When you really think about it, it’s amazing how few songs make it to #1. Weekly charts crown a #1 tune only 52 times a year. When a song stays at #1 for multiple weeks, that narrows the total number of #1’s significantly for any given year. In Canada, it’s even harder. When it comes to what’s getting played on Canadian country radio, the homegrown artists, often independent artists, have to compete with huge American stars and hits, often with huge promotion budgets behind them.

So when a Canadian song goes #1 on the Billboard Canada Country Airplay chart, it should be a big deal and it should be celebrated. And with the release today of the latest weekly chart, we celebrate “Can’t Help Myself.”

The duo, trio really, of Dean Brody and The Reklaws, came about when they were part of the “Friends Don’t Let Friends Tour Alone Tour” last year. But it wasn’t until the cross-country concerts were done that the idea of recording a song together came about. Jenna, from The Reklaws, explains, “After the tour, we really hit it off and we had this song that Stu and I thought we were just gonna do it ourselves. And then, our management was like, ‘I think it would be cool to have someone else on this,’ and it just made sense for it to be Dean.”

For The Reklaws, it’s their second #1 hit, coming a year after “Feels Like That” topped the chart.

For Dean…and this is hard to believe…it’s only his third #1! (OK, his 4th if you count “Canadian Girls,” but that reached the pinnacle the year before the Billboard Country Airplay chart came into existence on a different chart.) When the Billboard chart began in 2013, Dean became only the second Canadian to score a chart-topper and he did it with “Bounty” near the end of that year. It wasn’t until early 2018 that “8th Day” became his second #1 hit. The party-themed “Can’t Help Myself” marks his third entry into the top of the chart.

It’s amazing considering Dean’s long discography: 30 charted singles! He did come close many times, though. Eight of those singles made it to the Top 5.

Some artists may live and die by the charts and some don’t. Dean’s catalogue of songs is both long and, probably most important, filled with quality songs.

#1’s are nice, but they are so hard to get.