Artist · chart history

Dishwalla

Band Santa Barbara United States Formed 1994

Dishwalla formed in 1994 in Santa Barbara, United States. Dishwalla has 40 chart appearances on 40 radio countdowns from 21 stations on RockLists, spanning 1996–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Counting Blue Cars”, which appears on 36 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Dishwalla most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 7 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1996.

40appearances

40countdowns

2songs charted

21stations

1#1 finishes

1996–2025years

Dishwalla got their name from a Hindi term for the neighborhood satellite TV man, "dish" plus "walla", after a cease-and-desist letter forced them to drop their earlier names. The Santa Barbara band started out as Life Talking, formed by singer J.R. Richards, guitarist Rodney Browning and keyboardist Greg Kolanek, then became Dish once bassist Scot Alexander and drummer George Pendergast joined, before settling on Dishwalla at the end of 1993.

Pet Your Friends came out on A&M in 1995, and "Counting Blue Cars" is the song everyone knows: a chiming, midtempo alt-rock ballad that builds from a gentle strum to a big, open-hearted chorus, Richards' voice soaring and cracking in all the right places. And You Think You Know What Life's About followed in 1998, with the moody sweep of "Once in a While". Richards eventually handed the microphone to Justin Fox, who also plays guitar, and the band carries on.

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

Songs by Dishwalla on radio countdowns

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s	Peak year
1	Counting Blue Cars	1,791	36	#1	1	1996
2	Once in a While	67	4	#74	–	1998

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.

96 98

Every countdown appearance

Year	#	Song	Countdown
2025	370	Counting Blue Cars	WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s
2023	164	Counting Blue Cars	105.9 The X July 420 (2023)
2023	447	Counting Blue Cars	WCYY CYY 500 Most Played Songs (2023)
2022	172	Counting Blue Cars	105.9 The X July 420 (2022)
2022	867	Counting Blue Cars	The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s
2021	176	Counting Blue Cars	105.9 The X July 420 (2021)
2021	534	Counting Blue Cars	90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s
2020	168	Counting Blue Cars	105.9 The X July 420 (2020)
2020	210	Counting Blue Cars	The DC101 Top 500
2019	444	Counting Blue Cars	WCYY CYY 500 Most Played Songs (2019)
2015	441	Counting Blue Cars	WCYY CYY 500 Most Played Songs (2015)
2014	424	Counting Blue Cars	WCYY CYY 500 Most Played Songs (2014)
2005	400	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2005	445	Counting Blue Cars	99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005)
2004	399	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2003	399	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2002	399	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2002	1643	Counting Blue Cars	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2001	399	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2001	227	Counting Blue Cars	WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001)
2000	397	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
2000	43	Counting Blue Cars	DC101 Top 101 Rock Songs of the 90s
1999	209	Counting Blue Cars	Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	176	Counting Blue Cars	WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	1055	Counting Blue Cars	The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	396	Counting Blue Cars	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	499	Counting Blue Cars	WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999)
1998	100	Once in a While	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1998
1998	74	Once in a While	DC101 Top 101 Songs of 1998
1998	85	Once in a While	WEQX Top 102.7 of 1998
1998	85	Once in a While	Radio & Records Top 103 Songs of 1998
1997	804	Counting Blue Cars	WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997)
1996	70	Counting Blue Cars	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1996
1996	19	Counting Blue Cars	91X Top 91 Songs of 1996
1996	24	Counting Blue Cars	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1996
1996	10	Counting Blue Cars	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1996
1996	9	Counting Blue Cars	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1996
1996	77	Counting Blue Cars	The End Top 107 Songs of 1996
1996	59	Counting Blue Cars	WBCN Top 104 Songs of 1996
1996	1	Counting Blue Cars	Radio & Records Top 96 Songs of 1996

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