Artist · chart history · #234 in indie & aaa artist polls
Beth Orton
Solo artist Dereham
Beth Orton is an artist from Dereham. Beth Orton has 54 chart appearances on 41 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 1997–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “She Cries Your Name”, which appears on 14 lists with a best position of #35. The station that charted Beth Orton most often is WYEP (Pittsburgh, PA), with 15 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1999.
Beth Orton, born in Dereham in 1970, drifted in through the side door of the mid-'90s dance scene, lending her cracked, smoky English voice to William Orbit, Andrew Weatherall, Red Snapper and the Chemical Brothers before anyone thought to build a record around her. Early sides like Superpinkymandy and "She Cries Your Name" set the template, and Trailer Park, her first solo album in Britain and America, landed in 1996 to a pile of glowing reviews.
What she made was folk and electronica pressed together until the seams stopped showing: an acoustic guitar strummed over breakbeats and ambient wash, a singer who sounds like she's confiding in you at the end of a very long night. The tag was folktronica, and it stuck. Central Reservation, with "Stolen Car" riding a loose, shuffling groove, won her a BRIT Award and a fiercely loyal following, and Daybreaker went top 10 at home in 2002.
She never stood still. After Comfort of Strangers she stepped away to raise her daughter and to play with Bert Jansch, came back unplugged and pure on Sugaring Season in 2012, then swung back to machines on Kidsticks. Along the way her songs slipped into Vanilla Sky and a string of TV dramas, which is how a lot of Americans first heard her.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Beth Orton on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She Cries Your Name | 14 | #35 | – | 1997 | |
| 2 | Concrete Sky | 8 | #37 | – | 2002 | |
| 3 | Stolen Car | 10 | #39 | – | 1999 | |
| 4 | Central Reservation | 5 | #53 | – | 1999 | |
| 5 | 1973 | 2 | #28 | – | 2016 | |
| 6 | Conceived | 2 | #66 | – | 2006 | |
| 7 | Magpie | 4 | #73 | – | 2012 | |
| 8 | Day Breaker | 1 | #55 | – | 2003 | |
| 9 | Paris Train | 1 | #254 | – | – | |
| 10 | Thinking About Tomorrow | 1 | #425 | – | – | |
| 11 | Call Me The Breeze | 1 | #499 | – | – | |
| 12 | Central Reservation Orbit Mix | 1 | #695 | – | – | |
| 13 | Heartland Truckstop | 2 | #798 | – | – | |
| 14 | Friday Night | 1 | #90 | – | 2023 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about Beth Orton.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.