Artist · chart history · #227 in alternative artist polls
The Postal Service
Band Los Angeles United States Formed 2001
The Postal Service formed in 2001 in Los Angeles, United States. The Postal Service has 91 chart appearances on 69 radio countdowns from 22 stations on RockLists, spanning 2003–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Such Great Heights”, which appears on 58 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted The Postal Service most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 13 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2004.
The Postal Service were a side project that turned into a phenomenon: Ben Gibbard singing, Jimmy Tamborello, who records as Dntel, building the electronics, and Jenny Lewis adding backing vocals, a pairing formed in 2001. Their one and only album, Give Up, came out on Sub Pop in 2003, and it sounds like indie pop wrapped in bubble wrap: blinking synths, fizzy drum machines and Gibbard's warm, wistful voice drifting over the top.
"Such Great Heights" was the one that caught fire, all giddy rush and electronic heartbeat, while "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" and "We Will Become Silhouettes" wrapped their melancholy in melodies you could hum. The album drew mostly good reviews and kept selling until it went platinum.
They decided a sequel wasn't necessary and called it quits two years later, which only made the record loom larger. They came back to celebrate its anniversaries in 2013 and 2023, with "A Tattered Line of String" surfacing in 2013, and played what they said would be their final show on September 21, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Postal Service on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Such Great Heights | 58 | #2 | – | 2004 | |
| 2 | The District Sleeps Alone Tonight | 17 | #2 | – | 2005 | |
| 3 | We Will Become Silhouettes | 5 | #47 | – | 2005 | |
| 4 | A Tattered Line Of String | 3 | #18 | – | 2013 | |
| 5 | Nothing Better | 1 | #17 | – | 2005 | |
| 6 | Against All Odds | 1 | #21 | – | 2004 | |
| 7 | Brand New Colony | 2 | #730 | – | – | |
| 8 | Clark Gable | 1 | #608 | – | – | |
| 9 | Sleeping In | 1 | #731 | – | – | |
| 10 | Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) | 1 | #718 | – | – |
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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