Yellowcard Returns to Alternative Airplay Chart After Nearly 19 Years with ‘Better Days’

After almost two decades away, Yellowcard is back on a Billboard airplay chart.

“Better Days,” the lead single from Yellowcard’s upcoming album of the same name, bows at No. 33 on the Alternative Airplay tally dated June 14.

The song marks the Ryan Key-fronted band’s first appearance on any airplay ranking since 2007, when “Light Up the Sky” peaked at No. 32 on Adult Pop Airplay.

Yellowcard makes its first visit to Alternative Airplay since 2006. That June, “Rough Landing, Holly” peaked at No. 27.

Ending an 18-year, 10-month and three-week break from Alternative Airplay, Yellowcard concludes the sixth-longest gap between appearances in the chart’s 37-year history. Debbie Harry holds the record, with 28 years, 10 months and two weeks between “Kiss It Better” in 1990 and her featured turn on Just Loud’s “Soul Train” in 2018. Counting songs in lead roles, Kate Bush logged the longest wait: 28 years, four months and three weeks from “Rubberband Girl” in 1994 to “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” in 2022. Among groups, Sublime has the mark: 26 years and six months, ended last July.

Yellowcard first reached Alternative Airplay in September 2003 with “Way Away,” which rose to No. 25. Its best so far (and lone top 10) is “Lights and Sounds” (No. 4, 2006).

Concurrently, “Better Days” debuts at No. 44 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 672,000 audience impressions in the week ending June 5, according to Luminate.

Better Days is due Oct. 10. It’s Yellowcard’s first full-length since its 2016 self-titled LP, which reached No. 28 on the Billboard 200.

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