Another day, another record broken by Luke Combs, who just became the first artist in history to have 2 solo songs charting simultaneously in the Top 10 on US Country Radio (Mediabase) & Billboard’s Country Airplay charts.
The two songs topping the charts are his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” and “Love You Anyway,” from his latest album, Gettin’ Old.
“Fast Car”
Chapman originally wrote and recorded the 1988 hit for her debut album, and Combs’ success with it made her the first Black woman to have a solo writing credit on a No. 1 country song.
When Gettin’ Old was released, Combs shared why “Fast Car” is such a meaningful song to him and what made him decide to cover the nostalgic track.
“[It’s] my first favorite song probably ever. I remember listening to that song with my dad in his truck when I was probably four years old,” he said in a press release. “He had a cassette, a tape of it, and we had this old brown camper top F-150.”
“We rode around that thing, and he had a tape cassette player in there, and I have the original cassette — my dad brought it to me a couple of years ago… I have the one, and I have it in my shop,” he continued. “The only music I have in my shop is a cassette player. I love to go to antique stores, and just you can get a bunch of cassette tapes for 50 cents, and some of the best records of all time are on cassette.”
Billboard Hot 100 History
Additionally, Luke Combs recently made history on the Billboard Hot 100 alongside Morgan Wallen and Jason Aldean when the three artists occupied the chart’s top three spots — Combs with “Fast Car,” Wallen with “Last Night” and Aldean with “Try That in a Small Town,” marking the first time in the chart’s history that country artists and songs occupied the top three spots.
That just happened for a second time this week thanks to viral sensation Oliver Anthony, whose “Rich Men North of Richmond” debuted at No. 1 on the chart. Combs and Wallen follow him in this week’s ranking.
“Love You Anyway”
“Love You Anyway” is a romantic track dedicated to Combs’ wife, Nicole, who is currently expecting the couple’s second child. The baby will join big brother Tex, 1, and is due any day now. Co-written by Combs alongside Ray Fulcher and Reid Isbell, “Love You Anyway” finds Combs professing an endless love for his wife, a love so strong that it can even withstand pain and heartbreak.
“There’s just some things that leave a man no choice / Like a compass needle needing its true north / Even if I knew, the day we met, you’d be the reason this heart breaks / I’d love you anyway,” Combs sang on the track.
Story Behind “Love You Anyway”
Combs took to social media to explain how “Love You Anyway” came into fruition during a concert in 2020.
“Valentine’s Day 2020. I was playing a show and had dedicated “Beautiful Crazy” to Nicole and said, ‘If you’re in here (the arena), I love you. If not, you know I do anyway.’ Unknown to me, my buddy Dan wrote down ‘Love You Anyway’ as a title in his phone after hearing that, then he told me the story later that month when he and I were writing with my good friend Ray Fulcher,” he explained. “We loved the idea as a title and decided to write about loving someone so much that even if you knew from the beginning they were going to break your heart, you’d love them anyway.”
The hitmaker continued, “It came off very poetic and we wanted to find the words that could really give meaning to what we were trying to say, but as we say in the song, we didn’t know if there were deep enough words made for that. But it all came together and essentially it’s a heartbreak and love song all in one. And long story short, me dedicating a song I wrote about Nicole ended up turning into another song about Nicole, and now three years later the song is finally out at the same time of year. It’s a special one to me and I hope y’all love it as much as I do.”
This isn’t the first song he’s written that was inspired by his wife. In fact, Combs has written a trilogy of hits with her in mind, including “Beautiful Crazy,” “Better Together” and “Forever After All.”
On Tour In Australia
Combs is currently on the road, heading to Australia before a series of dates in Europe, and he told Mike Adam for Audacy’s Check In series that he’ll be “cutting it close” when it comes to making it home in time for his second son’s arrival.
“It’s actually kind of getting down to the wire here because I’m going to tour in Australia here in about a week. So going to be cutting it close with the due date on getting home,” he said, adding that becoming a father of two is “going to be wild.”
He also revealed that he and Nicole hadn’t yet picked out a name for their new arrival.
“We have to pick out a name in the next couple of days in case the baby were to come while I’m gone. So yeah, so we got to figure it out soon,” he said, adding that the couple will probably choose a family name.
“We’ve tooled around with both,” he shared. “We’re going to lean more towards a family name, but open to anything too.”
For additional information, visit his official website HERE.
