Song · Smoking Popes
“Need You Around” by Smoking Popes
From the album Born to Quit (1994)
“Need You Around” by Smoking Popes appears on 11 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1995 and 2022. It was first released in 1994 on the album Born to Quit. Its best result is #27 on the Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1995. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #94 alternative song of 1995 and #3,582 alternative song of all time.
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"Need You Around" came off Born to Quit, the 1994 album by Chicago pop-punkers the Smoking Popes, first issued on Johann's Face Records and picked up by Chicago's Q101 and KROQ in Los Angeles. Josh Caterer wrote it, and it's a lovesick crooner's ballad dressed up in buzzsaw guitars. Phil Bonnet produced the original, but when Capitol signed the band and reissued the album in July 1995, Thom Wilson remixed it for release as the album's second single.
A video followed, the song turned up on the Clueless soundtrack, and it gave the Popes their only chart hit, reaching #35 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. The seven-inch backed it with "Adena"; the CD single added a live "Adena" and a cover of Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 51 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1995 | 107 |
| 1995 | 27 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1995 | 101 |
| 1995 | 93 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1995 | 100 |
| 1995 | 99 | Radio 104.1 Hartford-New Haven, CT | WMRQ Top 104 Songs of 1995 | 104 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 180 | Live 105 | Live 105 Revolutionary 300 (July 1995) | 300 |
| 1999 | 399 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 2002 | 485 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2002) | 500 |
| 2003 | 471 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2003) | 500 |
| 2006 | 329 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006) | 499 |
| 2021 | 896 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s | 908 |
| 2022 | 439 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
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