Song · Lucinda Williams
“Can't Let Go” by Lucinda Williams
From the album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)
“Can't Let Go” by Lucinda Williams appears on 10 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1999 and 2026. It was first released in 1998 on the album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Its best result is #4 on the WXRT Listener Poll: Top 25 Songs of 1999. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #4 indie & aaa song of 1999, #559 indie & aaa song of all time and #364 of the '90s.
Lucinda Williams didn't write "Can't Let Go" (Randy Weeks did), but she made it her own on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road in 1998, co-producing the track and playing resonator guitar under her own vocal. It's a guitar-slinger's summit: Gurf Morlix and Bo Ramsey on slide, Ramsey and Johnny Lee Schell on electric, and Schell taking the slide solo, with John Ciambotti on bass and Donald Lindley on drums and percussion. Rick Rubin and Jim Scott mixed it.
Released as a single, it settled in on the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart for 13 weeks, peaking at No. 14 in March 1999, and it earned Williams a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 4 | 93XRT Chicago, IL | WXRT Listener Poll: Top 25 Songs of 1999 | 25 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 99 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2019 | 90 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2019 | 90 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2020 | 1505 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 559 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2024 | 204 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2025 | 235 | WFPK | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s | 500 |
| 2026 | 797 | KXT | KXT 917 Song Countdown | 917 |
| 2026 | 989 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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