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“Taillights Fade” by Buffalo Tom

From the album Let Me Come Over (1992)

“Taillights Fade” by Buffalo Tom appears on 20 radio countdowns from 9 stations between 1992 and 2023. It was first released in 1992 on the album Let Me Come Over. Its best result is #34 on the WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999). In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #160 alternative song of 1992 and #1,922 alternative song of all time.

20countdowns

9stations

#34best position

0#1 finishes

0top 10 finishes

1992–2023years charted

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Buffalo Tom - Taillights Fade HD

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When "Taillights Fade" was picked as a single from Let Me Come Over, Buffalo Tom's third album, released in March 1992, Bill Janovitz was caught off guard. He heard it as dark and depressing, a song about giving up, about feeling older than your years and cut off from everyone. Janovitz wrote it with Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis; Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie produced, cutting the album's basic tracks in three days in a converted church in Hurley, New York.

Then Nevermind blew up, and the label pushed for a pricey Ron Saint Germain remix that shoved the electric guitars forward. The gloom turned out to be the draw: fans adopted it, Louder called it an anthem for disaffected teens that every Buffalo Tom show needs, and Drowned in Sound reckoned it probably the band's best-known song.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

#1,150 of the '90s

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1992	59	WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992	100
1992	45	John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992	50
1993	53	Triple J Australia (national)	Triple J Hottest 100 of 1993	100

All-time and decade countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1994	337	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1994)	500
1994	90	Studio Brussel	Studio Brussel De Tijdloze 100 (1994)	100
1995	72	Studio Brussel	Studio Brussel De Tijdloze 100 (1995)	100
1996	321	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1996)	498
1999	34	WFNX	WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999)	500
1999	246	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1999)	500
1999	140	Studio Brussel	Studio Brussel De Tijdloze 100 (1999)	150
2000	302	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000)	500
2001	303	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001)	498
2002	418	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2002)	500
2002	1205	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)	2002
2003	438	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2003)	500
2003	1017	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)	2044
2005	452	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2005)	500
2006	482	WOXY 97X	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006)	499
2022	849	The Colorado Sound	The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s	900
2023	541	The Current	The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s	893

Also listed as: Tailights Fade; Taillight Fade.

Charting alongside it in 1992

Best songs of 1992 →

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