When Toby Keith released 35 Biggest Hits on May 6, 2008, the album brought together some of the most recognizable songs in country music. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, an impressive achievement for a greatest-hits collection.
But it never reached the top of that chart while Toby Keith was alive.
Nearly 16 years later, something remarkable happened. Following Toby Keith’s death on February 5, 2024, at age 62, millions of listeners returned to the music that had accompanied their lives for decades.
On the Billboard 200 chart dated February 17, 2024, 35 Biggest Hits reentered at No. 1 for the first time.
It was a chart milestone that Toby Keith never had the opportunity to witness. And behind that achievement was an extraordinary response from the people who had followed his music for more than 30 years.
An Album That Told the Story of a Country Music Career
Released as a two-CD collection, 35 Biggest Hits included 34 previously recorded songs spanning Toby Keith’s career from 1993 through 2006, along with a new recording, “She’s a Hottie.”
The collection began with “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” the 1993 single that introduced Toby Keith to country radio and became his first No. 1 country hit.
From there, the album moved through songs that had helped establish Toby Keith as one of the genre’s most successful and distinctive performers.
“How Do You Like Me Now?!” captured the defiant confidence that became a signature of Toby Keith’s music. “I Love This Bar” celebrated ordinary places and familiar faces. “American Soldier” reflected a more serious side, while “As Good as I Once Was” showed Toby Keith’s gift for humor and storytelling.
By 2008, these recordings were already familiar to generations of country fans.
The compilation reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart that year. But on the all-genre Billboard 200, which measures albums across every musical style, it stopped at No. 2.
For years, that remained its highest position.
What Happened in February 2024?
After Toby Keith’s death, the response to his music was reflected in extraordinary listening figures.
During the tracking week ending February 8, 2024, 35 Biggest Hits earned 66,000 equivalent album units, an increase of 953 percent over the previous week.
According to Billboard, approximately 46,000 of those units came from streaming activity, representing 64.04 million official on-demand streams of the album’s 35 songs.
Another 11,000 units came from actual album sales, with the remaining 9,000 generated through individual track sales.
That distinction matters. The album did not sell 66,000 physical copies in a week. Its No. 1 position reflected the combined impact of purchases and digital listening.
And the renewed interest went beyond one album.
Toby Keith also occupied nine of the top ten positions on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, a striking demonstration of how many listeners were returning to his individual recordings.
For some, those songs recalled the country radio of the 1990s. Others remembered the early 2000s, when Toby Keith’s music was a constant presence on radio, television and concert stages.
A Fifth No. 1 That Arrived Too Late
The achievement gave Toby Keith a fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and his first since Bullets in the Gun topped the chart in 2010.
Other albums that had reached the summit included Unleashed, Shock’n Y’all and Big Dog Daddy.
But 35 Biggest Hits was different. It wasn’t a new studio recording or a collection of previously unheard performances. These were songs the public had known for years.
Its return demonstrated that familiar music can find renewed significance when listeners revisit an artist’s life and career.
And the story did not end in 2024. On May 22, 2026, the collection received its first vinyl release as a three-LP set, introducing another format through which fans could experience Toby Keith’s recordings.
The Meaning Behind Those 16 Years
When 35 Biggest Hits first appeared in 2008, Toby Keith was still releasing new music, touring and adding to an already substantial catalog.
Sixteen years later, the same collection reached No. 1 under entirely different circumstances.
The songs themselves had not changed. “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was still the recording that helped launch his career. “I Love This Bar” still carried its familiar humor. “American Soldier” still expressed the sentiments that had made it meaningful to many listeners.
What changed was the moment in which people heard them.
In 2008, 35 Biggest Hits celebrated what Toby Keith had accomplished. In 2024, its rise to No. 1 showed how strongly that music continued to connect with listeners after his death.
It took nearly 16 years for the album to reach the top of the Billboard 200. The songs that carried it there had been part of people’s lives all along.