Album · Mike Ness
Cheating at Solitaire by Mike Ness
Cheating at Solitaire is an album by Mike Ness, released in 1999. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 20 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Don't Think Twice”, on 14 lists with a best position of #35.
Cheating at Solitaire, the first solo album from Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness, came out on Time Bomb in 1999 with Ness producing, and it trades his band's punk roar for something older and dustier: roots-minded rock and roll with the grit of vintage American music on it. Some of it had been kicking around for years. "Dope Fiend Blues" and "I'm In Love w/My Car" started life as 1994 demos for Social Distortion's White Light, White Heat, White Trash, and other songs date to around 1997, when the band was mapping out its next record.
The guest list is a statement of lineage: Bruce Springsteen, Brian Setzer and members of Royal Crown Revue all turn up, and Johnny Cash was asked to sing on "Ballad of a Lonely Man" but was too sick to make it. "Don't Think Twice" and "Charmed Life" are the ones radio grabbed, Ness's gravel-and-whiskey voice doing the heavy lifting. He followed it the same year with Under the Influences.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Cheating at Solitaire on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don't Think Twice | 14 | #35 | – | 1999–2024 | |
| 2 | Charmed Life | 6 | #99 | – | 1999–2011 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.