Which song had the longest wait from release to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” had the longest wait from release to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Carey and Walter Afanasieff wrote and produced the song for Carey’s 1994 holiday album Merry Christmas. Although it became an enduring seasonal favorite soon after release, it did not originally receive the kind of commercial single treatment that would have made a Hot 100 run comparable to later releases.

The song finally reached No. 1 in December 2019, about 25 years after its original release. That gave it the record for the longest journey to the top of the Hot 100. Its rise was powered by recurring holiday listening, digital sales and streaming.

This milestone is separate from the record for the longest uninterrupted stay at No. 1. “Old Town Road” holds that overall consecutive-weeks record, while Carey’s song is notable for the unusually long period between release and chart leadership.