Artist · chart history · #96 in indie & aaa artist polls
Warren Zevon
Solo artist Chicago United States
Warren Zevon is an artist from Chicago. Warren Zevon has 179 chart appearances on 105 radio countdowns from 29 stations on RockLists, spanning 1994–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Werewolves of London”, which appears on 83 lists with a best position of #9. The station that charted Warren Zevon most often is WYEP (Pittsburgh, PA), with 38 appearances.
Warren Zevon, born in Chicago in 1947, spent years doing everybody else's jobs before anyone let him do his own: session man, jingle writer, touring musician, musical coordinator, bandleader. The door finally swung open when Linda Ronstadt cut his "Hasten Down the Wind" for her 1976 album of the same name, and his own self-titled record that year, with "Carmelita" and "Desperados Under the Eaves", revealed a songwriter with a noir streak a mile wide.
Excitable Boy, in 1978, was where the whole sick, funny, brilliant package came into focus. "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and the title track are pulp thrillers squeezed into a few minutes each, stuffed with gallows humor, and death is as often as not the punchline. Other singers turned his songs into hits too, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Mohammed's Radio" among them. But under the wisecracks there was real longing in ballads like "Accidentally Like a Martyr".
He stayed a cult hero more than a star, and the cult held on for 25 years. He made a blues-rock record with members of R.E.M. as Hindu Love Gods in 1990, put out Mr. Bad Example in 1991, and was a regular guest on David Letterman's late-night shows. He died of mesothelioma in 2003, the same year The Wind came out, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored him with its Musical Influence Award in 2025.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Warren Zevon on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Werewolves of London#398 of all time | 83 | #9 | – | – | |
| 2 | Lawyers, Guns And Money | 38 | #56 | – | – | |
| 3 | Keep Me in Your Heart | 13 | #19 | – | – | |
| 4 | Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner | 8 | #80 | – | – | |
| 5 | Carmelita | 5 | #252 | – | – | |
| 6 | Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead | 2 | #41 | – | – | |
| 7 | Desperados Under The Eaves | 2 | #378 | – | – | |
| 8 | Keep Me In Your Heart For A While | 1 | #77 | – | – | |
| 9 | Excitable Boy | 6 | #447 | – | – | |
| 10 | Disorder in the House | 2 | #458 | – | – | |
| 11 | Back In The High Life Again | 2 | #396 | – | – | |
| 12 | I Was In The House When the House Burned Down | 1 | #260 | – | – | |
| 13 | Poor Poor Pitiful Me | 3 | #733 | – | – | |
| 14 | The French Inhaler | 1 | #1101 | – | – | |
| 15 | Splendid Isolation | 2 | #570 | – | – | |
| 16 | Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School | 1 | #1351 | – | – | |
| 17 | Angel Dressed In Black | 2 | #405 | – | – | |
| 18 | Knockin' on Heaven's Door | 1 | #695 | – | – | |
| 19 | Don't Let Us Get Sick | 1 | #734 | – | – | |
| 20 | A Certain Girl | 1 | #693 | – | – | |
| 21 | Accidently Like A Martyr | 2 | #852 | – | – | |
| 22 | Johnny Strikes Up The Band | 1 | #1905 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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