Number One Crush - Airplay Release

Airplay Release

The Romeo + Juliet soundtrack was released in North America on October 29, 1996, ahead of the movie which opened in cinemas on November 1; "#1 Crush" was the album opener, and began to receive airplay at alternative radio. Romeo + Juliet debuted at #44 on the Billboard 200. A week later "#1 Crush" debuted on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at #17 and on the Hot 100 Airplay at #49. The song had received airplay at 71 monitored radio stations across the United States, and had become the driving force behind the soundtrack which shot up to #12 on the album chart. In its second week, "#1 Crush" broke into the Modern Rock top ten (at #8). At the start of 1997, "#1 Crush" hit #1 on the Modern Rock chart. The same week, the song reached a peak of #29 on the airplay chart. Because "#1 Crush" was an album cut, and would not be commercially available as a domestic single, it was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100. Due to the songs runaway success, Garbage contemplated filming a music video for it. The song stayed at the top Modern Rock position for an entire month, before dropping to #2 at the start of February. Top 40 radio picked up on "#1 Crush" and registered a single week on the Top 40 Mainstream at #39. During this period, the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack hit #2 on the album chart; the band's debut album also rebounded from the lower-seventies into the top 50. By the end of its chart-run in May 1997, "#1 Crush" had spent a total of 16 weeks on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and 22 on the Modern Rock chart.