Chesney-McGraw collaboration, "Rockstar," gets played - a lot

The song was serviced to country radio stations by Chesney's label, BNA, during the ACM broadcast. After the first day of airplay for next week's Hot Country Songs chart, the song was already number 1 with 979 plays and an audience of 7.9 million, according to Nielsen BDS. That put the song far ahead of Lee Brice's A Woman Like You, second with 5.5 million audience impressions.

This is not the tendency on the country chart. Of the top 25 songs on the current chart, 22 were on the chart at least 10 weeks with 10 on for at least 20. The lofty launch of "Rock Star" is almost unprecedented in the 22-year BDS-monitored history of Hot Country Songs, considering the format's conservatism regarding out-of-the-box new music. All but three songs in the current chart's top 25 boast double-digit chart weeks, with 10 each more than 20 weeks old.

The song will be on Chesney's June release, "Welcome to the Fishbowl." McGraw and Chesney are launching the Brothers of the Sun tour in June.

If the airplay continues, Rockstar could become the second country song to debut at the top. Garth Brooks' More Than a Memory debuted at the top the week of Sept. 15, 2007.