Artist · chart history
Timbuk 3
Band Madison United States Active 1984–1995
Timbuk 3 formed in 1984 in Madison, United States and was active until 1995. Timbuk 3 has 16 chart appearances on 15 radio countdowns from 6 stations on RockLists, spanning 1986–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”, which appears on 14 lists with a best position of #33. The station that charted Timbuk 3 most often is WOXY 97X (Cincinnati, OH), with 9 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1986.
Timbuk 3 began in Madison, Wisconsin, as a husband-and-wife act, Pat MacDonald and Barbara Kooyman, and they did a lot with very little. Between them they covered guitars, bass, mandolin, violin and harmonica, with drum and rhythm programming standing in for a rhythm section and both of them singing. A move to Austin, Texas, led to a deal with I.R.S. Records.
Greetings From Timbuk 3 arrived in 1986 carrying "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades", a Top 20 single that remains their calling card: a twangy, sly strut with a grin you can hear and a bare-bones beat underneath. The Grammys put them up for Best New Artist in 1987. The following year they turned up as the house band in the film D.O.A., playing "Life Is Hard" and "Too Much Sex, Not Enough Affection".
In 1991 the duo grew into a four-piece, with Wally Ingram on drums and Courtney Audain on bass, and Timbuk 3 made six albums in all before calling it a day in 1995.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Timbuk 3 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades | 14 | #33 | – | 1986 | |
| 2 | The Future's So Bright | 1 | #370 | – | – | |
| 3 | Life is Hard | 1 | #1558 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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