Tank Passes Charlie Wilson With 12th Adult R&B No. 1

Tank now has 12 No. 1s on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. No man has more in the chart’s 33-year history. Only one artist does: Alicia Keys, with 14.

The record-breaker is “YES”, which rises from No. 2 to No. 1 on the chart dated 17 October. It breaks the tie Tank had shared with Charlie Wilson. Billboard also reports that the song is the most played on the adult R&B radio stations that report to the chart.

The Ranking at the Top

These are the acts with the most No. 1s on Adult R&B Airplay, according to Billboard’s list this week:

Alicia Keys: 14
Tank: 12
Toni Braxton: 11
Charlie Wilson: 11
Mary J. Blige: 10
Usher: 10
Bruno Mars: 9
Kem: 9
Maxwell: 9

Tank’s lead among men is now one title. The gap to the top of the whole ranking is two. Toni Braxton sits level with Wilson on 11, and Mary J. Blige and Usher share fifth place with 10 each.

Tank and Wilson had been level since March. That was when “Control” gave Tank his 11th No. 1 and put him alongside Wilson and Braxton on the second-best total, Billboard reported at the time. That win came on a narrow margin: plays for “Control” were up just 1 percent week-on-week when it reached No. 1.

What Moved YES to No. 1

The chart is built on radio plays. For the tracking week of 2 to 8 October, “YES” was the most played song on panel-contributing adult R&B stations in the United States, according to Luminate. It also posted the largest increase in plays of any song on the format that week, which earned it the chart’s weekly Greatest Gainer honour.

Its climb was steady. In late September, as the album it comes from arrived, “YES” was at No. 10, BroadwayWorld reported at the time. It reached No. 2, then took the top spot from October London’s “Silent Treatment”, which falls after a single week at No. 1. That song had itself jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 a week earlier, giving October London his fourth No. 1 on the chart and his second this year, after “Touch on Me” in February, Rated R&B noted.

The song also leads Mediabase’s Adult R&B Airplay chart, The Source reports, so it tops both charts in the same week.

The Floetry Song Inside YES

The new No. 1 has another No. 1 inside it. “YES” interpolates “Say Yes” by the R&B duo Floetry, which spent seven weeks at the top of the same chart in 2003.

Because of that interpolation, Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart are credited as songwriters on “YES”. One of the chart’s leaders from 23 years ago is now written into its newest one.

It is the second time this year that Tank has reached the top by reworking a classic. “Control”, his No. 1 from March, interpolates Janet Jackson’s 1986 single of the same name. It replaced Jill Scott’s “Pressha” at the top of the chart.

Twelve No. 1s Across 19 Years

Billboard listed every one of Tank’s chart-toppers, with weeks at No. 1 and the date each first reached the top:

“Please Don’t Go”: 10 weeks, from 19 May 2007
“Next Breath”: one week, from 16 June 2012
“When We”: 11 weeks, from 18 November 2017
“Dirty”: three weeks, from 20 April 2019
“Can’t Let It Show”: two weeks, from 3 July 2021
“I Deserve”: one week, from 19 March 2022
“Slow”, featuring J Valentine: two weeks, from 5 November 2022
“See Through Love”, featuring Chris Brown: one week, from 20 May 2023
“Before We Get Started”, featuring Fabolous: two weeks, from 1 June 2024
“Gone”, Aaliyah featuring Tank: two weeks, from 27 September 2025
“Control”: two weeks, from 28 March 2026
“YES”: one week to date, from 17 October 2026

Read as a tally, the list shows how the record was built. The 12 titles add up to 38 weeks at No. 1 so far. Two of them, “When We” and “Please Don’t Go”, account for 21 of those weeks.

The pace has also changed. Five years passed between his first No. 1 and his second. Seven of the 12 have arrived since March 2022, with at least one new chart-topper in every calendar year from 2022 to 2026.

The Album Behind the Record

EXPERIENCE was not supposed to happen. When Tank released R&B Money in 2022, he called it his final album while dealing with hearing loss, Rated R&B’s review recalls. Four years later, he is back.

“YES” comes from EXPERIENCE, which Tank released on 25 September through R&B Money/BMG. It is the second No. 1 from the album, after “Control” led the chart for two weeks from late March, Rated R&B notes.

The guest list includes Kirk Franklin, Remy Ma, Eric Dawkins and Charlie Wilson himself, the singer Tank has just moved past. Tank told Rated R&B that he pushed himself on the record, stepping into dance, gospel and country, sounds people might not expect from him.

The review bears that out. “Highlight”, with Wilson, runs on a house beat by MK. “Rick”, with Remy Ma, nods to Rick James. “How I Need You” returns to his gospel roots with Kirk Franklin, and background vocals from Eric Dawkins and Zacardi Cortez. “Giddy Up” leans country.

Elsewhere, “Still” nods to Chris Brown’s “Residuals”, and the review singles out “You Know” as a standout vocal performance. Its verdict is that Tank, now 50, has nothing left to prove and is enjoying testing new ground without pressure.

The chart run also leaves out his writing for others. Rated R&B notes songs he has written for Aaliyah, Kelly Rowland, LeToya Luckett, Jamie Foxx and Omarion.

Speaking to Billboard about the new record, he said every No. 1 is special, but being No. 1 in the history of the chart feels different. He added that the answer is simply to keep singing the R&B you love.

Beyond the Chart

The No. 1 lands in a busy year. Tank is on the road supporting Usher and Chris Brown on The R&B Tour: Raymond & Brown. He plays Eric Cropper in the fourth season of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt, which premiered on 6 October and is currently ranked as Hulu’s No. 1 show, YouKnowIGotSoul reports. The Source describes the new No. 1 as the cap on a landmark year.

He has also made his Broadway debut, joining Hell’s Kitchen for a limited run. The musical is built on the songs of Alicia Keys, the one artist still ahead of him on this ranking, and one of its stars, Jade Milan, sings on “Give Me the World” from EXPERIENCE. In autumn 2027 he is due to headline the first Rock The Bells: I Need Luv Cruise.

BestMusic.News’s curator team:

Twelve No. 1s over 19 years is a tally built on staying power more than long reigns: only two of them held the top for longer than three weeks. Our tip: play “Please Don’t Go” and “YES” back to back. The first ran for ten weeks in 2007, and the second leans on a 2003 chart-topper, so between them they cover more than 20 years of the format.

Long runs are their own kind of record. Read how 18 straight weeks in the top 10 made Dracula a K-pop record for Jennie.