director of Charts. “We’re proud to be offering updated Country charts that better reflect the current music landscape.”
Previously ranked solely by Nielsen BDS-provided radio airplay data since 1990, Country Songs (and several other major format charts) is given a major consumer-influenced face-lift, as digital download sales (tracked by Nielsen SoundScan) and streaming data (tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) will now be factored into the 50-position rankings, along with existing radio airplay data monitored by Nielsen BDS.
The makeovers will enable these charts to match the methodology applied to Billboard’s signature all-genre songs ranking, the Billboard Hot 100 — including airplay from more than 1,200 stations of all genres monitored by BDS — will reward crossover titles receiving airplay on multiple formats. With digital download sales and streaming data measuring popularity on the most inclusive scale possible, it makes perfectly logical sense that the radio portion of the new chart calculations include airplay from the entire spectrum of monitored formats.
The immediate beneficiary of this week’s methodology change is Swift, who holds down the top two slots on Country Songs with the aforementioned “We Are Never”and the title track from her new “Red” album, due October 22 from Big Machine. The pop-crossover No. 1 title ranks at No. 36 on the Country Airplay tally (but also gets points associated with its pop-crossover play) and No. 2 on Country Digital Songs, while “Red” is absent from the Country Airplay list, but ranks No. 1 on Country Digital Songs. Swift ranks at No. 10 on Hot Country Songs with “Begin Again,” which appears at No. 29 on Country Airplay and No. 3 on Country Digital Songs.
The new chart picks up the entire 68-year country singles chart history, while the Country Airplay chart history encompasses the entire Nielsen BDS era, which began with the chart dated Jan. 20, 1990. While the new Hot Country Songs chart becomes the centerpiece country songs list in the Billboard print product, the Country Airplay chart continues without interruption as the anchor chart for the Monday edition of Billboard Country Update (both charts are also on Billboard.com). Serviced Thursday mornings, the new mid-week BCU includes the freshest Country Digital Songs and Top Country Albums lists, market features from Nielsen SoundScan and a country on-demand songs chart, among other features.
Meanwhile, Little Big Town leads Country Albums for a fourth straight week (31,000 sold) with “Tornado,” while Jason Aldean’s “Take a Little Ride” logs a third consecutive week atop the Nielsen BDS-driven Country Airplay scorecard.
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Swift is also at No. 34 with “Ronan” about a 3 year old boy who died of cancer. She sang the song at a “Stand Up to Cancer” telethon on Fri Sep 7. The singer broke down and cried as she performed the song live. See below:
Ronan By Georgina Wilcox
Taylor Swift’s “Ronan” was a song the American country singer, sang for the ‘Stand Up to Cancer’ telethon aired on USA television in September, 2012. The song is dedicated to a 3-year-old boy, Ronan Sean Thompson, who died of neuroblastoma, just four days short of his fourth birthday.
Neuroblastoma is a malignant (cancerous) tumour that develops from nerve tissue and usually occurs in infants and children.
Ronan is the grandson of Stephen Weedman of Longview and Lynn Stephens of Carrolls, and his mother Maya Thompson, now of Arizona, was raised in the Longview-Kelso area.
Thompson first noticed Ronan was sick while visiting her parents in Longview along with Ronan’s older twin brothers. She took Ronan to the “best doctors in New York,” but he eventually lost his battle with the disease.
Swift learned of Ronan through his mother’s blog and became friends with Thompson.
The song is available for download on iTunes and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Thompson’s foundation, Ronan, named for her son.
Through her foundation she hopes to raise $20 million to build a neuroblastoma hospital in Phoenix.
Weedman said in an interview with Associated Press that Thompson is continuing her work to find better treatment and a cure for neuroblastoma.
“It’s her life to get this thing going,” he said. “I get tears every time I tell people about it. It’s so wonderful that something so terrible can turn into something kind of positive.”
Ronan, lyrics by Taylor Swift and Maya Thompson.
I remember your bare feet
Down the hallway
I remember your little laugh
Race cars on the kitchen floor
Plastic dinosaurs
I love you to the moon and back
I remember your blue eyes
Looking into mine
Like we had our own secret club
I remember your dancing before bedtime
Then jumping on me waking me up
I can still feel you hold my hand
Little man
And even in the moment I knew
You fought it hard like an army guard
Remember I, leaned in and whispered to you
Come on baby with me
We’re gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years
I remember the drive home
When the blind hope
Turned to crying and screaming why
Flowers pile up in the worst way
No one knows what to say
About a beautiful boy who died
And its about to be halloween
You could be anything
You wanted if you were still here
I remember the last day
When I kissed your face
And I whispered in your ear
Come on baby with me
We’re gonna fly away from here
Out of this curtained room
And this hospital grey will just disappear
Come on baby with me
We’re gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years
What if I’m standing in your closet
Trying to talk to you?
And what if I kept your hand-me-downs
You won’t grow in to?
And what if I really thought some miracle
Would see us through?
And what if the miracle was even getting
One moment with you?
Come on baby with me
We’re gonna fly away from here
Come on baby with me
We’re gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years
I remember you bare feet
Down the hallway
I love you to the moon and
Back…
