Song · Rush
“Show Don't Tell” by Rush
From the album Presto (1989)
“Show Don't Tell” by Rush appears on 6 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1990 and 1999. It was first released in 1989 on the album Presto. Its best result is #558 on the KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #790 hard rock song of all time.
Rush led off Presto with "Show Don't Tell" in 1989, and the first single went all the way to number one on the US Mainstream Rock chart, the second of five Rush songs to get there. It's the sound of the Canadian band shaking off the synthesizer gloss of Power Windows and Hold Your Fire and pushing Alex Lifeson's guitar back to the front, with a funkier, groove-minded bounce underneath.
The prog chops haven't gone anywhere, though. A syncopated guitar figure opens it and comes back two or three times, the whole band slams through a knotty passage in unison, and a dead-stop pause hits eighteen seconds in. Neil Peart found the funk-bent structure a tough one to drum. He wrote the words, Geddy Lee and Lifeson the music, and Rupert Hine co-produced with the band.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 954 | Z-Rock | Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) | 1000 |
| 1994 | 618 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1995 | 558 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995) | 1000 |
| 1996 | 559 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1996) | 1000 |
| 1998 | 791 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 726 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
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