Artist · chart history · #681 in indie & aaa artist polls
America
Band London United States Formed 1970 US folk/soft rock band
America formed in 1970 in London, United States. America has 51 chart appearances on 29 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “A Horse With No Name”, which appears on 25 lists with a best position of #87. The station that charted America most often is WMGK (Philadelphia, PA), with 14 appearances.
This American band learned its trade in London. Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek were sons of US Air Force men stationed in England, and they started playing live there before signing with Warner Bros. in 1970. Their self-titled debut arrived in 1971 carrying "A Horse With No Name" and "I Need You", hits on both sides of the Atlantic, and the sound was set from the first strum: 3 voices locked in close harmony over light, sun-dappled acoustic folk rock with a hazy, wide-open feel.
Homecoming followed in 1972 with the breezy "Ventura Highway", and the singles kept rolling: "Muskrat Love" on Hat Trick, "Tin Man" and "Lonely People" on Holiday, then "Sister Golden Hair" and "Daisy Jane" on Hearts in 1975. That same year History: America's Greatest Hits went multi-platinum. The Grammys named them Best New Artist at the 1973 ceremony.
Peek left in 1977 and the fortunes cooled, though "You Can Do Magic" put them back in the top 10 in 1982. Beckley and Bunnell kept the name alive and kept touring, and on 2007's Here & Now they worked with a younger generation of musicians who counted them as an influence. They got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by America on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Horse With No Name | 25 | #87 | – | – | |
| 2 | Ventura Highway | 11 | #60 | – | – | |
| 3 | Sister Golden Hair | 14 | #58 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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