Artist · chart history · #80 in indie & aaa artist polls
Willie Nelson
Solo artist Abbott United States
Willie Nelson is an artist from Abbott. Willie Nelson has 48 chart appearances on 27 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Always on My Mind”, which appears on 8 lists with a best position of #241. The station that charted Willie Nelson most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 16 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2014.
Willie Nelson, born in Abbott, Texas, in 1933, had written songs that became country standards, "Crazy", "Hello Walls", "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper" among them, long before most people knew his face. He moved to Nashville in 1960, played bass in Ray Price's band, cut his first album, ...And Then I Wrote, in 1962 and signed with RCA Victor in 1964. But the corporate Nashville machine wore him out, and in 1972 he headed for Austin.
That's where the outlaw was born. On Atlantic he made Shotgun Willie, with "Whiskey River", then moved to Columbia for Red Headed Stranger in 1975, a spare, haunted record, home of "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" and "Time of the Preacher", that won over critics and record buyers alike. Stardust, in 1978, turned around and took on old songs like "Blue Skies" and "Unchained Melody" in that dusty, behind-the-beat voice, and it worked just as well. "On the Road Again", "Always on My Mind" and "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" followed, and he joined Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson in the Highwaymen.
He helped organize the first Farm Aid in 1985 and has played it ever since. In 1990 the Internal Revenue Service seized his assets, claiming he owed $32 million in unpaid taxes; the 1992 double album The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories? helped clear the debt. The Grammys gave him their Legend Award in 1990, and through the '90s and 2000s he kept touring hard and putting out albums every year, dipping into reggae, blues, jazz and folk.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Willie Nelson on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Always on My Mind | 8 | #241 | – | – | |
| 2 | On The Road Again | 6 | #6 | – | – | |
| 3 | Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain | 6 | #166 | – | – | |
| 4 | Uncloudy Day | 1 | #561 | – | – | |
| 5 | Last Man Standing | 1 | #340 | – | – | |
| 6 | Unchained Melody | 1 | #396 | – | – | |
| 7 | The Scientist | 1 | #397 | – | – | |
| 8 | Whiskey River | 3 | #773 | – | – | |
| 9 | The Wall | 1 | #53 | – | 2014 | |
| 10 | Angel Flying to Close to the Ground | 2 | #554 | – | – | |
| 11 | Crazy | 4 | #846 | – | – | |
| 12 | Stardust | 1 | #1247 | – | – | |
| 13 | Superman | 1 | #60 | – | 2009 | |
| 14 | Maria (Shut Up & Kiss Me) | 2 | #911 | – | – | |
| 15 | Blue Skies | 1 | #649 | – | – | |
| 16 | Good-hearted Woman | 1 | #1419 | – | – | |
| 17 | The Maker | 1 | #1440 | – | – | |
| 18 | Just Breathe | 2 | #752 | – | – | |
| 19 | Time of the Preacher | 1 | #566 | – | – | |
| 20 | My Own Peculiar Way | 1 | #785 | – | – | |
| 21 | Funny How Time Slips Away | 1 | #1776 | – | – | |
| 22 | Georgia | 1 | #830 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Willie Nelson as a guest.
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 Willie Nelson.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.