Song · Weather Report
“Birdland” by Weather Report
Released 1979
“Birdland” by Weather Report appears on 7 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1991 and 2026. It was first released in 1979. Its best result is #394 on the WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #5,473 alternative song of all time.
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Joe Zawinul wrote "Birdland" as a love letter to the New York jazz club of that name, the Broadway room that ran from 1949 to 1965, and Weather Report put it at the front of Heavy Weather in 1977, the album that marked the band's commercial peak. Zawinul went there almost every day, caught Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis on its stage, and met his wife Maxine there; the title also tips its hat to Charlie Parker.
Zawinul produced it himself, with Jaco Pastorius as co-producer and Wayne Shorter assisting, and it's jazz with a pop hook, bright and bouncing, built for a room that swings.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 545 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 2001 | 1651 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2014 | 857 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2020 | 1154 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 986 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 394 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2026 | 438 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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