Charlie Daniels Music Sees Big Boost After Passing
Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Daniels died unexpectedly at the age of 83 on Monday, July 6th after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. A titan of American music, Charlie Daniels started his career on the outside looking into the mainstream as a long-haired fiddle player who identified with Southern rednecks and anti-war hippies alike during the Vietnam era, and went onto become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, a firebrand conservative, and a worldwide ambassador of fiddle music universally recognized for his American classic, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
After the passing of Charlie Daniels, his music experienced a spike in interest. His signature song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” went from not charting at all to #24 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, as mourning fans downloaded and streamed the song in remembrance. It also charted at #2 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart, only held out of the top spot by a massive spike in downloads for Lee Greenwood’s patriotic anthem “God Bless The U.S.A.,” boosted by 4th of July revelers.
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was streamed well over 2 million times during the reporting period, and sold nearly 23,000 downloads. The song originally hit #1 in country when it was first released in 1979, and also spent two weeks at #3 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Daniels co-wrote the song with members of his Charlie Daniels Band.
Also seeing a boost on the week was the most popular compilation from Charlie Daniels. The Columbia Nashville-issued album 16 Biggest Hits shot up to #12 on the Billboard Country Albums chart this week. Songs from the album were streamed over 5.2 million times during the reporting period, and it sold a total of 8,700 copies in physical sales and streaming/download equivalents.
Charlie Daniels was laid to rest on Friday, July 10th at Mt. Juliet Memorial Gardens in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee after a funeral service where Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Gretchen Wilson and Trace Adkins all performed.
Strait Country 81
July 18, 2020 @ 8:40 am
Awesome! Just ordered a CDB shirt last night.
Dee Manning
July 18, 2020 @ 10:28 am
It’s the dead musician spike. Happened with John Prine, Joe Diffie and Kenny Rogers also. And there are some rappers like XXXTentacion where, never heard of him and then he died and then there were multiple songs in the iTunes top 40…
RD
July 18, 2020 @ 3:12 pm
There is definitely a lot of that in music, sports, movies, etc. I was cursed to have been in college when that junkie loser from Sublime OD’d and I had to hear that ear poison at every party for the next several years.
Rusty
July 18, 2020 @ 3:31 pm
Listen RD, Bradley Nowell may have been a junkie, but he was far from a loser. Sublime was a great band.
Jake Cutter
July 18, 2020 @ 8:20 pm
The dude became another selfish cliche, and left his new wife and brand new son to grow up without him. Not exactly a winning move. What would the guy have to do, exactly, for his “great band” to not excuse him? He died before Twitter, so old problematic tweets are off the table.
Dee Manning
July 19, 2020 @ 4:07 am
If you’re going to start dragging musicians — of any genre — for having drug and alcohol problems and dying from them, you’re looking at a very long list including some of the most iconic artists of all time.
Jake Cutter
July 19, 2020 @ 6:20 am
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Dee Manning
July 19, 2020 @ 7:20 am
Jake: So if you are giving a pass to Hank Williams, don’t bag on Bradley Nowell. Creative people have demons. Have always had demons through history (for instance, Edgar Allan Poe and Baudelaire, both druggies). Doesn’t make them losers, makes them tortured souls.
Jake Cutter
July 19, 2020 @ 7:47 am
Where are you getting all this esoteric knowledge you’re dropping on us? First you tell us that people’s deaths cause a spike in interest, and now you’re saying Hank Williams had a substance problem? And that creative people often do?? Whaaaaat!? You’re blowing minds here Dee. You must have learned all this in the music reporter school of hard knocks life.
Dee Manning
July 19, 2020 @ 7:55 am
Try to follow. You said Bradley Nowell was a “selfish cliche” because he died of a drug overdose.
So does that mean you think all musicians (and artists in other fields) who died of substance abuse are selfish cliches?
If no, then you shouldn’t differentiate based on whether you like them or not.
If yes, you lack a heart. Which one is it?
Jake Cutter
July 19, 2020 @ 9:27 am
Last comment: I agree with the fist definition that comes up when you google “loser definition.” “A person or thing that loses or has lost something, especially a game or contest.” I don’t care if someone is famous, and has done other great things in their lives. I can have a nuanced view. I can love them for what they’ve done, I can feel sympathy for them as well. But that doesn’t change the English language and what words mean. The 3rd definition that comes up when you google is: “A person or thing that is put at a disadvantage by a particular situation or course of action.”
Becoming a junkie, and LOSING ones life as a result, seems to put people at some sort of a disadvantage, strangely enough. So yes, by literal definition of the word, Hank Williams, and anyone else who becomes a junkie, seems to fit the definition of the word in this regard. If me thinking that LOSING ones life means LOSING something important, and that makes me cold hearted, then so be it…guilty as charged. Maybe if more people saw it this way and weren’t such enablers, we wouldn’t have LOST these 2 artists and fathers.
618creekrat
July 18, 2020 @ 1:33 pm
Yeah, took a trip through all 4 volumes of his “Epic Trilogies” that week. It’s a handy way to buy his early albums. Stylistically he covered a lot of territory in the early years, and he and his band were pretty good at it all. Also got a few more spins out of his recent “Beau Weevils” album; after all these years he still had his chops.
Kevin Smith
July 18, 2020 @ 3:21 pm
Yep. He did cover quite the territory musically. Hopefully, music fans will dig deep into his back catalog and discover the great Southern Rock material as well as the Essential Hits stuff. He had quite the Jam Band during that era, and as far as I’m concerned, that dual lead guitar stuff was where its at. Everybody knows Devil Went Down but more people should discover Saddle Tramp and Fire on The Mountain to really get where he excelled. He was a great fiddle hero, but in my mind also a true guitar hero too.
618creekrat
July 18, 2020 @ 3:54 pm
Heck, there were even a few cuts I’d classify as Progressive Rock, with a twist of fiddle. There was a stretch in there where his genre shifting produced some soft rock reminding me of preppies in their Izods, but most of his genre bending produced some enjoyable stuff.
scott
July 19, 2020 @ 10:27 am
Saddle Tramp is one fine album.
Blackh4t
July 18, 2020 @ 5:16 pm
These metrics of music are another reason I own my own music. Did I listen to Charlie Daniels? Maybe, none of your business.
Or, in the case of media outlets: it IS your business, but its in my favour that you don’t know so you can’t bug me with ads and recommendations.
Who cares
July 20, 2020 @ 9:34 am
But “I” can bug you here with “my” recommendations!!! As long you get notifications of replies ha!
Blackh4t
July 20, 2020 @ 1:32 pm
Recommend away, my friend.
As long as you aren’t a bot sent to track me down and reduce my taste to a formula.
Red Cloud
July 18, 2020 @ 8:22 pm
I’ve had Nightrider and Saddle Tramp on repeat since he passed. 2 unbelievable records.
Roger
July 18, 2020 @ 10:18 pm
5.2 million streams so his family made $31.00 – whoopeeee!
Tommy I
July 20, 2020 @ 7:40 pm
Great musician. Personal favorites include Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day, Roll Mississippi, Little Joe and Big Bill, Hard Headed Woman, and Jackson w/Gretchen Wilson, among many others. Saw him four or five years ago at a fair and I was hooked. I knew his radio hits, but after the show I had to dig deeper. For a man in his late 70s, he put on hell of a show.