Artist · chart history · #145 in indie & aaa artist polls
Joan Baez
Solo artist Staten Island United States US folk singer
Joan Baez is an artist from Staten Island. Joan Baez has 9 chart appearances on 9 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Diamonds and Rust”, which appears on 8 lists with a best position of #176. The station that charted Joan Baez most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 5 appearances.
Joan Baez, born on Staten Island in 1941, started recording in 1960 and hit the ground running: her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2 and Joan Baez in Concert, all went gold. That clear, ringing voice and her acoustic guitar made her a star of the folk revival straight away, and she used them for protest songs and songs of social justice as naturally as for old traditional ballads.
She writes, but her real gift has always been interpretation. She has sung the songs of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs ("There but for Fortune"), the Band ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"), the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Back in the early '60s, already a big name herself, she was among the earliest stars to take up Bob Dylan's songs, doing plenty to spread his early work. Their stormy romance later fed songs by both of them and kept the gossips busy for years.
Her music has long since spilled beyond folk into folk rock, pop, country and gospel, and in 1975 she put out Diamonds & Rust, and its title song has stayed close to the heart of her catalog ever since. She played Woodstock in 1969 and has never let up on her activism for nonviolence, civil rights and human rights. The Grammys gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted her in 2017.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Joan Baez on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diamonds and Rust | 8 | #176 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 593 | Diamonds and Rust | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2026 | 760 | Diamonds and Rust | KXT 917 Song Countdown |
| 2020 | 725 | Diamonds and Rust | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2018 | 801 | Diamonds and Rust | The Current's 893 Essential Songs |
| 2014 | 176 | Diamonds and Rust | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) |
| 2009 | 207 | Diamonds and Rust | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) |
| 2006 | 148 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 2004 | 296 | Diamonds and Rust | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) |
| 2001 | 1691 | Diamonds and Rust | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about Joan Baez.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.