Artist · chart history · #257 in indie & aaa artist polls
Old 97's
Band Dallas United States Formed 1993
Old 97's formed in 1993 in Dallas, United States. Old 97's has 95 chart appearances on 57 radio countdowns from 18 stations on RockLists, spanning 1999–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Murder (or a Heart Attack)”, which appears on 9 lists with a best position of #39. The station that charted Old 97's most often is WYEP (Pittsburgh, PA), with 23 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2017.
Old 97's have spent decades proving that country music and punk-rock volume can share a pickup truck. They came out of Dallas in the early '90s, named for the Wreck of the Old 97, with Rhett Miller singing and writing most of the songs alongside Ken Bethea, Murry Hammond and Philip Peeples. Miller has called what they do "loud folk", and it's hard to top that.
In the mid-to-late '90s they were among the pioneers of alt-country, and Too Far to Care in 1997 is the proof: "Timebomb" and "Barrier Reef" tear along like a honky-tonk band that has had too much coffee and not enough sleep. Fight Songs followed in 1999, and in the 2000s they turned the dial toward power pop, with Miller's hooks getting sharper on Satellite Rides songs like "Question".
They never stopped. Drag It Up, Blame It on Gravity, the 2-volume Grand Theatre, and the rowdy Most Messed Up in 2014 kept the machine running, and 2024's American Primitive, with "Where the Road Goes", showed a veteran band still enjoying itself, 13 studio albums in.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Old 97's on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Murder (or a Heart Attack) | 9 | #39 | – | 1999 | |
| 2 | Timebomb | 11 | #128 | – | – | |
| 3 | Dance With Me | 10 | #36 | – | 2008 | |
| 4 | Good with God | 8 | #21 | – | 2017 | |
| 5 | Where The Road Goes | 5 | #5 | – | 2024 | |
| 6 | Longer Than You've Been Alive | 5 | #5 | – | 2014 | |
| 7 | Every Night (Is Friday Night Without You) | 6 | #31 | – | 2010 | |
| 8 | Turn Off The TV | 5 | #52 | – | 2020 | |
| 9 | Champaign Illinois | 2 | #153 | – | – | |
| 10 | Barrier Reef | 4 | #289 | – | – | |
| 11 | Perfume | 4 | #51 | – | 2011 | |
| 12 | All Who Wander | 2 | #521 | – | – | |
| 13 | Question | 2 | #304 | – | – | |
| 14 | Jagged | 3 | #516 | – | – | |
| 15 | Designs On You | 4 | #681 | – | – | |
| 16 | Streets Of Where I'm From | 1 | #250 | – | – | |
| 17 | Won't Be Home | 2 | #483 | – | – | |
| 18 | Let's Get Drunk and Get it On | 2 | #69 | – | 2014 | |
| 19 | Every Night is Friday Night | 1 | #78 | – | 2010 | |
| 20 | Adelaide | 1 | #623 | – | – | |
| 21 | Niteclub | 1 | #750 | – | – | |
| 22 | The New Kid | 1 | #792 | – | – | |
| 23 | Most Messed Up | 1 | #175 | – | 2014 | |
| 24 | Up The Devil's Pay | 1 | #1024 | – | – | |
| 25 | I Don't Wanna Die In This Town | 1 | #756 | – | – | |
| 26 | Give It Time | 1 | #191 | – | 2014 |
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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