Hit songs are generally quick — Billboard Hot 100 top 10s ran an average of three minutes and 40 seconds in 2024, according to Hit Songs Deconstructed — but no Hot 100 hit has ever been as brief as Jack Black’s “Steve’s Lava Chicken.”
The track — at just 34 seconds in its original form (with a still-swift 1:15 extended mix also released) — breaks the record as the shortest Hot 100 hit ever by run time, dating to the chart’s Aug. 4, 1958, inception. The cut from the soundtrack of A Minecraft Movie debuts at No. 77 on the list dated May 3, 2025. It continues to gain in streaming, surging 62% to 7 million official U.S. streams April 18-24, according to data tracker Luminate.
Black co-stars in A Minecraft Movie, which has grossed $816 million globally over its first four weekends of release. Black and the film’s director, Jared Hess, co-wrote “Steve’s Lava Chicken” and John Spiker produced it.
Black earns his second Hot 100 hit, after “Peaches” reached No. 56 in April 2023. That song was from the soundtrack to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, likewise co-starring Black.
Elsewhere, “Steve’s Lava Chicken” hits the top 10 on the Hot Rock Songs chart, pushing four spots to No. 10.
Meanwhile, the track is one of four by Black on the A Minecraft Movie soundtrack, along with “I Feel Alive” — featuring Dave Grohl on drums — and two others each less than a minute long: “Birthday Rap,” with co-star Jason Momoa, and “Ode to Dennis.”
“Steve’s Lava Chicken” surpasses Kid Cudi’s “Beautiful Trip,” which runs 37 seconds long, as the quickest Hot 100 hit by song length.
Below, take a look, as long as you’d like, at the 10 quickest Hot 100 hits by run time over the chart’s history (with assistance from Paul Haney at Joel Whitburn’s Record Research).
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:34 — “Steve’s Lava Chicken,” Jack Black
Hot 100 peak: No. 77, May 3, 2025 (to date)
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:37 — “Beautiful Trip,” Kid Cudi
Hot 100 peak: No. 100, Dec. 26, 2020
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:45 — “PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen),” Piko-Taro
Hot 100 peak: No. 77, Oct. 29, 2016
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1:02 — “Little Boxes,” The Womenfolk
Hot 100 peak: No. 83, April 25, 1964
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1:06 — “Deck the Halls,” Nat King Cole
Hot 100 peak: No. 16, Dec. 31, 2022
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1:13 — “Pete Davidson,” Ariana Grande
Hot 100 peak: No. 99, Sept. 1, 2018
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1:16 — “Difference (Interlude),” XXXTentacion
Hot 100 peak: No. 84, Dec. 22, 2018
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1:17 — “Some Kind-A Earthquake,” Duane Eddy His Twangy Guitar and the Rebels
Hot 100 peak: No. 37, Oct. 26, 1959
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1:19 — “Forward,” Beyoncé feat. James Blake
Hot 100 peak: No. 63, May 14, 2016
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1:20 — “What I’ve Been Looking For (Reprise),” Andrew Seeley & Vanessa Anne Hudgens
Hot 100 peak: No. 67, Feb. 11, 2006
