Hayes behind Applebee’s song that jumped from TikTok to TV
When Walker Hayes was a kid growing up in Mobile, Alabama, dinner at Applebee’s represented a splurge for his family — though not necessarily for every member of the family.
“My dad could get fajitas, but none of us kids could,” the country singer recalls. “We had to get, like, a quesadilla. So if you saw a couple Bourbon Street Steaks sizzle by, you were like, ‘Ooh, what’s that table celebrating tonight?’ ”
Decades later, Hayes — now a 41-year-old father of six himself — is the one savoring Applebee’s finest in “Fancy Like,” his chart-topping viral smash about living it up with his wife at the casual chain restaurant.
“Yeah, we fancy like Applebee’s on a date night/ Got that Bourbon Street Steak with the Oreo shake,” he sings over a low-slung 808 beat and a boot-scooting guitar lick. “Get some whipped cream on the top too/ Two straws, one check, girl I got you.”
Recently in its eighth consecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs tally — the second-longest run of 2021 behind Luke Combs’ “Forever After All” — “Fancy Like” took off in mid-June on TikTok when Hayes, a journeyman act with only a few modest hits to his name, posted a clip of himself dancing to the song with his 15-yearold daughter, Lela. Soon it spread to streaming platforms like Spotify (where it’s racked up more than 50 million plays) before finally landing on country radio and in an Applebee’s commercial that features some of the countless TikTok videos inspired by Hayes’ original.
“I’ve been in Nashville
for 17 years, and in the last 12 weeks my life has completely changed,” says Hayes. “The word to describe it is ‘surreal.’ ”
Now he’s aiming “Fancy Like,” which just broke into the top 10 of the all-genre Hot 100, for a pop crossover with help from a remix featuring Kesha that recently dropped.
If the crossover works, “Fancy Like” will become the latest country track after Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” to find a place at the increasingly eclectic center of American music. Even if it doesn’t, the song’s embrace by millions of country listeners — like that of Morgan Wallen’s TikTok-powered “7 Summers” before it — has already challenged country radio’s position as the only hitmaking platform that matters in Nashville.
“Radio certainly still moves the needle,” says Jason Owen, co-president of Hayes’ label, Monument Records. “But on youngerleaning songs, discovering it via TikTok or streaming is becoming the norm.”
Hayes insists he never worried that the Applebee’s shoutout — the song also mentions Wendy’s, Maybelline and Victoria’s
Secret — would make him look like a corporate shill. “Those brand names, I think of them like furniture in a song,” he says. “They’re small, honest, factual details that you can put the other stuff on top of.
“Plus, is there a more sing-able word than ‘Applebee’s’ to go with that bass drop?”
Joel Yashinsky, chief marketing officer at Applebee’s, puts the namedrop in line with earlier examples by Run-D.M.C. (“My Adidas”) and Bruce Springsteen (“Cadillac Ranch”) and says “Fancy Like” presented an opportunity to tie into a popular song that “matches our brand essence.” Which is? “We’re a place where everyday people can come in their jeans and be comfortable and take a break from the day,” the executive says.
The commercial, which Ad Age recently reported was running more than 100 times a day on national television, calls to mind last year’s viral “Dreams” craze in which TikTok users filmed themselves drinking Ocean Spray juice to the sound of Fleetwood Mac’s late-’70s soft-rock classic.