Artist · chart history
Kurt Vile
Solo artist Lansdowne United States
Kurt Vile is an artist from Lansdowne. Kurt Vile has 76 chart appearances on 55 radio countdowns from 18 stations on RockLists, spanning 2013–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Pretty Pimpin'”, which appears on 25 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted Kurt Vile most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 15 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2018.
Kurt Vile, born in 1980 and based in Philadelphia, plays guitar like a man in no hurry to get anywhere, and makes that sound like the most appealing thing in the world. He started out making lo-fi home recordings with his friend Adam Granduciel, played lead guitar in the early War on Drugs, then stepped out on his own with Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying This to You..., both built from years of bedroom tapes. Childish Prodigy, in 2009, was his first studio album with his band, the Violators.
Smoke Ring for My Halo, in 2011, widened his audience, and Wakin on a Pretty Daze in 2013 stretched the songs out into long, sun-dazed rambles, all rippling guitar, drowsy drawl and hazy good humor. You can hear the lineage he claims, from Neil Young and Tom Petty to Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., John Prine and John Fahey. Then came b'lieve i'm goin down... in 2015, and "Pretty Pimpin'", a shaggy, self-mystified groove that topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart in 2016.
He made Lotta Sea Lice with Courtney Barnett in 2017, followed it with Bottle It In and the country-leaning Speed, Sound, Lonely KV EP, and recorded (watch my moves) mostly in his home studio during the lockdowns. After losing his longtime bandmate Rob Laakso in 2023, he put out the 52-minute EP Back to Moon Beach, and Philadelphia's Been Good to Me followed in 2026.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Kurt Vile on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pretty Pimpin' | 25 | #2 | – | 2015 | |
| 2 | Loading Zones | 17 | #2 | – | 2018 | |
| 3 | How Lucky | 11 | #7 | – | 2020 | |
| 4 | Wakin on a Pretty Day | 7 | #85 | – | 2013 | |
| 5 | Like Exploding Stones | 5 | #47 | – | 2022 | |
| 6 | KV Crimes | 2 | #45 | – | 2013 | |
| 7 | Shame Chamber | 1 | #37 | – | 2013 | |
| 8 | Run Run Run | 2 | #27 | – | 2021 | |
| 9 | Bassackwards | 1 | #27 | – | 2018 | |
| 10 | How Lucky f/John Prine | 1 | #122 | – | 2020 | |
| 11 | Rollin With the Flow | 1 | #63 | – | 2018 | |
| 12 | Another Good Year For The Roses | 2 | #77 | – | 2023 | |
| 13 | Jesus Fever | 1 | #712 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Kurt Vile as a guest.
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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