Heat Waves

On June 29, 2020, Glass Animals released "Heat Waves" as the fourth single from their third album Dreamland. The song barely registered at first, peaking at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its early weeks. But a strange thing happened: it refused to fade. TikTok users latched onto the chorus, using it in over 10 million videos. Streaming numbers climbed week after week. Fifty-nine weeks after its chart debut, "Heat Waves" finally hit number one on March 5, 2022, the slowest ascent to the summit in Hot 100 history. It stayed there for five non-consecutive weeks.

Dave Bayley wrote the track alone in his London flat, drawing from personal grief and nostalgia. The production, handled by Bayley and Charlie Andrew, layers a looping guitar riff over a hip-hop-influenced beat and Bayley's falsetto. The result is a sound that bridges indie rock and contemporary R&B, earning comparisons to chillwave and soft rock. Critics at NME called it "a stunning, heart-wrenching single," while Rolling Stone described it as "a song that feels like a warm, sad hug."

The song's 91-week run on the Hot 100 broke the record previously held by The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights." It also topped charts in Australia, Canada, Lithuania, and Switzerland, and went 7× Platinum in the US. At the 2022 Brit Awards, it was nominated for Best British Single. Covers by Teddy Swims, Tom Odell, and Paramore further extended its reach. By mid-2024, "Heat Waves" had surpassed three billion streams on Spotify, cementing its status as one of the defining slow-burn hits of the streaming era.[edit]