Before Chris Stapleton became one of country music’s biggest stars, Chris Stapleton recorded a song for an album that never came out. The recording was shelved, and years passed before the song finally found its place on a released album.
On October 20, 2026, that same song reached one billion streams on Spotify.
The song was “You Should Probably Leave,” a Grammy-winning country hit with a history stretching back long before most listeners first heard it.
What makes the milestone remarkable isn’t simply the number. It’s how long the song had been around before the rest of the world caught up with it.
A Song Written Before the Breakthrough
Chris Stapleton wrote “You Should Probably Leave” with Nashville songwriters Ashley Gorley and Chris DuBois around 2011 or 2012. At the time, Chris Stapleton was already an accomplished songwriter, but the enormous solo success that would follow Traveller in 2015 was still ahead.
The three writers had created a song about two people who know they should stay apart but keep finding reasons to remain together. Its strength came from that familiar contradiction: knowing the sensible thing to do doesn’t always make doing it any easier.
Chris Stapleton eventually recorded a version for Mercury Records as part of an album made before Traveller.
But that album was never released.
In February 2022, while discussing the song’s success, Chris Stapleton explained that the recording had been part of an entire earlier project that Mercury had shelved.
Chris Stapleton described the song’s return as a full-circle experience, saying it was getting a new life on another record.
That earlier recording didn’t become the hit listeners know today. But the song itself remained part of Chris Stapleton’s musical history.
Ten Years Later, the Song Finally Reached No. 1
On November 13, 2020, Chris Stapleton released Starting Over, the fourth solo studio album from Chris Stapleton. Produced by Dave Cobb and Chris Stapleton, the album included fourteen tracks, with “You Should Probably Leave” appearing near the end.
On May 17, 2021, the song was released as a country radio single.
By February 2022, “You Should Probably Leave” had reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. The following week, it also topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
The achievement carried particular significance for co-writer Ashley Gorley.
During a Tin Pan South songwriter event in 2023, Ashley Gorley recalled writing the song roughly a decade earlier. Ashley Gorley described it as a song that had spent years on hold before finally becoming a chart-topping hit.
It was an unusual reminder of how unpredictable Nashville songwriting can be. Some songs are recorded almost immediately after being written. Others may spend years waiting for the right recording, album, or audience.
For this particular song, that wait had lasted approximately ten years.
An Unexpected Night on Television
The song’s rise also produced one of Chris Stapleton’s more unusual television performances.
On October 5, 2021, Chris Stapleton appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Producer and guitarist Dave Cobb had been scheduled to play, but an earache prevented Dave Cobb from traveling to New York.
Rather than cancel the performance, Jimmy Fallon stepped in.
After a last-minute FaceTime guitar lesson with Chris Stapleton, Jimmy Fallon joined Chris Stapleton, Morgane Stapleton, and the band onstage. Jimmy Fallon played rhythm guitar and even contributed a brief solo.
It was a memorable public performance during the months when the song was climbing the country charts.
From an Unreleased Recording to One Billion Streams
On April 3, 2022, “You Should Probably Leave” won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance. The song’s commercial success continued, eventually earning an 8-times Platinum certification in the United States.
Then came another milestone.
On October 20, 2026, “You Should Probably Leave” became the second Chris Stapleton recording to surpass one billion streams on Spotify, joining “Tennessee Whiskey.”
It was also reported as the 22nd country song to reach that mark on the platform.
Think about that history for a moment.
Chris Stapleton, Ashley Gorley, and Chris DuBois wrote the song around 2011 or 2012. An early recording ended up on an unreleased album. The song finally appeared on Starting Over in 2020, topped the country charts in 2022, and crossed one billion Spotify streams in 2026.
The recording that started the journey never received its original release. But the song survived that setback and eventually became one of Chris Stapleton’s most successful performances.
More than a decade after it was written, people are still listening.
And for a song that once belonged to an album the public never got to hear, one billion streams is a remarkable ending to that long wait.