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Cover of August and Everything After by Counting Crows — Cover: August and Everything After

Song · Counting Crows

“A Murder of One” by Counting Crows

From the album August and Everything After (1993)

“A Murder of One” by Counting Crows appears on 21 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1994 and 2014. It was first released in 1993 on the album August and Everything After. Its best result is #44 on the Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1994. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #118 alternative song of 1994 and #1,275 alternative song of all time.

21countdowns

6stations

#44best position

0#1 finishes

0top 10 finishes

1994–2014years charted

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A Murder Of One

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"A Murder of One" was the fourth single from Counting Crows' 1993 debut August and Everything After, and it's the song that explains the band's name: a murder is a flock of crows, and both the name and one of its lines come from an old English fortune-telling rhyme. Adam Duritz wrote the words and built the music with Matt Malley and David Bryson.

Duritz has said it's about the gap between a kid's sense that anything is possible and the hollow, bruising relationships grown-ups settle for, unless they find the nerve to change. T Bone Burnett produced, and the arrangement jangles and rolls: Duritz on piano and harmonica, Charlie Gillingham's Hammond and accordion, David Immerglück's mandolin, with Gary Louris, Mark Olson and Maria McKee singing along behind.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Classic Rock

#2,677 of all time

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1994	44	Q101 Chicago, IL	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1994	101
1994	75	WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1994	100

All-time and decade countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1996	331	WNEW-FM	WNEW Firecracker 500 (1996)	500
1997	780	102.3 WBAB	WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997)	1023
1999	450	WHFS	WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999)	500
1999	569	Q101	Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	1017
1999	1343	CD101	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	2000
2000	1343	CD101	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)	2001
2001	1345	CD101	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)	2002
2002	1344	CD101	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)	2003
2002	1982	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)	2002
2003	1329	CD101	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)	2004
2004	1329	CD101	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)	2005
2005	1329	CD101	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)	1994
2007	638	CD101	CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)	2008
2008	654	CD101	CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)	2009
2009	676	CD101	CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)	2010
2010	691	CD101	CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)	2011
2011	713	CD101	CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)	2011
2013	751	CD101	CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)	2012
2014	776	CD101	CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014)	2013

Also listed as: A Murder Of One.

Charting alongside it in 1994

Best songs of 1994 →

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