Song · White Lion
“Wait” by White Lion
From the album Pride (1987)
“Wait” by White Lion appears on 5 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1990 and 2025. It was first released in 1987 on the album Pride. Its best result is #230 on the Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,491 classic rock song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (RHINO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
White Lion sent the power ballad "Wait" out on June 1, 1987 as the first single from Pride, their second album. Mike Tramp wrote it with guitarist Vito Bratta, and by Tramp's telling there's barely a story behind it: Bratta started in on the riff and "Wait" was the first word out of the singer's mouth. He called it one of the simplest lyrics he ever wrote, and a perfect fit for American FM radio.
Michael Wagener produced, engineered and mixed it, with James LoMenzo on bass and Greg D'Angelo on drums behind Bratta's guitar. It sat uncharted until February 1988; once MTV finally put the video into regular rotation, it climbed to No. 8 in the US by May. Christie Muhaw of the Flirts appears in that clip, and she was killed in a car crash within a year of the song reaching the top 10, at just 24.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 230 | Z-Rock | Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) | 1000 |
| 2002 | 887 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2022 | 473 | 99.1 PLR | 99.1 PLR Big 500 (2022) | 500 |
| 2023 | 924 | 101.5 WPDH | WPDH Top 1015 (2023) | 1015 |
| 2025 | 399 | 99.1 PLR | 99.1 PLR Top 400 of the Last 40 Years (2025) | 400 |
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