Artist · chart history
Pedro The Lion
Band Seattle United States Formed 1995
Pedro The Lion formed in 1995 in Seattle, United States. Pedro The Lion has 6 chart appearances on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2003–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Yellow Bike”, which appears on 5 lists with a best position of #68. The station that charted Pedro The Lion most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2018.
Pedro the Lion was never really a band so much as David Bazan with a rotating cast of whoever he needed that year. He started it in Seattle in 1995, and the name has been attached to a revolving door of players ever since: drummer Benjamin Brubaker from 1998 to 2003, Casey Foubert on drums and keyboards from 2001 to 2004, TW Walsh on bass and guitar from 2003 to 2005, and more besides. What holds it together is Bazan's writing, first-person narratives sung in a sad, steady voice over indie rock that rarely gets loud unless the story demands it.
Control, from 2002, is the one to start with, and "Rapture" is a good way in: taut, slow-building, a song that sounds like it's gritting its teeth. These are short stories set to guitars, and Bazan never lets the music get in the way of the plot.
He shut the project down in 2006 to work under his own name, then brought Pedro the Lion back in late 2017. Phoenix followed in 2019, and "Yellow Bike" proved the old voice still fit. Counting from 1997, the catalog now runs to seven albums plus five EPs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Pedro The Lion on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yellow Bike | 5 | #68 | – | 2018 | |
| 2 | Rapture | 1 | #378 | – | – |
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.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 622 | Yellow Bike | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound |
| 2025 | 470 | Yellow Bike | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century |
| 2022 | 346 | Yellow Bike | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time |
| 2019 | 70 | Yellow Bike | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2019 |
| 2018 | 68 | Yellow Bike | WEQX Top 102.7 of 2018 |
| 2003 | 378 | Rapture | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2003) |
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