A cover of the Mulan classic “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” sends Peyton Parrish to No. 1 on Billboard’s charts for the first time.
Parrish’s hard rock version of the Disney tune starts at No. 1 on the Rock Digital Song Sales and Hard Rock Digital Song Sales charts dated Sept. 11 with 8,600 downloads sold in the Aug. 27-Sept. 2 tracking week, according to MRC Data.
After the song was released Aug. 27, Parrish promoted it with multiple clips on TikTok, where he boasts 1.7 million followers.
“Man” premiered in the 1998 animated film Mulan. Produced by Matthew Wilder (who hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 with “Break My Stride”) and written by Wilder and David Zippel, the song was first recorded by Donny Osmond.
The new No. 1 follows recent chart success for label Noise Machine, each time with covers. In February, it led both lists via State of Mine’s rendition of Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls,” featuring No Resolve. In August, a remake of Linkin Park’s “Numb,” credited to Noise Machine featuring Blue_Eyed_Darkness, crowned the Alternative Digital Song Sales tally. Another cover, No Resolve’s version of The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay,” concurrently starts at No. 12 on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales with 800 sold.
Songs from Noise Machine aren’t the only covers to hit No. 1 on rock sales charts in 2021. Måneskin’s version of The Four Seasons’ “Beggin’ ” crowned Rock Digital Song Sales for three weeks (July 24-Aug. 7), while on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, Chris Stapleton’s take on Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” led for a week (Aug. 28).
“Man” also starts at No. 3 on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, its sales augmented by 719,000 U.S. streams.
