100 Best American Authors

American Authors

Andrew Zaeh

The title of American Authors' new hit, "The Best Day of My Life, " is becoming increasingly prophetic. Last week's seven days, when the group made its Billboard Hot 100 debut at No. 93 with the song, certainly must've been up there for the Brooklyn-based quartet of Berklee College of Music classmates. This week, "Best Day" breaks into the top 10 on the Adult Top 40 chart (rising 14-10) and holds its bullet at No. 22 on the Triple A tally.

"It was a really fun song to write, " frontman Zachary Barnett says. "It's actually pieces from five different songs that we just combined. At first we didn't know if it worked or not, so we sat on it for a while, but when we came back to it we realized, 'This is really cool. We think we have something special here.'"

SiriusXM director of music programming Jeff Regan concurs. He was one of American Authors' early supporters, adding the group's first single, "Believer, " to the Alt Nation channel. The station has played the song 456 times through Nov. 24. "It's right down main street, " Regan says. "It's grown exponentially across other formats and into other placements. It's just everywhere."

Indeed, the song was bolstered by prominent placements in a Lowe's TV ad, a trailer for the film "Delivery Man, " a Major League Baseball Fan Cave commercial and the opening sequence of this year's ESPN World Series of Poker coverage. The group has performed on NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (Sept. 6) and CBS' "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" (Nov. 26), and appeared in an episode of "The Carrie Diaries" on the CW. American Authors also have an appearance booked for "Kelly & Michael" during Christmas week.