Song · Adele
“When We Were Young” by Adele
From the album 25 (2015)
“When We Were Young” by Adele appears on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2016 and 2025. It was first released in 2015 on the album 25. Its best result is #28 on the WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2016. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #242 indie & aaa song of 2016 and #2,743 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Adele's "When We Were Young" came out of a rough patch. Stuck with writer's block through the fruitless early sessions for 25, her third album, released in 2015, she and Tobias Jesso Jr. wrote this one in three days in Los Angeles, and Ariel Rechtshaid produced it. XL put it out on 22 January 2016, the second single from the record.
It's a soul ballad built on Jesso's piano, arranged to keep the spotlight on her voice, and it pictures bumping into old acquaintances at a party years down the line: a song about the fear of getting older and watching youth slip away. Nico Muhly adds harmonium and prepared piano, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. Hammond organ, and Joey Waronker and Gus Seyffert hold down drums and bass. Critics loved it, and it went top ten in 11 countries, the UK and Canada among them.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 28 | 92.3 WTTS Indianapolis-Bloomington, IN | WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2016 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 266 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2024 | 788 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2024 | 442 | WXPN | WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) | 885 |
| 2025 | 374 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the 21st Century (So Far) | 714 |
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