10 Best Rock Songs About The Radio

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I think it may be safe to say that for most of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, so much of the music we discovered came from the radio. Some kids had older brothers and sisters with great record collections, and some were lucky enough to grow up in homes where rock and roll was already playing. For those of us who were the oldest or did not live in a house filled with rock music, the radio was where we turned. This was long before MTV and long before music was available instantly, so the radio and our own record collections were pretty much everything. For many of us, radio was salvation; radio was all we had.

# 10 – Radio Radio – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio” began life as the earlier “Radio Soul” before Costello reshaped it into a much sharper attack on the state of radio. The song was recorded with the Attractions and released as a UK single in 1978, where it reached number twenty-nine. It was also included on the U.S. edition of This Year’s Model, while the original UK album did not contain it. Nick Lowe produced the recording, with Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas, and Pete Thomas giving Costello exactly the nervous energy the song needed. “Radio Radio” loves the idea of radio while being furious with the people controlling it, which makes it a perfect way to start this list.

# 9 – Yesterday Once More – The Carpenters

The Carpenters’ “Yesterday Once More” is one of the most beautiful songs ever written about the experience of hearing old favorites come back through the radio. Released on the 1973 album Now & Then, the song was written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis and produced and arranged by Richard Carpenter. Karen Carpenter’s voice carries the nostalgia without overselling it, which is why the song still hits so hard. The track was designed to lead into the album’s oldies medley, built like a radio program filled with songs from an earlier generation. Anyone who has ever heard a forgotten favorite suddenly appear on the radio understands exactly what this song is about.

Read More: Top 10 Carpenters Songs

# 8 – Radio Nowhere – Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen’s “Radio Nowhere” opens his 2007 album Magic with somebody searching the dial and desperately trying to find a real human connection. The song is not nostalgic in the same way as “Yesterday Once More”; it sounds frustrated, restless, and angry at a radio landscape that has lost some of its soul. Springsteen and the E Street Band play it like a full-blown rock and roll emergency, with guitars and drums pushing the question of whether anybody is still alive out there. The track won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song and became one of the strongest rockers from Springsteen’s later career. For anybody who remembers when radio felt personal, “Radio Nowhere” hits a nerve.

# 7 – Radio Song – R.E.M.

Out Of Time (25th Anniversary Edition) [LP]

R.E.M. opened their 1991 album Out of Time with “Radio Song,” a funny, irritated swipe at repetitive radio programming. Michael Stipe sounds both playful and annoyed, while Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry keep the track moving with that unmistakable R.E.M. feel. KRS-One appears on the song and gives the ending a hip-hop edge that made the track stand out even more at the time. Scott Litt and R.E.M. produced the album, and the collaboration shows how willing the band was to move beyond the sound people expected from them. “Radio Song” complains about bad radio while still sounding like the kind of record you would have loved hearing come through the speakers.

Read More: Top 10 R.E.M. Songs

# 6 – Turn Up The Radio – Autograph

Autograph’s “Turn Up the Radio” is about as direct as a rock song can get, and that is exactly why it belongs here. Released from the band’s 1984 debut album Sign In Please, the song was produced by Neil Kernon and became Autograph’s biggest hit. It reached number twenty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and number seventeen on the Mainstream Rock chart, while the video received heavy MTV exposure. Steve Plunkett, Steve Lynch, Randy Rand, Steve Isham, and Keni Richards turn the whole record into one giant demand for more volume. Sometimes a song about radio does not need a complicated message—sometimes it just needs to tell you to turn the damn thing up.

# 5 – Clap For The Wolfman – The Guess Who

The Guess Who - Road Food & #10 [SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

The Guess Who’s “Clap for the Wolfman” is a tribute to one of the most famous radio personalities in rock and roll history. Released on the band’s 1974 album Road Food, the song features Wolfman Jack himself dropping his unmistakable voice into the record. Burton Cummings, Bill Wallace, and Kurt Winter wrote the song, with Jack Richardson producing. The single reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four in Canada, making it one of the band’s biggest later hits. If you grew up hearing larger-than-life DJs guide you through the night, this song understands exactly what those voices meant.

Read More: Top 10 Songs Of The Guess Who

# 4 – Heard It On The X – ZZ Top

ZZ Top’s “Heard It on the X” celebrates the powerful Mexican border radio stations that blasted music far beyond the reach of ordinary local signals. The song appeared on Fandango! in 1975, with Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard writing the track and Bill Ham producing. Those border stations introduced listeners across huge parts of the United States to music they often could not hear anywhere else. ZZ Top turns that history into a hard, fast little rocker that sounds like radio freedom with the amplifiers pushed into the red. For a band from Texas, this was not some distant story—it was part of the musical world that helped shape them.

Read More: 10 Best Covers Of ZZ Top Songs

# 3 – Around The Dial – The Kinks

The Kinks opened their 1981 album Give the People What They Want with “Around the Dial,” a song about searching the radio for a favorite DJ who has suddenly disappeared. Ray Davies wrote and produced the track, and the band gives it the kind of hard-driving arrangement that made this period of The Kinks so much fun. Dave Davies, Jim Rodford, Mick Avory, and Ian Gibbons help turn a story about radio disappointment into one of the album’s strongest rockers. Anyone who ever built a nightly routine around one DJ can understand the strange feeling when that voice is suddenly gone. “Around the Dial” captures how personal radio could be when the person behind the microphone felt almost like a friend.

# 2 – Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio? – Ramones

The Ramones opened their 1980 album End of the Century with “Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio?,” one of the greatest love letters to old rock radio ever recorded. Phil Spector produced the album and filled the track with saxophones, organ, backing vocals, and a much bigger sound than the Ramones had used on their earliest records. Joey Ramone looks back at the DJs, television shows, and rock and roll heroes that made growing up with music so exciting while also warning that radio was starting to sound the same. The song was released as a single in May 1980, but its real power has always been emotional rather than commercial. For anyone who remembers lying in bed listening to the radio when they were supposed to be sleeping, this one goes straight to the heart.

Read More: 11 Essential Ramones Songs

# 1 – FM (No Static at All) – Steely Dan

Steely Dan’s “FM (No Static at All)” was written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen as the title song for the 1978 film FM. The record sounds smooth and luxurious, but the lyric quietly pokes at the increasingly commercial album-rock format that FM radio had become. Produced by Al Schmitt, the track features Becker and Fagen alongside musicians including Jeff Porcaro, Pete Christlieb, Victor Feldman, and backing singers Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Timothy B. Schmit. The single reached number twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100, while engineers Roger Nichols and Al Schmitt won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical. It is slick, cynical, beautifully recorded, and a perfect number-one song for a list about radio.