Artist · chart history · #204 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Jayhawks
Band Minneapolis United States Formed 1985 alternative country/country rock
The Jayhawks formed in 1985 in Minneapolis, United States. The Jayhawks has 140 chart appearances on 78 radio countdowns from 22 stations on RockLists, spanning 1999–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Blue”, which appears on 34 lists with a best position of #33. The station that charted The Jayhawks most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 42 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2011.
The Jayhawks came up out of the Minneapolis scene in 1985, led by 2 singing, guitar-slinging songwriters: Gary Louris, the electric side of the equation, and Mark Olson, with his acoustic guitar and harmonica. Their voices twine together like a pair of old friends finishing each other's sentences, and their country rock left its mark on a whole crop of Twin Cities bands, from Uncle Tupelo to the Gear Daddies and the Honeydogs.
Hollywood Town Hall, in 1992, is dusty and gorgeous, with "Waiting for the Sun" rolling in on a loose-limbed swagger and "Settled Down Like Rain" and "Take Me With You When You Go" aching in all the right places. Tomorrow the Green Grass followed in 1995, with "Blue" as its bittersweet, harmony-soaked centerpiece. Then Olson walked away for the first time, and Louris steered the band on into Sound of Lies and Rainy Day Music.
After a break from 2005 to 2009, the 1995 lineup came back together for Mockingbird Time in September 2011, and then Olson left again once the tour was done. Louris kept the lights on, and Paging Mr. Proust, co-produced by Peter Buck and Tucker Martine, arrived in 2016, followed by Back Roads and Abandoned Motels in 2018 and XOXO in 2020.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Jayhawks on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue | 34 | #33 | – | – | |
| 2 | Take Me With You When You Go | 15 | #373 | – | – | |
| 3 | Save it for a Rainy Day | 14 | #82 | – | – | |
| 4 | Waiting For The Sun | 14 | #157 | – | – | |
| 5 | Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces | 10 | #16 | – | 2016 | |
| 6 | She Walks in So Many Ways | 10 | #16 | – | 2011 | |
| 7 | Settled Down Like Rain | 7 | #756 | – | – | |
| 8 | Everybody Knows | 6 | #57 | – | 2018 | |
| 9 | This Forgotten Town | 7 | #18 | – | 2020 | |
| 10 | I'm Gonna Make You Love Me | 4 | #12 | – | 2000 | |
| 11 | I'd Run Away | 5 | #416 | – | – | |
| 12 | All the Right Reasons | 3 | #678 | – | – | |
| 13 | Tailspin | 3 | #588 | – | – | |
| 14 | Angelyne | 1 | #252 | – | – | |
| 15 | Wichita | 1 | #331 | – | – | |
| 16 | Big Star | 1 | #567 | – | – | |
| 17 | Comeback Kids | 1 | #61 | – | 2016 | |
| 18 | Stumbling Through The Dark | 1 | #729 | – | – | |
| 19 | The Man Who Loved Life | 1 | #817 | – | – | |
| 20 | Bad Time | 1 | #792 | – | – |
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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