Artist · chart history · #174 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Byrds
Band Los Angeles United States Active 1964–1973 American rock band
The Byrds formed in 1964 in Los Angeles, United States and was active until 1973. The Byrds has 47 chart appearances on 28 radio countdowns from 15 stations on RockLists, spanning 1982–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Mr. Tambourine Man”, which appears on 8 lists with a best position of #35. The station that charted The Byrds most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 13 appearances.
The Byrds took off from Los Angeles in 1964 and spent the next year teaching folk music how to fly. Roger McGuinn's jangling 12-string Rickenbacker, those high, angelic harmonies and a beat picked up from the Beatles and the rest of the British invaders turned "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" into something nobody had a word for yet, until everyone started calling it folk rock. For a short, dizzy stretch they were among the most popular groups on the planet.
The classic five were McGuinn, Gene Clark on tambourine and vocals, David Crosby on rhythm guitar, Chris Hillman on bass and Michael Clarke on drums. Clark walked away in early 1966, worn down by anxiety, and the quartet that remained went straight up into the stratosphere with "Eight Miles High" and Fifth Dimension, a raga-tinged drone that helped set psychedelic rock in motion. Younger Than Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers kept stretching the shape of the thing.
Crosby and Clarke left late in 1967, and with Gram Parsons recruited the band swerved again, into the country rock of Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968. McGuinn, the one constant, rebuilt the group around guitarist Clarence White, then pulled the plug in early 1973 for a reunion of the original quintet that was over by the end of the year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1991, and the five originals played together one last time that night.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Byrds on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mr. Tambourine Man | 8 | #35 | – | – | |
| 2 | Eight Miles High | 12 | #167 | – | – | |
| 3 | Turn, Turn, Turn | 7 | #340 | – | – | |
| 4 | 8 Miles High | 3 | #657 | – | – | |
| 5 | You Ain't Goin' Nowhere | 2 | #282 | – | – | |
| 6 | Chestnut Mare | 3 | #528 | – | – | |
| 7 | So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star | 2 | #352 | – | – | |
| 8 | Rock and Roll Star | 1 | #149 | – | – | |
| 9 | Wasn't Born To Follow | 2 | #388 | – | – | |
| 10 | I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better | 2 | #363 | – | – | |
| 11 | My Back Pages | 1 | #341 | – | – | |
| 12 | Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) | 1 | #482 | – | – | |
| 13 | 5D (Fifth Dimension) | 1 | #1114 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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