Beyoncé 'Cowboy Carter' Legendary Inspirations and New Collaborators All Up in Streams: Linda Martell, Dolly Parton, Brittney Spencer and More

Welcome to Billboard Pro's Upward trends column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, oddities and trends that have caught the attention of the music industry. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all could become ubiquitous with the flash of a TikTok clip.

This week: With the Cowboy Carter rodeo officially kicking off, artists new and old are getting their turn in the Beyoncé-shine spotlight, while some old West Coast hip-hop songs for country's current biggest song are also seeing big profits.

Beyoncé's 'Jolene' Boosts Dolly P's Classic Version on Streaming

Beyoncé's “Jolene,” a centerpiece of her new album cowboy carter, not only recreates Dolly Parton's classic 1973 single, but actively involves Parton in this revival by having the country icon deliver Bey's new take on the song. The new “Jolene” is off to a strong start on streaming and could debut on the Hot 100 next week — but Parton's “Jolene” is also seeing an uptick, as both unsuspecting fans and longtime listeners have sought it out on services flow to do an A-to-Bey comparison.

Last weekend (March 29-31), Parton's version of “Jolene” earned 1.24 million official on-demand streams in the US — a 43% gain from the previous weekend (871,000 streams from March 22-24), according to with Luminate. Of course, “Jolene” wasn't the only timeless track Beyoncé covered Cowboy Carter: “Blackbird”, The Beatles” White album classic that Bey covers in the album's second slot as “Blackbird,” also saw a 13% weekend-to-weekend gain, up to 710,000 streams last weekend. And “Oh Louisiana,” which takes 52 seconds of Chuck Berry's song of the same name, helped the 1971 original more than double its weekend streams, up 138% to 12,000 streams.

Meanwhile, some of the older tracks that Beyoncé either sampled or jammed on Cowboy Carter it also had fans looking for source material on streaming services. “Ya Ya” contains elements of the Beach Boys' “Good Vibrations” and Nancy Sinatra's “These Boots Are Made For Walkin',” which rose 13% and 14% over their respective streaming totals from the previous weekend. And “Maybelline,” another Berry track that earns a “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson” nod, also took a nice hit, up 11 percent to 38,000 streams last weekend. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

'Cowboy Carter' Partners See Their Catalogs Soar

Whether you're a veteran artist or a relatively unknown performer, being featured on a Beyoncé album tracklist is a good way to get a healthy boost in streaming activity. Case in point: the mix of country pioneers and promising newcomers featured on Bey's Cowboy Carter are already enjoying torrential streams in the first few days after the album's release — none bigger than that of Linda Martell, the pioneering singer-songwriter whose voice appears on a spoken-word segment of “Spaghetti.” Martell's catalog recorded just under 5,000 streams during the weekend of March 22-24, according to Luminate — but after Cowboy Carter release, that number grew to 61,000 streams from March 29-31, for a whopping 1,100% increase.

Meanwhile, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy benefited from appearing on Beyoncé's version of 'Blackbird', with their charts increasing by 41%, 59%, 58% and 56% respectively in streams from weekend to weekend, respectively. And while Shaboozey's catalog jumped 16% thanks to his two appearances on the album, Willie Jones, the former The X Factor The contestant, who duets with Bey on “Just for Fun,” saw even bigger catalog gains, posting a 31 percent jump in streams the weekend after the release of Cowboy Carter. – JL

An “Everlasting” Love for “Like That” West Coast Sample Sources

In case you've been living under a rock with very poor internet access, Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar set the hip-hop world on fire two Fridays ago with the release of their incendiary “Like That,” blasting from Future and Metro's. Billboard 200-top We Don't Trust You series. While the song largely spawned Lamar's shocking verse that seemingly called out fellow rap superstars J. Cole and Drake, it also garnered the best first-week stream of 2024 in large part because it was an undeniable banger — as evidenced by the fact that listeners flock to even two of the older songs that form his used musical backbone.

“Everlasting Bass,” the enduring 1986 West Coast rap anthem from Rodney-O & Joe Cooley that gives “Like That” its look and background moan, is up 230% on official on-demand streams on USA for the tracking week ended. As of March 28, according to Luminate, it's up to 119,000 streams from 36,000 the previous week. And Eazy-E's “Eazy-Duz-It,” another Cali classic whose song-song “He used to be a thug all around” intro gave hits from Three 6 Mafia and You before also upping the musical ante for “Like That,” up 41% over the same period, from 247,000 to 349,000. Neither Drake nor Cole have yet responded to Lamar's missive, but if anyone decides to, these throwbacks suggest we might have sampled The Chronicle the Doggy style might be a good place to start. — ANDREW UNDERBERGER