Artist · chart history · #170 in indie & aaa artist polls
Sufjan Stevens
Solo artist Detroit United States
Sufjan Stevens is an artist from Detroit. Sufjan Stevens has 81 chart appearances on 50 radio countdowns from 17 stations on RockLists, spanning 2006–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Chicago”, which appears on 27 lists with a best position of #15. The station that charted Sufjan Stevens most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 16 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2023.
Sufjan Stevens, born in Detroit in 1975, is a one-man chamber orchestra: he plays banjo, oboe, piano, guitar and a cupboard full of other instruments, often all of them on the same record, and releases it all through Asthmatic Kitty, the label he co-founded with his stepfather, which put out his 2000 debut, A Sun Came.
Illinois, in 2005, is the one that put him on the map, a sprawling, symphonic pageant of brass, strings and banjo. "Chicago", swelling from a hum to a full-throated rush, became his signature, and "Casimir Pulaski Day" showed he could break your heart with barely more than a banjo and a whisper. Religion and spirituality run through his writing like a watermark, whether he's being playful or grave.
He has never made the same record twice. The Age of Adz, in 2010, swapped the banjo for glitchy electronics and ended with the 25-minute "Impossible Soul"; Carrie & Lowell, in 2015, was hushed and intimate, with "Should Have Known Better" and "Death with Dignity"; and The Ascension followed in 2020 with "Video Game". "Mystery of Love", from the soundtrack to Call Me by Your Name, earned him an Academy Award nomination, and Javelin, his tenth solo studio album, arrived in October 2023.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Sufjan Stevens on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago | 27 | #15 | – | 2006 | |
| 2 | Casimir Pulaski Day | 13 | #56 | – | – | |
| 3 | Should Have Known Better | 8 | #16 | – | 2015 | |
| 4 | Video Game | 6 | #14 | – | 2020 | |
| 5 | Will Anybody Ever Love Me | 6 | #8 | – | 2023 | |
| 6 | Jacksonville | 2 | #273 | – | – | |
| 7 | Goodbye Evergreen | 1 | #4 | – | 2023 | |
| 8 | Enchanting Ghost | 1 | #13 | – | 2010 | |
| 9 | I Walked | 2 | #57 | – | 2010 | |
| 10 | Impossible Soul (25 Minutes!) | 2 | #498 | – | – | |
| 11 | The Owl & The Tanager | 1 | #15 | – | 2010 | |
| 12 | Come On! Feel The Illinoise | 2 | #491 | – | – | |
| 13 | John Wayne Gacy Jr. | 1 | #301 | – | – | |
| 14 | The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out to Get Us! | 1 | #331 | – | – | |
| 15 | Concerning the UFO... | 1 | #324 | – | – | |
| 16 | Mystery of Love | 2 | #78 | – | 2018 | |
| 17 | The Only Thing | 1 | #55 | – | 2016 | |
| 18 | Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL | 1 | #430 | – | – | |
| 19 | Death with Dignity | 1 | #518 | – | – | |
| 20 | No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross | 1 | #80 | – | 2015 |
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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