Artist · chart history · #868 in indie & aaa artist polls
Jesse Colin Young
Solo artist Queens United States
Jesse Colin Young is an artist from Queens. Jesse Colin Young has 2 chart appearances on 2 radio countdowns from 1 station on RockLists, spanning 2006–2010. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Ridgetop”, which appears on 1 list with a best position of #233. The station that charted Jesse Colin Young most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 2 appearances.
Jesse Colin Young, born Perry Miller in Queens in 1941, had already sung lead and co-founded the Youngbloods by the time that band dissolved in 1972, and he went solo on Warner Bros. with a mellow, sun-warmed folk rock that felt like a porch swing on a long afternoon. Song for Juli arrived in 1973, carrying "Ridgetop", a loping country-tinged ramble that rock radio's deep-cut listeners never let go of, and Light Shine, Songbird and the live On the Road followed through 1976.
He kept at it through the '80s on Elektra and Cypress, then launched his own label, Ridgetop Music, in 1993. When the Mount Vision Fire hit in 1995, he moved his family to a coffee plantation in Hawaii and made music on his own schedule. Chronic Lyme disease pushed him into retirement in 2012, but he was back on stage with his son Tristan in 2016 and released Dreamers on BMG in 2019.
His songs traveled well: Three Dog Night covered "Sunlight" on Naturally in 1970, and Robert Plant's 2002 take on "Darkness, Darkness" earned a Grammy nomination. Young died on March 16, 2025.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Jesse Colin Young on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ridgetop | 1 | #233 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 233 | Ridgetop | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) |
| 2006 | 871 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
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