Artist · chart history · #483 in indie & aaa artist polls
Soul Coughing
Band Brooklyn United States Active 1992–2000
Soul Coughing formed in 1992 in Brooklyn, United States and was active until 2000. Soul Coughing has 111 chart appearances on 67 radio countdowns from 28 stations on RockLists, spanning 1994–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Circles”, which appears on 43 lists with a best position of #8. The station that charted Soul Coughing most often is WOXY 97X (Cincinnati, OH), with 20 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1998.
Soul Coughing came out of New York in 1992 and never sounded like anybody's idea of an alternative rock band. Mike Doughty sang and played guitar, spitting out streams of oddball, free-associating poetry; Mark De Gli Antoni worked the keyboards and a sampler full of strange found sounds; Sebastian Steinberg played upright bass; and Yuval Gabay drummed with a loose, jazzy snap. Doughty's own name for it was a kind of lazy, low-slung jazz, and that's close: hip-hop grooves, jazz improvisation, electronics and noise, all stirred together in one fidgety pot.
The debut, Ruby Vroom, in 1994, brought "Screenwriter's Blues", "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago" and "True Dreams of Wichita". Irresistible Bliss, in 1996, tightened things up with "Super Bon Bon", its thumping bassline daring you not to move, and "Soft Serve". El Oso, in 1998, gave them "Circles", the breeziest thing they ever did. Critics mostly loved them, and they became a cult band in the best sense.
It fell apart in 2000. Then, in June 2024, they announced a reunion tour of the US for that autumn, and they turned up on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for their first television spot in decades.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Soul Coughing on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Circles | 43 | #8 | – | 1998 | |
| 2 | Super Bon Bon | 38 | #8 | – | 1997 | |
| 3 | Screenwriter's Blues | 9 | #107 | – | 1994 | |
| 4 | Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago | 5 | #360 | – | – | |
| 5 | Soundtrack To Mary | 3 | #97 | – | 1996 | |
| 6 | True Dreams of Wichita | 3 | #452 | – | – | |
| 7 | Soft Serve | 4 | #71 | – | 1997 | |
| 8 | 16 Horses | 1 | #58 | – | 1998 | |
| 9 | Rolling | 2 | #95 | – | 1999 | |
| 10 | Sugar Free Jazz | 1 | #707 | – | – | |
| 11 | Bus to Beelzebub | 1 | #771 | – | – |
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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