
Artist · chart history
TV on the Radio
Band Brooklyn United States Formed 2001
TV on the Radio formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, United States. TV on the Radio has 122 chart appearances on 86 radio countdowns from 29 stations on RockLists, spanning 2005–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Wolf Like Me”, which appears on 36 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted TV on the Radio most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 14 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2011.
TV on the Radio came out of Brooklyn in 2001 and made art rock that felt like it was breathing: Tunde Adebimpe's hungry, soulful voice tangling with Kyp Malone's, Dave Sitek's guitars and keyboards buried in loops and static, and grooves that lurch between gospel-tinged ache and clanging noise inside a single song. The Young Liars EP in 2003 was the first sighting, and Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes followed in 2004, the year the band took the Shortlist Music Prize.
Jaleel Bunton on drums and Gerard Smith on bass and keyboards filled out the lineup in 2005, and Return to Cookie Mountain in 2006 is where it all caught fire. "Wolf Like Me" gallops like a horror-movie chase, all pounding drums and howling guitars, while "I Was a Lover" broods in the shadows beside it. Dear Science in 2008 opened the windows a little, with "Golden Age" and "Halfway Home" swinging looser and brighter.
Nine Types of Light arrived in 2011, the year Smith died, and "Will Do" showed a tender side. Seeds, in 2014, brought "Happy Idiot" and "Trouble", proof the four remaining members could still bend a hook into strange new shapes.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by TV on the Radio on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolf Like Me | 36 | #2 | – | 2007 | |
| 2 | Will Do | 24 | #5 | – | 2011 | |
| 3 | Happy Idiot | 21 | #13 | – | 2014 | |
| 4 | Staring At The Sun | 7 | #97 | – | – | |
| 5 | Second Song | 5 | #15 | – | 2011 | |
| 6 | Trouble | 3 | #21 | – | 2015 | |
| 7 | Golden Age | 7 | #60 | – | 2009 | |
| 8 | Crying | 2 | #11 | – | 2008 | |
| 9 | Dancing Choose | 4 | #83 | – | 2008 | |
| 10 | Heroes | 1 | #301 | – | – | |
| 11 | DLZ | 2 | #464 | – | – | |
| 12 | Could You | 2 | #70 | – | 2015 | |
| 13 | Million Miles | 1 | #44 | – | 2013 | |
| 14 | Halfway Home | 1 | #359 | – | – | |
| 15 | Repetition | 1 | #548 | – | – | |
| 16 | The Wrong Way | 1 | #502 | – | – | |
| 17 | Careful You | 1 | #150 | – | 2014 | |
| 18 | Hours | 1 | #106 | – | 2008 | |
| 19 | I Was a Lover | 1 | #608 | – | – | |
| 20 | Family Tree | 1 | #100 | – | 2008 |
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.






Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about TV on the Radio.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.