Album · Miles Davis
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
Kind of Blue is an album by Miles Davis, released in 1959. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 19 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “So What”, on 11 lists with a best position of #48.
Kind of Blue, released by Columbia on August 17, 1959, is where Miles Davis traded the rush of hard bop for the wide-open space of modes. He led a sextet with John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, with Wynton Kelly taking the piano chair for "Freddie Freeloader". Irving Townsend produced, and the whole thing was cut at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York in just two sessions, on March 2 and April 22.
Evans, called back to the band for these dates, helped push him there: each player got a set of scales that marked out the ground for improvising, and far more freedom with melody. The result is cool, spacious and hypnotic, from the cool strut of "So What" to the hushed "Blue in Green". Its pull reached far past jazz into rock and classical music, and it went into the National Recording Registry in 2002.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Kind of Blue on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So What | 11 | #48 | – | 2001–2026 | |
| 2 | All Blues | 3 | #99 | – | 2001–2020 | |
| 3 | Flamenco Sketches | 1 | #1266 | – | 2020 | |
| 4 | Freddie Freeloader | 2 | #770 | – | 2001–2009 | |
| 5 | Blue in Green | 2 | #861 | – | 2004–2020 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.