Foo Fighters Break Record for Most Top 10s in History of Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart

January 26, 2022 E Jazz Reporter

“Love Dies Young” is the band’s 29th top 10, one-upping Tom Petty’s total.

Foo Fighters
Andreas Neumann

Foo Fighters rewrite a longstanding record on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated Jan. 29 as “Love Dies Young” lifts from No. 11 to No. 9.

“Young” becomes the band’s 29th top 10, granting the Dave Grohl-fronted band sole possession of the most top 10s in the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart’s 40-plus-year history.

Previously, Foo Fighters were tied with Tom Petty, solo and with the Heartbreakers, with 28 top 10s apiece.

Most Top 10s, Mainstream Rock Airplay
29, Foo Fighters

28, Tom Petty (solo and with the Heartbreakers)

27, Shinedown

26, Five Finger Death Punch

26, Godsmack

26, Van Halen

24, Aerosmith

24, Metallica

24, Seether

Foo Fighters first hit the Mainstream Rock Airplay top 10 in their first chart appearance, when “This Is a Call” reached No. 6 in August 1995.

Of the Foos’ 29 top 10s, 11 have reached No. 1, including three since 2020: “Shame Shame” (six weeks, beginning in December 2020), “Waiting on a War” (two weeks, April 2021) and “Making a Fire” (one week, September 2021).

Petty had claimed the chart’s top 10 record for over two decades, through he and the Heartbreakers’ No. 5-peaking “Free Girl Now” in March 1999. (The group formed and broke through in the mid-1970s, before the survey’s 1981 inception.)

“Young” previously helped Foo Fighters earn the record for the most top 10s on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay survey, becoming their 14th in January. They outpace Cage the Elephant and Twenty One Pilots, each with 13, dating to the chart’s 2009 start.

“Young” jumps 10-6 on the latest Rock & Alternative Airplay ranking, up 17% to 3 million audience impressions, according to MRC Data. It also rises 16-15 on Alternative Airplay (where the band also holds the all-time top 10 record) and 27-18 on Adult Alternative Airplay.

“Young” is the latest single from Medicine at Midnight, Foo Fighters’ 10th studio album. Dating to its February 2021 release, it has earned 202,000 equivalent album units.

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