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Cover of The Crane Wife by The Decemberists
Cover: The Crane Wife

Song · The Decemberists

“O Valencia!” by The Decemberists

From the album The Crane Wife (2006)

“O Valencia!” by The Decemberists appears on 23 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 2006 and 2025. It was first released in 2006 on the album The Crane Wife. Its best result is #12 on the WBER Listener Countdown 2007. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #83 alternative song of 2007 and #3,121 alternative song of all time.

23countdowns
10stations
#12best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
2006–2025years charted

Watch

The Decemberists - O Valencia!

Video from YouTube (TheDecemberistsVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"O Valencia!" was the first single from The Crane Wife, the Decemberists' fourth studio album, in 2006, and the band's fifth single overall. Colin Meloy's lyric is a gang-war tragedy in miniature, a star-crossed romance told with a pulp paperback's sense of doom: the narrator falls for someone from a rival gang, and when he squares off with his lover's brother, his sworn enemy, the lover leaps in to shield him and takes the bullet meant for him.

Tucker Martine and Chris Walla produced and mixed it for Capitol Records, and the band gives all that melodrama a chorus big enough to carry it.

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#StationCountdownof
2006 17 Y100 Philadelphia, PA Y100 Top 88.5 Songs of 2006 89
2007 72 WFNX Boston, MA WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2007 100
2007 35 CD101 Columbus, OH CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2007 101
2007 12 WBER Rochester, NY WBER Listener Countdown 2007 129
2007 29 102.7 WEQX Southern Vermont and the Capital District of New York (Albany) WEQX Top 102.7 of 2007 103

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
2007 1183 CD101 CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) 2008
2008 1414 CD101 CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) 2009
2009 59 WYEP WYEP 913 Songs That Matter from the Last Decade 913
2009 1400 CD101 CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009) 2010
2009 82 WYEP WYEP 913 Essential Songs 913
2010 1432 CD101 CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010) 2011
2011 1495 CD101 CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011) 2011
2013 1508 CD101 CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013) 2012
2013 374 WXPN WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013) 885
2014 1550 CD101 CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014) 2013
2019 667 WYEP WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 1017
2019 667 WYEP WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 1099
2022 375 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s 907
2023 920 WYEP WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 1229
2024 763 WYEP WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years 1049
2024 625 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century 1055
2025 460 The Current 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now 893
2025 311 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century 909

Also listed as: O' Valencia; Oh Valencia; O Valencia.

Charting alongside it in 2007

Best songs of 2007 →
  1. 1Icky ThumpThe White Stripes
  2. 2DashboardModest Mouse
  3. 3The PretenderFoo Fighters
  4. 4Lazy EyeSilversun Pickups
  5. 5Read My MindThe Killers
  6. 6TarantulaThe Smashing Pumpkins

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