Dustin Lynch & MacKenzie Porter Celebrate Six-Week No. 1, ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’
Industry members gathered at the curling and bowling bar-restaurant Tee Line in Nashville last week to celebrate Dustin Lynch and MacKenzie Porter‘s six-week No. 1, “Thinking ‘Bout You.” The tune is Lynch’s eighth U.S. and second Canadian No. 1 at country radio, and Porter’s first U.S. No. 1.
The collaboration made history last year after becoming the longest-running top 10 single in Billboard Country Airplay chart history at 28 weeks and Broken Bow Records’ longest-reigning single at country radio. “Thinking ‘Bout You” was named the No. 1 song on the Mediabase 2022 Year-End Country Chart as well as the No. 2 track on the Billboard 2022 Year-End Country Airplay Songs chart.
Hosted by BMI and ASCAP, Lynch and Porter were joined by “Thinking ‘Bout You” co-writers Andy Albert, Hunter Phelps and Will Weatherly in the celebrations.
BMI’s Josh Tomlinson presided at the curling and bowling establishment. He started by congratulating BMI affiliates Lynch and Weatherly.
Tomlinson shared that outside of the soundtrack for the Disney movie Encanto, “Thinking ‘Bout You” is one of the only songs that will calm his 13-month-old son on his way to daycare. “We’re grateful for that,” Tomlinson quipped.
ASCAP’s Mike Sistad was on hand to celebrate affiliates Albert, Phelps and Porter. He shared a bit about each writer’s background and congratulated them all. He also recognized ASCAP member Zach Crowell, who produced the track.
BMG’s Kelsey Worley filled in for Chris Oglesby. She admitted she was nervous to speak, as it was her first time, but she handled it like a pro.
“I’m so glad that my first time speaking at one of these is for such a little-known, under the radar song that very few people have heard,” she joked about the tune that has garnered over 455 million global on-demand streams to date. Worley congratulated BMG writer Lynch. “I want to point out that your belief in this song played such an appropriate role in its incredible success.”
Worley’s point was echoed throughout the party. “Thinking ‘Bout You” originally appeared as a collaboration with Lauren Alaina on his fourth album Tullahoma. When Alaina wasn’t available to be a part of the single release, Lynch put a call out to the country music community for submissions for the part from up-and-coming female artists. After blindly listening to tapes from different auditions, Lynch chose Porter’s vocal to be his duet partner, and the rest was history.
Tape Room’s Kelly Bolton spoke about writers Weatherly and Phelps. She recognized each of the Broken Bow Records radio promotion team members and BBR executives.
Warner Chappell’s Ryan Beuschel was next to congratulate writers Lynch, Weatherly and Phelps. He pointed out that “Thinking ‘Bout You” was written while Lynch was out on the road on 2019 with Thomas Rhett.
“When DL and I started working together, he was very passionate about making sure we had a lot of bus runs. That’s been a big strategy of ours,” Beuschel said. “There’s a lot of distractions that go on out on the road, but when he has writers out, he is locked in and focused.”
Concord’s Brad Kennard and Matt Turner spoke about their relationship with writer Albert. Kennard spoke about wishing to be a part of “Thinking ‘Bout You” when he heard and then getting to be a part of it when the company acquired Albert’s catalog from Downtown in spring of 2021.
He turned the mic over to Turner, because he had been working alongside Turner at Downtown before moving to Concord, himself. “I was at Downtown when this song was written. I heard it and immediately wanted to know when it was coming out,” Turner said. “I couldn’t be more grateful to work with Andy and to be here celebrating this song.”
In partnership with BMI on their No. 1 parties, Studio Bank’s Ron Cox gave a presentation at the party, revealing that the bank had make a donation to Lynch’s The Cowboys and Angels Fund in the writers’ names.
Next up, BBR Music Group’s Shelley Hargis was on hand to speak on behalf of the award-winning promotion team.
“What a blessing this was to work this record,” she said. “As a promo staff, it’s amazing when you are given an amazing piece of work that you know from the get-go is going to be huge. We felt it from the first time we heard it. When we finally got to work it as a single, we partied our way to the top.”
After all the executives spoke, it was time to hear from the writers and artists. Weatherly was first—he kept it short and sweet, thanking his co-writers, publishers and Lynch.
Then came Albert. “This is the kind of song I’ve been praying about being a part of since before I moved to Nashville. I feel like no matter how many times I’ve heard it, I’m still not sick of it. That’s not easy to come by. It’s one of those songs that doesn’t burn out, it just burns in.”
Phelps was next. He echoed thanks to the village around the song. He made sure to thank his grandmother for the inspiration, saying, “Shoutout to my Grandma for picking up the phone one day and saying, ‘I was just thinking ’bout you.'”
Porter thanked her team and husband when she stepped up to the mic. She showed a lot of love to her duet partner who brought her on to the history-making song.
“Dustin, thank you for taking a chance on me. I know that this song had a beautiful life before I got involved. I know it was probably a scary and hard decision, but thank you for believing my voice,” Porter said. “Thank you for teaching me so many things on this road, like how to do an award show, how to do a TV talk show and how to do all these things as an artist. Thank you for showing me how I also want to be as an artist. Hopefully I will be able to pass that down to someone newer than me one day.”
When it came time for the man of the hour to speak, he gave particular attention to thanking everyone individually that was involved in “Thinking ‘Bout You.”
“We’ve been trying to put this party on since last May, so it’s been almost 12 months if that tells you how crazy life gets once we start touring again, recording, and going and doing life. MacKenzie, I knew from the moment I heard your voice on this track that we had something magical on our hands. Thank you for wanting to be a part of ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’ and joining me on the wild journey of this song. To my BBR family, we made history together! Love y’all and am so grateful for you,” he shared. “Another huge thank you to country radio for loving this one as much as we do and giving it the life it deserved. And to Andy, Hunter and Will, thank you guys for both continuing to believe in me and create with me. These guys keep swinging the bat and believing in what we’re doing, and every now and again we get a ‘yes’ and it changes our lives. More to come, right?”
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