Every once in a while, you'll notice a quirky entry on the Billboard 200, and this week marked the first ever appearance of Lee Greenwood's American Patriot on the list, no doubt because of the preceding July 4th holiday weekend. The album is famous, of course, for including "God Bless The U.S.A." among nine other patriotic standards. This week it came in at no. 172 on the Billboard 200, which Billboard confirmed was its first time in the charts, 23 years after its release.
There are a number of reasons why 2015 finally marked the year for American Patriot, but odds are streaming and downloads are the reason. This year marks the first July 4th holiday where the Billboard 200 takes streaming and digital singles into account as "equivalent album sales." Odds are that if there's one weekend where music fans buy or stream "God Bless The U.S.A." at a higher rate, it's July 4th. Billboard's album sales and streaming charts show that the album and the song failed to crack the Top 100 on their respective charts, but we can conjecture that if enough people did one or the other, it could create an "equivalent albums" sales tally large enough to secure a spot far back on the Billboard 200.
"God Bless The U.S.A." has become the quintessential representation of American patriotism in music over its three reappearances as a single. The song technically appeared on the Billboard 200 once before as part of its original album, You've Got A Good Love Comin' (which peaked at no. 195 during 1984). The song saw a resurgence in popularity after George H.W. Bush suggested it as a "new national anthem" in the run-up to the 1992 election (which he lost...just saying), which inspired Greenwood to release American Patriot. The song peaked during 2001 however, reaching no. 16 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Greenwood has aggressively adopted the song and its theme of patriotism as a calling card of sorts. He's noted for appearing in concert wearing a stars-and-stripes leather jacket.
