Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” Cover Becomes The Latest Country Song To Reach One Billion Streams On Spotify

Darius joined some elite company.

Despite some competition from Apple Music, there’s no doubt that Spotify has remained the top streaming platform since its official launch in the United States in July 2011. With over 696 million monthly active users, 276 million of whom pay for premium, the platform has become nothing short of a staple in terms of music consumption nowadays. Boasting over 100 million songs available to be streamed right now (excluding Garth Brooks’ entire discography, of course), Spotify has nearly every notable song ever released over the past century.

Out of all the songs throughout the history of music, a little over 1,200 tracks have passed the elusive one billion-stream threshold on the platform. Out of those 1,200+ songs, until today, only 14 of those fall under the country category.

While some of these tracks can hardly be considered country, including the likes of Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be,” you do have some actual quality songs present on the list. These, of course, include Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” and “I Remember Everything,” Luke Combs’ “Beautiful Crazy” and “When It Rains It Pours” and Chris Stapleton’s double-diamond hit, “Tennessee Whiskey.”

Today, we have another entry into the billion-stream club: none other than Darius Rucker’s cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s 2004 single, “Wagon Wheel,” which is now the 15th country song in history to reach the exclusive threshold.

As most know by now, the history of “Wagon Wheel” is one of the most complicated in all of music. At first, the song was believed to be written by Old Crow’s frontman, Ketch Secor, after hearing an old Bob Dylan work tape, “Rock Me, Mama” from 1973. However, even Dylan’s version wasn’t the original.

Dylan would tell Secor that he heard it from Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, a blues singer from Mississippi who had multiple songs recorded and made popular by Elvis Presley. As it turns out, Crudup didn’t write it either. Instead, he heard it from a fellow blues singer, Big Bill Broonzy, an African American blues singer who was born in Mississippi but moved with his family to Chicago in the 1920s.

If you’re keeping track, “Wagon Wheel” (or at least the concept) would essentially change hands four times before Rucker recorded his version of the song in 2013 on his fourth studio album, True Believers. And as we all know by now, the former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman made it one of the most popular (and undoubtedly most overplayed) country songs of all time.

Immediately after being released as True Believers’ second single, “Wagon Wheel” would catch fire. In its 12th week, the track would reach #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, also topping their Country Airplay chart and scoring Rucker his only Top 15 hit on the all-genre Hot 100.

Obviously, the fever for non-traditional country fans has really yet to wear out with the track over the past 13 years. In 2022, it was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling over 10 million units. At the time, it was only the fourth country song ever to reach this status, and today, it remains as one of only 23 to achieve diamond status.

I’ll be the first one to admit that I think I’ve heard enough of the song to last my entire lifetime at this point, but it’s undoubtedly an impressive career accomplishment for Rucker.

A full list of country songs with a billion streams on Spotify is as follows: