Artist · chart history
Gil Scott-Heron
Solo artist Chicago United States
Gil Scott-Heron is an artist from Chicago. Gil Scott-Heron has 17 chart appearances on 14 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 2010–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, which appears on 8 lists with a best position of #53. The station that charted Gil Scott-Heron most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2010.
Gil Scott-Heron called himself a "bluesologist", his own coinage for someone who studies where the blues came from, and on Pieces of a Man in 1971 he put the theory to work. Working with musician Brian Jackson, he laid jazz, blues and soul under words about the politics and pressures of the day, sometimes half-rapped, sometimes sung in long, curling runs. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" hits like a brick through the TV screen: a poem riding a jazz-soul groove, and a blueprint hip-hop would later pick up and run with.
Born in Chicago in 1949, he was a jazz poet, singer, keyboard player and author, and the early '70s run of Pieces of a Man and Winter in America pointed straight at the neo soul and hip-hop still to come. His records came out on Flying Dutchman, Arista and RCA.
He kept going until the end. I'm New Here, in 2010, was his first album of new material in 16 years, with "Me and the Devil" among its songs. He died in 2011; his memoir The Last Holiday came out in 2012, the same year the Grammys gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2021 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him with its Early Influence Award.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Gil Scott-Heron on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Revolution Will Not Be Televised | 8 | #53 | – | – | |
| 2 | Me and the Devil | 4 | #37 | – | 2010 | |
| 3 | 17th St. | 1 | #230 | – | – | |
| 4 | We Almost Lost Detroit | 1 | #318 | – | – | |
| 5 | Lady Day and John Coltrane | 1 | #752 | – | – | |
| 6 | The Bottle | 2 | #1066 | – | – |
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.
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